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trouble in the valves
Saturday, July 30 2016
Gretchen would be driving up to Albany today with Sarah the Vegan to attend a reading by another Sarah, this one being in the activist poetry world. Initially I thought I'd have the day to relax and do whatever I wanted to, but then we got an email from the woman who lives in apartment 1L of the brick mansion saying the refrigerator was dripping water on everything, causing her to have to throw food away. So I decided to head over immediately and deal with it.
I found a couple of the residents in back with their dogs, and (as usual) I made a suitable fuss about the canines, one of whom is a bit of psycho. The residents indicated that a couple area rugs from the basement has been flooded by either recent rains or whatever the guys installing the heating plant had allowed to drain onto the floor.
In 1L, I took apart the control soffit in the ceiling of the refrigerator and there were no apparent blockages. I would've then turned my attention to the freezer and disassembled a console in the back, but now the tenant was saying she had to go to work and she didn't want to leave me with her dog (a geriatric Chihuahua with a history of biting people). I explained that I'd been alone with that dog in the past and it wasn't a problem, but whatever. If I want to get into that freezer, I'll have to come back some time when she's away.
Next I went upstairs to the apartment on the second floor to map out a strategy for increasing the hot water flow for the kitchen sink. I'd feared the problem was galvanized pipes with advanced arteriosclerosis and that new pipes would have to be run up from the basement. So I was overjoyed to find the plumbing was all copper under the sink. Perhaps the problem was one of the valves. In turning off an upstream valve in the basement, the the thing started spraying water and then its handle crumbled into jagged pieces. Clearly that valve was going to need to be replaced. So I turned off the one upstream from it; happily that one didn't immediately fall apart in my hand.
At Home Depot I spent nearly $90 on valves, fittings, a short piece of half inch copper pipe, and even a tank of MAPP gas (I wanted there to be zero chance I would need to return for something else).
Back at the brick mansion, I replaced the broken gate valve with a nice new ball valve. Since I was installing it in the middle of a long run of pipe that couldn't be drained, I was forced to use another SharkBite fitting to complete the installation (otherwise escaping gasses would cause a leaky joint). When the replaced valve failed to improve water flow in the sink, I then had to replace the valve directly under it. To work in close quarters with drainage pipe and pressed-board cabinetry, I had to set up a little firewall of broken brick. When the new valve was installed and pressurized, I was overjoyed to find the hot water flow was much improved. What I'd feared would be an expensive and time-consuming repair had taken less than three hours (including the run for supplies).
While I was there in the basement, I got a good look at the new heating plant. It's a beautiful crossroads of thick copper pipes, steel-jacketed electrical wire, all converging on a grey metal box bolted to the wall. It's mostly featureless save for a color LCD screen about the size of a smartphone. I don't know what its capabilities are, but it probably runs some flavor or Linux.
It was after 7:00pm when I finally hit the road for home, and by now it was raining. The mosquitoes were going to like that! I was sweaty and dirty, but pleased with the day's accomplishment. I added a new clause to my drinking rules that allows me to drink alcohol on days when I accomplished big landlord tasks.
For linking purposes this article's URL is:
http://asecular.com/blog.php?160730 feedback
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