Mr. Fixit ?

Oct 8 00:44 UTC 1995

Most men are expected to fix anything that goes wrong around the house,
including the car.  Do you end up filling this traditional role, or do you
have some other way to handle these "handyman" chores.  Also, what level of
work will you do?  Do you do only screwdriver & hammer types of things, or
do you tackle anything?  

I worked summers with my grandfather as sort of an apprentice handyman and
I fell right into the traditional role.

response 2 of 20:

Oct 8 15:36 UTC 1995

My Father role was played by my gradfather.  Gramps was a master carpenter
and at an early age showed me the ins and outs of carpentry.  I love doing
all the remodeling in our house.  I built a 14x20 deck last year and I am now
in the process of remodeling our master bath.  It is just now in the drywall
stage but coming along quite well.  As for cars I can do the normal, oil,
tires, and brake jobs.  When it comes to major stuff like bearings and the
like, I would probably attempt it but I dont have the  room or the tools.

response 4 of 20:

Oct 16 22:52 UTC 1995

Oh God please help me...I am past the drywall stage now and heading full steam
to the plumbing.....Ughhhhhhhhhh

response 8 of 20:

Oct 18 23:45 UTC 1995

Yeah i could use some help...be back with details when i have more time

response 10 of 20:

Oct 28 20:24 UTC 1995

Dan, First question, do you have a basement with all the drain plumbing
exposed below the floor?  Second question, is your waste plumbing plastic or
black iron?     

It should be a relatively easy job if you have a basement and plastic drain
pipe.  One caution, however, is your vent stack.  I forget the code, but I
think the drains have to be within 8 foot of a vent stack.  Failure to do this
not only violates code, but could cause the drain to completely empty due to
siphoning action.  Be sure to locate where your vent stack is and hopefully
it is relatively close to the new drains. 

The tubs usually have a "ladder" bracing on the floor joists beneath them to
support the extra weight.  They also have a hole cut directly through the
floor about 8" x 12" directly beneath the tub drain.  This allows access to
the drains from below.  They also usually have an access panel in the next
room adjacent to the tub area.  This usually is a sheet of plywood and is
screwed into a 2x4 frame.  (Usually this is in a closet or hidden area.  This
gives access to the supply side plumbing. 

If you have plastic, you can cut the pipe with any saw and then clean it up
and use the pvc glue and put all your parts back together.  The waste lines
have to have a slope and I am not sure what that is, something like 1/8 to
1/4" per foot of run.  Better check that to make sure because it is important.
 
If you have a "between floors" bathroom, the problem suddenly gets real tough.
It means a rip-down of drywall down below.  If you have a crawl space, it gets
nasty, but basically it is the same as a basement, only infinitely more
crowded. If you have black Iron pipe, you may have to rent a pipe cutter. 
Don't even try to hacksaw this stuff, it'll eat hacksaw blades and laugh. 
You could then convert to PVC from the cut on up.

Big items are:
1)  Where is your vent pipe (btw it is not necessarily right below where it
comes out from your roof).  If you put in a new vent thru your roof, be
careful and drop me a note first.
2)  Support the tub and cut the access holes
3)  Lay out a diagram of where all the plumbing is going to go and get the
parts before you start.  
4)  Sink drains have a code for horizontal slope too.  I think it's the same
but best to check.  (Washt. county Supt. of Building inspection)

I assume you are tapping into a vertical waste pipe.  Let me know if it is
a horizontal one.  There are a few different precautions for those.

Hope it helps.

response 12 of 20:

Oct 31 02:27 UTC 1995

Dan, I can't really visualize the layout, but be sure to cap the old drain
so you don't get fumes.  Best would be to cut off this pipe completely and
re-route it to the new drain.  From what I think your layout is, it will be
approx 2-1/2 to 3 feet from the old drain to the new one.  

If you do cut the pipe off, leave enough so you can glue on a new flange or
coupling.

Again, good luck.

response 14 of 20:

May 11 23:44 UTC 1996

Boy, did I do a stupid thing.  I bought a new battery for my lawn tractor and
installed it.  Afterwords, the starter would spin, but the tractor would not
start.  The teeth on the pinion gear would not engage the flywheel.   I took
the upper engine covers all off, to get at the starter.  I could see it
spinning, but not thrusting the pinion into the flywheeel.  I was getting
ready to take the flywheel off, so I could remove the starter, and something
made me check the two batteries.

The new battery (Sears DieHard Gold) has polarity which is reversed in
comparison to the original battery on the Simplicity tractor.  The battery
can only go in one way, so, I did not put the battery in backwards.

The battery cables would not reach across the battery to connect the DieHard
terminals, so I got new cables and everything is now ok.  Other than the fact
that I took half of the tractor apart and then had to put it back together
again.  

I never was suspicious that my starter was running backwards.  When it runs
backwards, the pinion thrust mechanism does not work.  

All's well that ends well.

response 16 of 20:

May 13 20:38 UTC 1996

Doesn't it always work that way....Well speaking of fixing things..My wife
got a brake job on her car for Mother's Day...She got to work on Saturday just
terrified...Her brakes had gone out on her...Luckily she thought quick enough
to down shift and get the car slowed down....The thing that sucks is that
there was no early warning...It looked like the wear down tab had broken
off...unless she didnt tell about that getting bad before it broke off...Oh
well

response 18 of 20:

May 19 17:18 UTC 1996

Thanks..but all the above mentioned seemed to be in working condition...The
pads themselves were almost non-existant..

response 20 of 20:

May 22 22:03 UTC 1996

Well everything is working great now...still curous what the problem could
have been..