SUMMARY KEYWORDS
plumbing, dog, diy, replace, heat, flame, fitting, house, toilet, talking, diy project, bolts, save, line, hardware store, alligator, solder, plumber, fire, pipe
00:03
Before you start your next do it yourself project listen to this. You got this is on the air. You got this is hosted by abt plumbing, electric heat and air owner Andrew Twidwell and Rosalie Brown, with a helpful hand. Here are Andrew and Rosalie.
00:18
This is Andrew Twidwell, owner of ABT plumbing, electric heat and air. Once again with the show. You’ve got this show DIY do’s and don’ts. And I’m actually here in California in Auburn looking out my window at the hot sunny day here. And Rosalie is down in LA, right. Enjoying the hot sunny day down there. That’s it’s probably not too hot down there right now. It was like seven days yesterday, wasn’t it?
00:42
Yeah, I think it’s like 74 right now, right? So it’s probably gonna get like 70-80 right by the time the day is over nice. It is it is pretty nice. But I keep getting this pop up on my computer about really high UV rays. So I was like, gamma rays from the sun trying to kill me. So I have bought in the last six months, like more sunscreen because I’ve kind of been not great about that. And then I bought and my kids hate it. They buy hats, and they’re like, oh my god, you and your hats. They hate how I look at hats. I mean, they give me a big brim hat. Totally. But I’m like, Yeah, but I gotta be able to, like, you know, live long enough to keep paying your bills. So like, Get off. Get off me. I
01:23
was real, right.
01:25
I gotta be happy to keep your rent. So I’m gonna wear the hat. Okay. So yeah, but the weather’s good. And it’s good to see you back. I know that you’re kind of in those. What if anyone doesn’t listen regularly, they maybe they don’t know this about you. But what I loved about you is you’re doing this kind of almost bicoastal living, right? I’m this summer. So you’re back for a few days. Then you’ll go back to St. Paul. I love the pictures. You took a great picture of your dog the other day that I kid you not I literally pulled out the picture and I laughed out loud. Because I can hear the dog. I can hear the picture. It was hilarious. Like this old crazy looking wirehaired schnauzer type dog with his head cocked back mouth open snoring I just noticed snoring with like
02:08
half his teeth, God because he’s an old dog. And we keep taking him to the vet and they gotta pull more teeth because he’s in there. And he’s old. He’s like, 14 gonna 15 And my wife’s like, check his pulse, check his pulse. I could see him breathing any breeze really shallow. He does this all and then hold it for a little while. And then exhale.
02:32
Your dog reminds me and I think I’ve said this to you before, but he reminds me of a cartoon character. Like you see
02:38
this whole cartoon character. And it’s funny, because he’s always been late. He was always cute. Cuz you kind of he’s kind of a Karen terrier mix. But now he’s gotten older, all wiry and kind of his mane is all gray. Now it looks like he really probably looks like almost like, I can’t tell you like walking around San Francisco walking around and kind of city. Just really see a lot of people are like, oh, like saying all these great things and kick them out. We’ll take them out to restaurants and things down there. And same thing. Oh my god, can I pet your dog? He’s so cute. He does. He’s a total he doesn’t he is harmless. And he’s a total pain in the butt. Because he’s also gotten to the point now where when you take him for a walk, and let’s put the brakes on and just stop in the middle of the middle of the sidewalk. She’s like, I don’t want to go any further. Like, dude, so you kind of
03:28
like that’s like having a little toddler. He’s like, No, you pick me up? I’m done. Exactly. I’m gonna have a meltdown right now. Yeah,
03:36
exactly. You gotta choose your battle. It’s like alright, am I going to yank on them are going to pick them up. We’re going to let them sniff this one last point, you know, and he only he’ll make it he used to be able to walk for maybe we would take them on like five mile hikes. No problem, but now he can do. Maybe about a half to three quarters of a mile.
03:55
Yeah. Yeah. I just honestly I just He He really brings me so much joy. Just look at like you live in best life messed up teeth, bear lighting and under life. Like it makes me feel good. Like I’m kinda I’m kind of like he’s living my best life like I aspire to be that dog. All his needs are taken care of. And he gets his way so he’s doing
04:16
something right. He’s doing something right. Yeah, he gets definitely gets his way. The rest of us are is hustling
04:20
out there trying to get in and out. So I’m back here for a little bit. Yeah, you go. Yeah, we love people. Right. Well, you got a cat too. Yeah, but I never talked about him because he’s like, he’s the Dark Side of the Moon Man. He’s like, he’s not he’s not made right. But that’s okay. Like, I mean, I love them. Mostly. But so the dog you know, as you’re aware, like fireworks because you and I think I texted you the day after July. I was like, I gotten I was. I was I was in a mood right? Shocking. So anyway, so the dog is super sensitive and the older he gets, it’s also inherent in his breed. He’s got husky. He’s Got Shepard, he’s probably got something else in there. So he’s very sensitive. So yesterday morning, like the universe had let me sleep past like 5:59am. So I felt like I was winning, but I was still dreaming. And all of a sudden I’m yanked out of this dream by the loudest sound I’ve ever heard. So the fire alarm for the entire complex like the entire building, which is fairly significant size goes off and they have to in each you know, home so you’ve read them like they they literally are the most insane sound you’ve ever heard. So I take me like a quick millisecond to realize like what’s going on, and then all sudden, Theo, oh my God, he’s on top of me and I feel like just give me CPR is like jumping up and down on my chest. Like we’ve got to get out. We’ve got to get out. We’ve got to get up. And I’m like, what’s happening? And I literally was like, I bet there’s no fire. I bet I’ve time record coffee, coffee real quick. So as a dog, I’m the worst dog in the world. So as the dog is like freaking out, right? I’m half putting a leash on him and I’m half pressing the instant machine button real quick. Because we’re gonna sit out in like the courtyard or out on the street. You need the coffee. Are you kidding me? I’m gonna be facing 135 neighbors like No, look. So we got the coffee. And then we sat outside for like 26 minutes. And but apparently it was a false alarm. And so I harken you back to two weeks prior when I had to get a dog sitter and testing. Definitely fire alarm testing. Well, apparently it fails because here we are. Today, barely. Yeah, right. So okay, so today knock on wood. We’re starting off pretty good. No major dog catastrophes, no major catastrophes. So I’m, I’m here, I’m ready to talk to you about what the show is about. Right? And
06:59
you came up with a good thing. And you’re a little worried about
07:01
it. I also just want to to anyone out there who is wondering if I do anything all day? No, I don’t. But in the middle of the night, I wake up and I freak out. So I find this thing, send it to you. I’m like, we haven’t talked about plumbing in a while. And what I thought I sent you was this cool list of like Plumbing, DIY projects, right. And then at two o’clock in the morning, I woke up and I went, oh my god, I think those were more like Plumbing DIY hacks as if that makes a difference. But this is what I wake up every morning. So I’m with that ridiculous introduction. And
07:38
I looked through and I liked the list. So it’s good. And you know, 13 Plumbing tricks of the trades for the weekend plumber, which is great. I just I specifically love the first line. So it reads this more than any other type of home improvement job, plumbing can drive a DIY are crazy. And it’s so true. And problems arise, projects grow, frustrations, multiply, even pros are not immune. And I can contest to that like working at my own house, for some reason always seems to take me two or three times longer than if I was working at somebody else’s house. Probably mainly probably because I don’t have a service truck at my house any longer. So I don’t have the parts available readily available. But it is plumbing is one of those things where a you’re doing it as a DIY thing. So it’s not something you do on a daily basis. So it’s hard to foretell what you’re going to need as you get into it. So you have to go to the hardware store multiple times, right? Fortunately, knowing what I know I can gently to go to the hardware store once but for you guys out there that don’t do this on a regular basis. You know, the other thing they say is, but one way to manage the frustration and achieve a successful plumbing project is to allow plenty of time at least twice as much time as you think the project should take. And I will say this at least twice, minimum twice, I would give it three to four times. Another Smart Step is to learn some tricks of the trade here are a few simple sue a few of our favorites. So those are some good things to keep in mind if you do get into a plumbing, DIY project, that it is potentially going to take you longer than you think. And even some of the most simple ones like I’ve had situations where I’ve been working in my own house and it seems like oh yeah, I got this will this take me half an hour. Next thing I know half a day is gone. Because you know, as it’s like an onion, right? You peel off this one layer and then Oh darn, that’s messed up. You peel off another layer like oh my god, I gotta replace that now. And it just keeps going deeper and deeper and deeper. So just keep that in mind when you get into plumbing DIY projects. And it will save you a lot of frustrations if you have if you don’t have an if you don’t have what’s the expectations of success that are unrealistic, because it’s really easy to think it’s only gonna take me an hour then I was saying four hours later, and you’re still not done. That could really Have you make some people upset I know I’m one of them. So
10:04
that seems fair. That seems fair.
10:06
So the first one I really liked this is is you know, a lot of people think you have to cut the pipe to take a fitting off or take something off of a plumbing system. And don’t forget, you can heat solder up and pull a fitting off, pull a valve off, just takes quite a bit of heat and pull it off. But as you’re heating up as you’re heating the fitting, you gotta wait for it. What I’ll usually do is I’ll heat it and I’ll take a wrench and just kind of try moving it and then you’ll usually see the the solder like a bubble pop out of the joint and then you’ll be able to pull it off pretty easily. Half inch lines pretty easy to heat up and pull off three quarter lines get a little harder one inch lines I generally speaking it’s going to be really hard to heat up enough to get the solder to melt all the way around a one inch fitting with a small bottle torch sometimes it can be a little bit of a pain. So if you are going to be doing stuff like this, I would stick to one or half inch three quarter pipe not one edge. And then the other thing too is when you’re doing this to make sure that and actually in this image will share this they’re using a protective fabric that you can put behind the flame your torch because most of our bottle torches they have a big flame unlike some of the more expensive acetylene torches where you have a nice tight really hot flame and you can burn stuff so it’s nice to have some kind of shields I’ve just used sheet metal in the past these these woven fabric are better but they do get funky after a while but if you’re DIY are definitely worth the investment so you don’t burn your house down when you’re trying to solder pipes.
11:46
Yeah, can we just like pick Okay, put a pin in that for one second just kind of read come back to that and say that one more time to kind of have a good idea not to try not to burn your house down when you’re doing doing DIY or anything else right we want to do anything else we want using void burning using a
12:02
torch there’s a very good chance you can light something on fire and speaking from somebody that’s been doing this for 30 odd years. I’ve literally lit probably five houses on fire. I mean we’ve been you managed to to contain it, but I’ve had some situations where it got pretty scary. So you were gonna add buildings with
12:23
I wasn’t expecting to go full blown and get it out there. Okay, okay, I’m not perfect confession time.
12:30
Most plumbers that I know that have been doing this long enough have done that like it primarily it was in San Francisco and houses that were turn of the century with tarpaper between the joists and and the siding. That step that 100 year old tar paper that stuff just if you lick it with a flame it sometimes it will ignite and sometimes it won’t. And when it does ignite it just takes off so yeah, I’ve had that I’ve had those take off on me before I’ve also had dryer lint were working at somebody’s house with no dryer vent and you have accidentally lick the the I say lick but the flame touches the dryer lint and that it just like this it looks like a grass fire does what this like line of fire that just works its way out. It burns really fast doesn’t burn very high hot, typically but oh my god Scott that happened twice that scared so scary. And you’re underneath the house. You can’t get out really fast.
13:24
That’s like a horror movie right there. Yeah,
13:26
it took you 10 minutes to climb in there. And then I’m like, Well,
13:29
I will say this having had being someone who had an alligator rush them I will say you might be surprised at how much power you have to literally spring backwards if needed. So don’t underestimate the power of like I’m about to die but do your best
13:48
alligator was in the was a zoo it wasn’t in the Everglades
13:53
I wasn’t out like free form swimming. No, I wasn’t a controlled environment. However there was nothing between me and said alligator so I mean that was that was a moment but But enough about me Get out. Get stay away from the flame don’t like things on fire.
14:09
Okay, check things from the flame. Okay, another one. This is actually a good way to replace metal drains with plastic. So in San Francisco, we were required to use 14 gauge metal P traps pretty much everywhere else you can use plastic except for some commercial projects. So if you’re if you’re inside your house and you’ve got an old metal P trap, replacing it with a plastic one makes it a lot easier to work on. The metal ones can be really difficult to use they last a long time, but I’ve actually seen plastic ones last longer. So and they’re also you know like a lot cheaper about 10% or 20% the cost. So if you’ve got a metal P trap and you you have to replace it for some reason, just put a plastic one and if you’re strong enough you don’t even have to use channel locks to tighten this because they got little wingnuts If you don’t, don’t have arthritis or anything, that’s pretty easy to work with. So that’s a great one that’s a good hack. And just buy a bag trap and they work great. The other good one loosening stuck pipes with heat. A lot of times you’ll have a threaded galvanized pipe that’s in another galvanized fitting, especially like a drain or something like that. I wouldn’t necessarily try this with water lines. If it’s a water line, just cut it out because it’s old and don’t use galvanized anymore for for water. But if you got to clean out where you’re trying to, to clear sewer or something like that, heating up the fitting can save you a lot of trouble. And that’s true with bolts, all the mechanics do the same thing. I was talking to a buddy of mine, he’s working on his kids camper van they were trying to set up and they had a bunch of bolts and they had heat him up with oxy acetylene torch. But heated up will make taking things apart a lot easier. But again, you know, they’re using the woven fabric again, just protect stuff so that you don’t like the house on fire when you’re using an open flame. Let’s skip that one. I don’t like that one. This is when we talked about a lot fixing a clog in seconds, using the Zipit tool. One of my favorite things, I’ve got one in every structure that I have, including the RV because they just have saved my bacon so many times. And then the RV actually used at one point I did use a larger zip, zip tie. And then took my wire cutters and cut little notches and network to have one of those a pickup tool, what are those little, they’re like wire and you depress the top of it like a syringe and as little claws open up, you get those at the dollar store a lot of times at a hardware store for a couple bucks
16:49
is their name they call it a pickup tool.
16:51
So that’s one of the things like mechanics used to you know, if you drop something in a tight spot where you got to pick it up,
16:56
right, right, okay. Okay.
16:59
They work really good for for drain cleaning up use those for drain cleaning. And then they also are using a shot back. That’s another great way to get Harris stuff out of out of a dream and water. So those are some good quick ways of cleaning a drain. It’s a DIY. And surprisingly, you know, in a bathroom, particularly a bathroom sink or shower, nine times out of 10, the clogs going to be right at the tailpiece which is that first pipe that drops vertically from the dream into the P trap that gets try not to be too graphic. But we all know that it gets it gets really gross because you’re using soaps and things like that. And it kind of congeals Yeah, holds the hair. Yeah. Got it. So nine times out of 10. Stop saying, oh, yeah, read off gases. Yeah. Sounds like a pond, you’re killing me
17:49
keep it moving.
17:51
Those, those are your nine times out of 10 that happens right there. So before you call us out to try and clear that bathroom sink, that shower, try this, you know, cost you five bucks, and you might be able to take care of it. And then you look like the hero. You know, especially if you got somebody that’s got long hair and the family. More than likely it’s going to be hair right now, that tail piece.
18:13
You know, my dad would have made me do my dad because I was the only one in the house that have long hair. Oh, my dad would have been like, here’s the tool. There you go. Like it wouldn’t have been like dad being the hair or even like if you want to continue to use your bathroom. But that was the 70s and 80s. What are you going to
18:33
do? Yeah, yeah. I tried that with Betty. But no, she’s like, yes, no,
18:37
no, no. I do not suggest the spouse for any purposes ever.
18:42
No, I mean, never happening. I do that. I don’t know you’re doing it. Or we’re calling a plumber.
18:47
I’m like, Yeah, I don’t recommend that for the spouse. But for you know, my dad was like, stay married to me. Yeah, yeah. See, the consequences seemed much worse when you’re talking about spouses. So
18:56
divorce is expensive. This other one don’t overtype supply lines. So they’re talking mainly about like a supply line set hooked up from the emergency shutoff out to the fixture, so like a toilet supply line, a faucet supply line. Those surprisingly people I found them where people just wrenched the heck out of them. And you can crack the the fittings, they don’t require that much force on it because they most time either have a flared fitting or a over rubber O ring, a rubber washer that seals it so they don’t really need to be that tight, especially toilet. The want the supply line that hooks up to the toilet to the bottom of the valve. That one it’s hand tight, and maybe just a quarter past hand tight. But no more because I’ve seen I’ve had plenty of guys crack close enough to replace them. Since we’re talking about supply lines, one of the things I’ve seen a lot of people try to do is try to reuse them there Sheep, replace them, don’t try to reuse them. They’ve got a life expectancy of about 15 years 10 to 15 years. It’s a serviceable item. If you’re replacing a fixture or a toilet or faucet, you’re probably doing doing that because it’s old and dated, it’s probably over the the life expectancy of this of that supply line by anyone. They’re not you know, you’re okay. So when you’re, since we’re talking about supply lines, one of the things that I’ve seen a lot of people do is to try to reuse the old supply lines. So the supply lines that go to the fixture, like the faucet or the toilet, those are serviceable item, they only last about 10 years, 15 years. If you’re replacing a faucet or a toilet, it’s probably already that age anyway, you’re replacing because it’s old, just replace them, you’re talking about 2530 bucks to get a new one. So just replace them, they’re cheap, don’t read, don’t try to reuse them to save yourself a buck. One of the things that I always try to remind myself about when I’m working on plumbing is when when you try to reuse something that’s old, or you know, when a plumbing accident happens, it can be a lot of water. And a lot of water means that heavy can do a lot of damage really quick and do a lot of property damage. And you’re talking about insurance claim. And if your deductibles like mine, it’s probably 500 to 1000 bucks spend the extra 25 $50 on parts. Yeah, that’s a great,
21:24
that’s a great way to look at it. It’s a good investment. Yeah, for real. Yeah,
21:29
don’t try to reuse old parts. I was going to pass that one up. So the next thing I was going to talk about is what old plumber taught me how to do is we’re replacing a toilet and I was struggling with the nuts, they kept spinning the bolts that actually hold the toilet. And he went out and got his hammer, and walked past me and just broke the toilet. Just took a hammer and broke it at the bolts. And he’s like we’re replacing it anyway, why? Why are you doing this. So I always learned that would have taken me hours to try to get those bolts out. And he literally took five minutes, and we had the toilet out and it was in the dumpster. So if you’re trying if you’re if you’re Yeah, I mean, it’s one of those things like, in retrospect, I remember that lesson, I was probably like 2021 55 now. So it’s one of the things that really stuck in my brain, right? He’s like, if you’re replacing it, don’t try to save it. Because you’re gonna spend so much time to try to try to save it and you’re not doing the customer. Any benefit, you’re not doing yourself any benefit. So just break it. So you know, if you have old pipe fitting and or bolts or something like that
22:38
has just given me this freedom to like, the image in my mind, like just taking a hammer and breaking stuff I no longer need that really applies to a lot of things. I’ve got some,
22:47
I think I had the situation like with old porcelain sinks to like that are underneath that are mounted underneath and I couldn’t get the cocking off. And then I took a hammer smash it up, and then a putty knife and I’d saved about an hour. And I felt pretty
23:01
good to probably find the breaking stuff.
23:05
I was like breaking stuff. Alright. And then the last but not least, is use pipe dope on everything. And I am I believe in this stuff. You don’t want to use pipe dope on things that are rubber because it’s got oil, it will dissolve the rubber eventually. But if you’ve got like a slip joint or something of that nature, pipe dope works really well, and all the threads. So I use it pretty liberally. Just clean up after yourself when you’re done. And hopefully with that stuff, you kind of get some ideas on how to do stuff and make it a little bit more adventurous when you take an idea or a DIY project. But just make sure you give yourself plenty of time. If you do get into trouble and you do need some help need us to bail you out, we can definitely bail you out. And you can give us a call at 530-230-9092 That number again 2309092. You can find us on the web at easy as abc.com easy as ABC to find us on Facebook for which we share a lot of stuff. And with that, I guess that’s our show and we’ll catch you guys next week. Thanks for listening.
24:05
Bye. Thanks, Andrew. Thanks, Rosalie. Now let’s get that project started. You got this. We’ll be back next Friday morning and nine o’clock on TMZ on Newstalk 830