DIY Projects

[Crystallas]

Spent the last day digging up and replacing a burst pipe for an elderly neighbor.

Tip for all you home owners, don't boil a bunch of water and dump it down your cold pipes when you realize that you no longer want to make chicken soup.

 

[oober]

Spent the last day digging up and replacing a burst pipe for an elderly neighbor.

Tip for all you home owners, don't boil a bunch of water and dump it down your cold pipes when you realize that you no longer want to make chicken soup.

In extreme cold situation, run your cold water 1st for a few min then your hot water, if there is any concern you might end up with frozen pipes every 8 hrs or so. I have a kitchen sink that ended up with a slightly frozen hot water pipe a few yrs ago. I have since insulated better where the pipes are, but being OCD I run the water for a few minutes during this weather. And yes, cool down your boiling water before dumping down the drain. I don't even dump water from pasta cooking without cooling it down a bit during this type of weather so I don't burst a drain.

 

[oober]

Oxidation on copper is normal. So is nickel plating wearing off and exposing brass parts. Replacing any of it is just a matter of how much you're willing to do and spend. 19/20 times it's removable without removing the tub. The only [common] reason you would need to remove the tub, is if the bathtub was retrofitted into a house with some weird offset to the drain, and doing it from the tub could break the seal with the offset itself.

Just get the right tool to remove the drain flange, maybe read a how-to/watch a YT video and determine if it's in your skill range. Don't skip the plumbers putty.

Personally, I would have ignored that until spring, when it's not the hassle of something going wrong, and having to expose the wall insulation/cracking cold tiles in case you need to pull the tub out. Use a rubber drain plug for the time being.

Remove the plug every few months and wire brush. This will help to keep oxidation from having the threads freeze up until you break the drain thread trying to remove for gunk/hair removal.