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Found 137 results for the keyword ‘Plumbing’

  • Weather Restrictions: Epoxy -- "Wet-Bond"

    Connect to your favourite weather forecaster and look for the following conditions:   Category: Adhesives     Product: Epoxy - Wet-Bond Temperature Limitations: Above +10 C (+50 F) -- although a special product called "Cold-Bond" will work at -6 C (+21 F) Rain Limitations: Can be applied in r...
  • What makes a good sump pump pit?

    It is rather surprising to me how little information there is available on sump pumps and more specifically on sump pump pits.  We find two basic kinds installed in homes. One is just a water collection box where perimeter drains flow and a pump then lifts the water up and away from the house. ...
  • How do you trace drains under the basement floor?

    The most effective technique, one that can save you hundreds of dollars of erroneous digging, is to use a "sonar probe".         This gadget is often combined with a video camera designed to look inside sewer pipes.           An emitter probe is snaked into the drain line. You walk...
  • Venting the plumbing in an island sink

    Putting a sink in an island in the middle of the kitchen presents some plumbing challenges.  Generally the venting for a sink goes upward in the wall while the drain water flows downward towards the floor – but in an island, going up is not an option.  To have a large sink that drains properly y...
  • The Bathtub Fill Alarm

    There are many water spill or flood detectors on the market; some hard wired, some battery operated, some free standing, some tied to central alarm systems.  The battery operated models are quite mobile and good for seasonal tasks like spring flooding or specific tasks like the bathtub overflowin...
  • Removing rust stains and toilet brown stains

    (See non-toxic cleaners in the last paragraph, and Do Rust Cleaners Work?) RUST ON RUGS There has always been one basic chemical available for getting rust off about anything and that was Oxalic Acid. That was the active ingredient in the old petroleum jelly that we used to clean the rust off o...
  • What is wrong with my gurgling double sink? The Vent Valve

    David writes that he recently installed a double sink but it gurgles and backs up. It is 10 feet away from the plumbing stack and goes through a garbarator. What did he do wrong?     When you attach a large double sink on a long horizontal run, the drain pipe will tend to fill up with water ...
  • Rattling plumbing pipes that sound like the house is coming down.

    Lynn from Cambridge, Ontario asked about a horrible rattling sound in their plumbing pipes when someone is using the outside hose bib and someone flushes a toilet. Only when those two things happen at the same time. What is it? Actually it is quite simple and you can understand it best if you bl...
  • Tracing the source of nasty plumbing odours

    Evert from Brownsburg, Quebec has the problem of a sewer odour in his bathroom but isn't sure where it is coming from and whether or not he needs to change his toilet. It can in fact be difficult to localize the source of sewage odours and hence which fixture or drain is guilty.  One technique ...
  • Cutting oval holes in a sloped roof for round pipes

      When plumbing pipes and chimneys have to go through sloped roofs, they are always cut fairly large just to make sure that the pipe will pass through. The problem is that a 3 inch round pipe needs an oval hole in a sloped roof. There is an easy trick for drawing out the hole.   Hold the p...