Before Repairing the Plumbing, Install a Laundry Tub?
October 5, 2006
While it may seem a little backwards, we needed to install a laundry tub before we could correct any of the plumbing. Our laundry room is one the main floor just off of the kitchen, along with our bathroom and other assorted amenities. All of the plumbing that services these appliances sits in the floor below – the ceiling of the basement room that we are renovating. It dawned on us that we had no way of draining these lines before starting work, which meant that a fair amount of water would come pouring out of the pipes the second we made our first cut. Likewise, up till now I have been using the kitchen sink to clean paint brushes, scour old hardware, clean trowels etc. and that hasn’t the most popular, arrangement. As such, it was only logical that we install a laundry tub in the back room of the basement.
The first trick was draining the pipes…
I knew that when I cut the pipes, half the house would drain on top of me, so did my best to prepare buckets and towels to contain the downpour. After the family had gone to bed, I turned off the water, and began spinning pipe cutter around the pipe. Within seconds water began to spray, and I deftly raised a bucket above my head and held it beneath the cut.
The rest of the installation went quite well, I added the new copper piping for the supply lines and attached the shut-off valves, connected the faucets to the tub, and hooked up the supply lines. Next, I inserted the drain and connected it to the pump. Finally, I attached the 16 feet of waster pipe from the pump to the main sewer line and voila – a working laundry tub!
(Here’s an image off all of the silt that settled out of the lines once I had finished…)