Our Farm House: Electric, Plumbing, and More...

How many plumbers does it take to screw in a light bulb? Three: The boss to tell one of his plumbers, the plumber to tell his helper, and the helper to ask his electrician friend to do it on the side.

Plumbing and electric are VERY different professions! Since I have worked for a licensed electrician, I am much more comfortable working on electric than I am plumbing. But I guess that is better than the reverse since I don't think that anyone has ever died from installing PVC pipe! Running the plumbing supply lines doesn't worry me since it's pretty straight forward, but the drains and vents are a different story. We even considered hiring a plumber to install all of the drains and vents until we found out that plumbers charge between $800 - $1,200 per fixture! A fixture is defined as anything with a drain (i.e.-toilets, showers, tubs, washer, sinks,etc.) Our plan calls for 12 fixtures, so between $9,600 - $14,400. I was warned it could run higher because the home is so old and many of the beams are 14" wide solid chestnut or yellow pine which are very difficult to drill though. Also, since much of our plan is open concept, we are being very fussy about where pipe chases and vent stacks can be hidden. It is safe to say a plumber would charge the higher end of the range if not higher. So on went my plumbing hat! Not only will we save a boat load of money that can be used on other projects, but I will learn yet another trade.

ELECTRIC

In hindsight, I should have completed the plumbing before beginning the electric, but naturally I started within my comfort zone. In previous blog posts, we showed that we completely gutted the homes electric. It was a combination of old cloth coated wire and ancient commercial wiring, so it was better to start from scratch.

Step 1: Plan it out. We used a home design program to create blue prints of each floor of our home. These were also used to design the kitchen, bathrooms, move walls, etc. Next, we mapped out every outlet, switch, light, and how they would connect. These blueprints were also used to obtain permits with the town.

1st Floor Electrical Plan

2nd Floor Electrical Plan

The great thing about doing everything from scratch is that we have total control of the location, amount, types of lights and outlets. Since we did the job ourselves, there was no reason to skimp on anything. For example, electricians not only charge per outlet, switch and fixture, but they also charge per circuit. Have you ever been vacuuming and then your spouse uses the hair dryer and the breaker trips? Or you want to make a smoothie and toast at the same time and the breaker trips? Yup, that's due to electrical skimping. Too many outlets / lights on a single breaker, or worse on a 15 amp breaker. In our plan, every outlet is 20 amp, each room has it own circuit, all lights are on a separate circuit, and the following are dedicated (meaning on their own circuit): half bath, guest bath, master bath, laundry room, washer, dryer, refrigerator, microwave, dishwasher, counter outlets(2), kitchen island outlets, and outdoor outlets(5). We are going to have the oldest new home around!

Step 2: Do the work! For the most part, I was on autopilot with the electric, but every once in a while I would have to look up a wiring configuration. It can get a bit confusing with 3 and 4 way switches and even more confusing when the layout doesn't lend itself to traditional "power to switch, switch to switch..and light last" (known as a "power through situation") For example: Switch at the bottom of our stairs, switch at the top of the stairs, switch at the back-end of the 2nd floor hall; all which power the stairway light and the back landing light simultaneously. Thank goodness for the internet.

The diagram I followed

As of this post 90% of all rough electric for lighting is completed and we are about halfway done with all of the outlets. We took a few pictures to show some of the electric. I will only post a few because just looking at wires and boxes over and over again would be pretty boring.

Example of a 4 way switch setup

4 way stairwell and landing switches

Rear entry / eat in kitchen can lights and light box

Wiring the newly framed Laundry Room

The orange wire is the 30 amp dryer line. Take a mental note, you will see this pic again below...

When possible we used existing outlet locations in the baseboard to be period appropriate.

14 Can lights in the basement, which will eventually be a finished basement

Temporary mess of all of the new wires and water supplies.

Picture taken outside the home at night after the final light was installed. All of the lights besides the can lights are temporary with 100w bulbs. When the house is finished all lights will hanging fixtures which are not as obnoxiously bright.

Some of the pictures show the unsightly condition that our home is currently in. But we're glad, because it will be all the more impressive when we post the final project!

PLUMBING

Step 1: Plan it out. Just like with the electric, we first made our prints for fixture locations.

1st Floor Plumbing Plan

2nd Floor Plumbing Plan

The prints were easy. A toilet here and a tub there... done. But of course nothing is that easy. In order to get approved for plumbing permits we must also submit a "riser diagram". Two problems:1) we don't have the software that creates them and 2) we have never made one. Google to the rescue! After hours and hours of researching plumbing code, plumbing forums, and images of riser diagrams we were ready to draw. To make the diagram we used Microsoft Publisher. To an untrained eye the finished drawing might be a bit confusing. Think of it as if the walls, floors, ceilings, and electric in the house were invisible. The only thing that is visible is the PVC drain and vent lines.

Custom Plumbing Riser Diagram we made from scratch

For the few who are mechanically inclined you may look at this and ask 7 - 2" vents going out the roof!!??!! We actually jointed the kitchen sink vent with the half bath vent so there are only 6 now but still 6 seems like a lot. For those of you thirsty for knowledge keep reading this paragraph. All others can skip to the next paragraph... Ok, now that all of the lesser minds have moved on lets talk math! By code, each fixture requires 1.18 cubic/inches of drain to the septic or sewer. Therefore, a 3" waste line can handle up to 6 fixtures. (Area= πr(sq'd) so 3.14 x 1.5(sq'd) = 7.07 cubic inches) For an unknown reason, but luckily for us, the farm house already had 2- 3" drain lines to the septic. We are not sure why since the home only had 6 fixtures. Now that we know we have adequate drainage, we needed to make sure we installed enough venting. Code requires that venting must be at least match or exceed the required cubic inches of drain. With 2- 3" drains (which 12 fixtures maxes that capacity) the total is 14.14 cubic inches. A 2" pipe using the same formula for area is 3.14 cubic inches. Therefore, if all vents are 2", this plan requires a minimum of 14.14 / 3.14 = 5 - 2" vents. So really we are only slightly over vented.

Ok, no more math. A simpler question that some may pose is: why do we need vents? I will admit, I thought all of this was unnecessary bureaucratic BS until I read a simple analogy. All of us have been at a pizzeria with only your drink and straw while waiting for your food. How many of you have played with your drink and straw by putting your pointer finger over the top of the straw and then pulling it out of the glass? Each and everyone of you knows what happens. The soda stays in the straw as you raise it up and out of the glass... magic! Then, when you release your pointer finger the soda pours out of the straw and into you glass. That, my friends, is venting!

Step 2: Do the work. The drains and venting took a good amount of time. Drawing a diagram and actually figuring out how to route all of the PVC are two different stories. To further complicate things, we severely limited where our pipes could go due to our unwillingness to lose closets, create unnecessary soffits or false walls. With determination and incredible patience, we figured it out and the plumbing is now almost completely done. Here are some highlights:

Under the Master Bath in the Den

Tie in to one of the 2 existing septic drains

Half Bath (dropped the purple cleaner as you can see :)

Laundry Room (Washer Left and Wash Sink Right)

Working on the Laundry Plumbing (oh yea and there is no heat)

Guest Bath Toilet Prep. The entire bathroom will have radiant heat with concrete so we need to bring the toilet and the bathtub floor up to the finished floor level before setting them for rough inspection.

Throne base

Same as toilet, bringing the bath floor to finished grade

Bath finished grade

Mapping out our Master Bath

New support beam (left) Cut out support beam (right)

The picture above, with the new support beam, is of the guest bath floor (eat in kitchen ceiling) This is a perfect opportunity to show everyone how shoddy plumbing can compromise the structural integrity of a home. The previous home owner or plumber cut right through the ceiling and rim joists to make way for the drains and vents with zero regard for the structure. (See below)

You can see the multiple cuts and the floor bowing down over an inch

More than half of the beams were cut out in multiple locations

One area must have collapsed so they reinforced it with huge angle iron

Before we could start any plumbing we had to fix the compromised beams and jack the bathroom floor back up to level. First, we built a temporary wall to carry the weight of the kitchen ceiling. Next, we made our own 4"x 8" beam using beam adhesive and a 3" framing nailer. Then, we hung the new beam using metal joist hangers. Finally, we used a 10 ton jack to raise the floor up to level before lag bolting the new beam to the old. You can see the progression below: