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kitchen remodel 10
Aug. 26th, 2021 11:22 pmI took the afternoon off work to begin demolition of the lower cabinets.
Disconnected and removed the faucet. Got the heavy cast iron sink out with the help of a jack (it was caulked down). Got the countertops off. Broke up the cabinets.
Then the plumbing. There were no shut-offs, so I had to turn the water off of the entire house. The pipes under the sink were a mess, so even if I put new shut-offs in the basement, I'd still want to replace the pipes under the sink, so I just did that. The cold side was easy. There was a compression fitting that stepped down to the size that fed the faucet. I just replaced that fitting with a shut-off valve. Fortunately, I had a few valves, in different configurations. I'm sure I wouldn't have thought of that solution had I not been holding one in my hand.
The hot side, I had to cut off and replace with copper fittings. That didn't go very well. The fittings need to be hot enough to melt the solder and wick it inside the joint, but the pipes need to be cooler. Unfortunately, the pipe sections were so short that they got too hot, and the solder didn't wick into the joint. And one of them was a T joint, so there were three ends to solder at once.
It's been an hour since I turned the water back on, and there are no leaks yet. I'll feel better after a second hour.
The other problem I found was electrical. There's some flexible metal conduit that comes out of the wall and under the dishwasher. It is badly rusted in one place, and it's bent where it comes out of the big hole in the wall, so that the plastic-coated wires are exposed. That will need to be replaced. The dishwasher has a lot of mouse poop on top of and under it. And the wrapper from a chocolate. That definitely wasn't there two years ago, when I replaced its motor.
I took the day off tomorrow, to do the electrical, demolish the second cabinet (the easy one) and get a start on the drywall. It needs to be painted before Monday.
.
Disconnected and removed the faucet. Got the heavy cast iron sink out with the help of a jack (it was caulked down). Got the countertops off. Broke up the cabinets.
Then the plumbing. There were no shut-offs, so I had to turn the water off of the entire house. The pipes under the sink were a mess, so even if I put new shut-offs in the basement, I'd still want to replace the pipes under the sink, so I just did that. The cold side was easy. There was a compression fitting that stepped down to the size that fed the faucet. I just replaced that fitting with a shut-off valve. Fortunately, I had a few valves, in different configurations. I'm sure I wouldn't have thought of that solution had I not been holding one in my hand.
The hot side, I had to cut off and replace with copper fittings. That didn't go very well. The fittings need to be hot enough to melt the solder and wick it inside the joint, but the pipes need to be cooler. Unfortunately, the pipe sections were so short that they got too hot, and the solder didn't wick into the joint. And one of them was a T joint, so there were three ends to solder at once.
It's been an hour since I turned the water back on, and there are no leaks yet. I'll feel better after a second hour.
The other problem I found was electrical. There's some flexible metal conduit that comes out of the wall and under the dishwasher. It is badly rusted in one place, and it's bent where it comes out of the big hole in the wall, so that the plastic-coated wires are exposed. That will need to be replaced. The dishwasher has a lot of mouse poop on top of and under it. And the wrapper from a chocolate. That definitely wasn't there two years ago, when I replaced its motor.
I took the day off tomorrow, to do the electrical, demolish the second cabinet (the easy one) and get a start on the drywall. It needs to be painted before Monday.
.
