The Week That Was

Just returning from Browns Valley, Minnesota; I have a new found respect for these people. Having survived a recent flood, the townspeople are not yet ready to give up. Most have already cleaned out their lower levels, replaced furnaces, electrical panels, water heaters and the like, and are pressing on. Great Story! This week I would like to talk a little bit about plumbing. Plumbing needs to be looked at in all Home Inspections as one of the very important, basic systems of the Home. Most plumbing these days is of the PVC or ABS variety. PVC (polyvinyl chloride) pipe is probably the most common. Your Home Inspector should be looking for a purple colored or different colored solvent/cleaner on the pipe before it is glued together. This should be evident with the contrasting color. If there is not a contrasting color evident on the piping at the joints, then in all probability, it was just glued and not cleaned first. If this is the case, then the joint will probably fail at some point. Make sure that the piping has been cleaned with solvent of a different color, and then glued. ABS pipe is a little different. Usually black in color and usually glued with a black glue with the solvent already in the glue. There is no different colored solvent for this type of piping. The Inspector is looking to make sure that all of our joints are glued, that all of the piping is running with a slope or grade of a minimum of 1/4 inch to the foot, and make sure venting is correct. Venting is important for each fixture to function properly. The plumbing system should never be put together with two different types of pipe and glued. The glue for one will not work for the other. Combination glues are available, however they only give a glue joint, not a solvent joint for complete adhesion. If your plumbing is noisy, has a distinctive odor, or is put together with various styles of clamps and glues; it probably is not a professional job. Have it checked out by a professional plumber as soon as possible. Next week we will talk a little about plumbing fixtures.