Impromptu day of flashing and plumbing

Continuing the preparation for siding mid-August, by flashing the beams. Also, just 10 minutes of glue-up away from completing the ABS plumbing -- but I was short two lengths of 2" pipe.

Siding Prep

In preparation for installing the siding, Katie and I spent the day sealing the gap between the foundation and framing, and sealing the bases of the flying beams with Red Guard. All these areas will be covered with siding or flashing in a few weeks.

And, of course, somehow I arrived without *any* right angle fittings to complete the vent plumbing.  So the finale will have to be next time.

ABS Home Stretch + Siding & Boom Lift Ordered

Very productive day at KnArrow Haus with the ABS plumbing. (And a beautiful day, at that -- low 80's!) 

I completed all the plumbing tie-ins from the upper floors in to the main stack in the basement, and have also run all the vent stacks up from the basement to the main floor.  Can't tell you how good it felt to know I was "finished" in the basement with ABS.

I tied the 3" run from the upper floors in to the main stack (far right).

Tied the 2" kitchen drain in to the main 3" stack. And tied all the 2" vent stacks from the sinks, laundry, toilet, and shower together, and up through the floor in to the kitchen. 

I had to come up with some way to insert a straight pipe in the middle of a straigh run where neither side could be moved. I ended grinding out the flange in the middle of 2" sleeves, putting them fully on each immovable pipe, then sliding them back halfway on to the pipe in the middle. Worked like a charm.) 

The 2" pipe on the right is the kitchen drain. The pipe on the left is the vent stack from everything downstairs. I got these run through the sheer wall. They will meet up above counter height behind the sheet wall.

Literally all the remains to complete the drainage plumbing is completing the vent stacks behind the wall, and tieing the vent stacks on the upper floor together.  ...then "The Pressure Test" where I block off where it runs in to the septic system and fill the whole thing full of water to make sure it doesn't leak. (I think I glued everything...I'm pretty sure....)

This all comes in good timing because I placed the siding order on Friday. It will be delivered August 13th. I've planned to take the week off to get the siding done and the Haus fully protected before the Summer end.

Here's the siding order (through Callie at Stoneway Roofing):

I took detailed measurements of the Haus, and transferred all the measurements in to Sketchup. Then I used sketchup to plan out each panel's measurements and put them in to Excel.

I also used Sketchup to creating the flashing profiles.

I'm also renting a 4wd boom lift for the week so that I can be confident we'll get the job done.

Lessons from the 3rd plumbing day this week

Lessons learned during my third day of plumbing rough-in this week at Knarrow Haus:

• Don't return fittings you think are surplus until your finished -- chances are you'll need them.
• A 1/2-hour drive to Leavenworth to purchase missing fittings is a 2 hour roundtrip due to weekend traffic.
• It takes a minimum of two people to glue-up plumbing between floors (I learned this a few weeks ago, but it was reinforced again today.)
• Unplug the hole saw before you change the bit. (Oops. Ouch. Bandaid.)

My entire time was spent downstairs converging all the plumbing runs in to the main stack or in to smaller stacks that run under the slab, and starting to run the venting.

 

2 days of plumbing

I took Monday and Tuesday off of office work and spent them working up at the Haus, with Katie in tow.  Made significant progress on the drainage plumbing: All the drains from fixtures are now run in to the basement and *almost* tied in to the main stack that hooks to the septic system.

With Katie's help I glued and connected all the pipes from the upper floor fixtures through the main floor wall and down in to the basement.

This shows the upper floor pipes coming through the basement ceiling above the foundation top plate and then tying together so that they run to the septic system. There was one moment of PANICK during the glue-up trying to connect the middle pipe into the horizontal run. Some quick thinking and cutting and gluing got it resolved.  It's very difficult when there's not a lot of play between the pipes to connect a fixture in to pipes coming from orthoganal directions.

I hooked up the drain from the sink (coming from the right) to the toilet coming from the top-left. But the long elbow at the end routing it all to the left was another panick event. I was unable to successfully complete the first attempt to glue it. I wasn't able to move the 3" pipe over to the joist far enough to glue the 90-degree elbow in. So I abandoned it, thought about it over night, and was able to make some adjustments the next day to get it in.

Standing on a ladder, drilling through joists above your head with a beastly 3" hole saw at the end of an 11.0 amp drill that wants to rip your arms off and crush your fingers results in A LOT of sawdust. My sawdust placement skills are not very good as evidenced by the picture above. 

The implement of my torture - my latest tool purchase. (I will promptly sell it after the project is done.)

My best guess is that it will take about 2 more full days (maybe 3) to finish up the ABS plumbing. Then I'll need to pressure test it...