24 June 2018

The hole in "the beam" - A leap of faith

Last weekend I left the Haus having measured two different scenarios for routing the main level powder room's sink drain to meet up with the plumbing stack. I have to go *through* one of the large (4x12) glulam beams -- no options for over/under/around. But to maintain 1/4" per foot slope on that run, I was having trouble getting my measurement to meet up at the right level with the toilet's 3" drain, which also needs to maintain the same slope.

When I returned this time, I remeasured once again and decided that if I took the 2" run through the joists at 1/8" per foot, it would *probably* meet the 3" run at pretty-close-to-the-right level.  (When drilling through glulams, there are some "rules", which are essentially only put small holes in the middle third (horizontally and vertically) of the beam.)

"Measure twice. Cut once."
"You can't undrill a hole."
Lots of inner monologue.

After a few more minutes in "The Thinker" pose, I came to terms with the fact that no amount of thinking, analyzing, measuring, marking or inner monologue was going to result in that plumbing run actually becoming "done." I would have to take a leap of faith and actually *drill the hole* in the beam.

Since the beam is 4" thick and my hole saw bottoms out at about 2", I had to cut the hole half way, then chisel out what had been cut, then continue with that process a couple times to get all the way through.  About 20 minutes, lots of sawdust, and sore shoulders later, the result is pictured below.

The hole in "the beam".

Holes in the rest of the beams for routing the 2" sink drain from the main floor powder room.

The 2" drain fully installed. (Well, mostly. I haven't glued the pipe going through the joists because I need an ABS fitting that will join the 2" pipe in to a 3" long-turn elbow.)

Full view of the 2" drain. 

This is the origin of the 2" drain run: The sink drain in the main floor powder room.

I was counting on my "helper" arriving mid-afternoon to help with glue-ups between floors. But our daughter had a second basketball game yesterday, so my helper had to stay with her. Another solo weekend. 

I turned my attention to finishing up, as much as possible, the downstairs plumbing runs and vents.

I completed the sink drains for the bathroom and the wet bar, including the vent which meets up with the washing machine P-trap.

My day ended about 8pm. 

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