I finally bought a house in Cave Country! W00T!!!

[The Chairman]

In my old house I replaced all of the 50 year old 1/2" copper

Did you replace it with copper of PEX? I would definitely go with PEX for any large scale redo.

 

[-JD-]

Copper. All of the risers remained the original 1/2" copper. This was also circa mid-late1990s. Copper was still relatively cheap. PEX was pretty rare and the fittings and tooling were expensive. It probably would have cost me way more to do PEX, and many of the connections would have been a real PITA with the crimp-tooling of the era.

Last summer I helped to install the supply lines in my aunt's new modular (technically installed under the "trailer"-manufactured homes code, but actually constructed far stronger and better than any recent on-site stick build that I've seen. Amazing seeing that brought in on three trailers and craned into the foundation in an easy morning.) The branches were all PEX off of a copper backbone with the new expanded connections. Very fast, very easy, but you still need a $400 powertool. The best part was the ability to chase stuff through the floor joists - not going to do that with copper!

 

[kelemvor]

I was told something similar except the gas was also to help conductivity of the fiber.
The stuff you learn on sb.

Someone engaged in misinformation. Fibers are glass and don't conduct electricity. That's why areas that are serviced by fiber have far more "boxes" on the ground or on poles. Light is what gets transmitted and it has to be received and re-transmitted periodically as even the best glass fiber isn't perfect.

In theory comm companies could run copper and fiber through the same pipe, but they probably don't. Given that fiber isn't regulated and copper is, most telecom companies (cable, phone, etc) want as little copper as possible.

 

[The Chairman]

Very fast, very easy, but you still need a $400 powertool.

They can be had as cheap as $45 at HD. The one I bought a couple of years ago was about $100. It's far cheaper, easier and will outlast PVC. If I had to replace the line to the house, I would have used that instead and converted everything over to it.

 

[RayfromTX]

I hope to never use PEX. It is the fourth such system and all the others are gone and the houses built with them are orphans with little or no availability for parts. The current and ongoing class action with cpvc is also eyeopening. It gets brittle from polymer loss when in contact with dozens of construction products including the insulative jacket on cat6 cable. All water lines are risky products. All should be installed in accessible locations if at all possible. I just used black iron pipe for the sprinkler system in the ceiling of the huge house I just finished. I used copper for the water lines. I used pet for a couple of sleeves for pulling cat6 cable through the slab

 

[-JD-]

They can be had as cheap as $45 at HD. The one I bought a couple of years ago was about $100. It's far cheaper, easier and will outlast PVC. If I had to replace the line to the house, I would have used that instead and converted everything over to it.

Yea the hand-tool would probably work fine if not doing a whole house. I was playing helper to the plumber on the job and he had the "pro" tools.

The nice think about PEX is it could be pulled through if you need to replace it and you've kept very long bend radii. I'd sleeve it in something like black PE pipe for protection and easy future replacement for undergrounds.

I just used black iron pipe for the sprinkler system in the ceiling of the huge house I just finished. I used copper for the water lines. I used pet for a couple of sleeves for pulling cat6 cable through the slab

Cheapskate. Should have used stainless if you want it to last!

If I was building, I'd really want to sleeve everything from termination to an intermediate/central access point for upgrade-ability. Of course a 2K SqFt house would probably be $1M if I built things "right."

 

[RayfromTX]

I do and it's more like $2M. I also run independent runs from the water heaters directly to each fixture type. For instance, A 1/2 or 3/4" line to the master tub based on flow rate and never exceeding 5fpm for hot water. A separate line of 3/8" or even 1/4" or one of each for future replacement would feed the vanities in that bath. If you branch off a large line to feed a 1.2 gpm vanity faucet the wait times will be too long. I thus avoid the need for hot water circulation systems which are horrible energy wasters and cause erosion of hot water circulation lines and tear up tankless water heaters. Independent small lines to feed powder bath, dishwashers, etc. The cost upfront for the additional lines pays off quickly compared to a circulation system if not on the initial install, which is often the case. Direct routing is important. Ofer there and hang a right and so forth introduces too many seconds of wait time. After 10 seconds people get antsy, even though they are used to longer if they don't have a circulation system. Never use a pump when a well designed and calculated piping system can do the job.

 

[The Chairman]

Lawn mowing season is upon me already. With the quarantine, I have been stuck at home since all the State parks have closed and have precluded my diving. I can do Cow, I guess, but I need to take care of other things around here. I have repaired the LR tire more times than I can count. I finally ordered two tire and rim assemblies two weeks ago and they have not yet shown. Since I had sidewall punctures, I got a tube put in and even that got punctured. Most of my life I had been in the automotive field and 15 of those were for Goodyear. I know my way around tires, but I still don't have any stamina. I pulled the tube out and put her in a dunk tank and found another sidewall puncture. I had some cheap assed glue that came with a bicycle tire patch kit I had and I didn't have a stitcher or tire spoons. A stitcher is a roller with texture in it. It causes the patch and the tube to stitch together and spoons just make it easier to take and put the tire on the rim without pinching the tube. I scrubbed the glue with a less than optimal rasp, put on the glue, wait the obligatory five minutes and put the patch on. I couldn't find my roller I use for dry suit repair, so I did my best. I checked the tube in the dunk tank and it was holding. I assembeled everything and the next morning the tire was FLAT. Grrrrr. I pulled it out only to find the patch had seperated partially and the same leak was giving me a problem. I had ordered spoons, glue and a stitcher and set about to use them. The patch could not have failed at a worse point as I could only get half of it off. The second patch didn't hold, so I trashed it and put in a second tube.

BTW, I have two tire and rim assemblies ordered... geeez are they slow. It's coming from NC and it's been two weeks. They say that they are still coming. While I was in attack mode, I went and rebuilt the three blade towers since I've been hearing a howling. Easy enough to do and I found the howl. Some plastic string had worked in between the blade and the bearing. It was all melted together and was obviously the problem. Now the mower is all fixed and ready to work.

Then I found another flat tire on this little wagon that gets pulled behind the mower. Grrrr. With all the right tools, the repair was quick, easy and effective.

I have done a lot of little fixes today, two spigots replaced, another water leak and so forth. I have a 12 Volt transfer pump that I want to make easily available for both the tractor and the mower and I think I found the answer. However, I had stuffed it into a bucket with a lid and somehow lost it. I looked everywhere, but it plum eluded me. Today, I was looking for something else and found it sitting out in the open. It was just a few feet out of place. So with it in hand, I designed a simple bracket and attached it to the AgShed. Tomorrow I hope to make a multi tiered shelf out of 2x12s to hold all the gas and diesel cans I have.

 

[htatton]

Good luck, I hope it work out well for you.

 

[tbone1004]

@The Chairman since you have your 3d printer dialed in. You can print an adapter for your Ryobi batteries, and put a step down transformer on there with a cigarette plug. Obviously easier if you have cig outlets on the tractors themselves, but if you ever wanted to have that convenience, it's a cheap little project and not a bad one to have in general for 12v things.