15-AUG-2010
tub plumbing
Finished! This is almost all GLUED together. You have to measure well! It doesn't ever farking leak but there's no backing out when you're putting each piece together.
I added an additional threaded junction so it should be possible to completely take the trap off, although I can't imagine why anyone ever would. The tub is old-school cast iron surrounded by well-installed tile, it all still looks like it did when it was installed in 1956. And it will still look good 50 years from now!!
I've had houses of all ages, so I'm definitely familiar with the 1910 - 1920s construction, most of which still works FINE. And I LIKE it!!! So this tender young house, a mere bud from 1956, has my suspicions, but it's basically built in the same old-school way as the other stuff that lasts a REALLY long time.
That's how America used to work. That's what American quality should STILL mean. Then this guy Reagan got elected in 1980... We've been gleefully outsourcing our manufacturing ever since.
15-AUG-2010
old trap
When this was still in place, I put LARGE forces on the cleanout in the middle of this and could not get it to unscrew. The tube going off the left of the picture was 3 feet long and SOLIDLY obstructed from end to end.
God help 'em they saw this day coming, and put that giant fucking cleanout there! But I couldn't open it even with pretty serious leverage!!!
The brass stuff that actually interfaced to the tub was VERY sturdy and will last literally forever. Well, except for eventual erosion I guess, when the whole BRICK house is gone.
All I really needed to do was sawzall out that one pipe, then shove another one back in there. But I wanted to get the tub plug working again and chose the hard way.
15-AUG-2010
crap-v-sch40
The top stuff isn't even much cheaper than the bottom. It won't last five years, the stuff just disintegrates. The schedule 40 stuff should still be there 30+ years out. The old school stuff will still be working after civilization collapses 200 years from now. I'm trying to keep my house "old-school compliant" but it turns out that not only did they walk uphill both ways to school, but gravity actually was 20 times more!!! Or something. And they LIKED it!!
I installed the top one and the damn plug wouldn't plug. It had an o-ring and everything, I couldn't figure it out but it would NOT seal.
The bottom one is all "schedule 40" which just means nice thick PVC with standardized dimensions, rather than "one size fits all replace your drain for dummies kit." You have to measure and cut accurately, then glue it together.
The top one is entirely constructed of finger-tight compression joints with every possible corner cut. I mean the shittiest quality possible to make something that LOOKS like a tub overflow, drain, and trap. Just not even ever humanly possible to make something cheaper. I assume the laborers who manufactured it were being extremely efficiently whipped, working 14 hour shifts and living on rice, dirt floor, etc, it's that scroogely.
