Administrative, Technology and Society

Home Ownership

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Doing some plumbing stuff, and the gate valve that controls water to the house won’t open. Handle turns nicely, though. Probably stripped threads or broken spindle. I’m cursing the plumber who installed it, as opposed to a ball lever.

And of course, we’re going out tonight to see Climate Hustle. So I guess no shower for her in the morning. I’ll have to fix it tomorrow.

[Wednesday-morning update]

For those curious, I did end up replacing the valve with a ball valve. The handle had sheared off, and I couldn’t even get it apart to see if there were replaceable parts. It turned out to be sort of a PITA, because I didn’t have a lot of length to work with on the pipe, due to it bending as it came out of the ground, but I managed to solder it in. It will be a huge improvement for future plumbing projects. Including the current one, in which I’m replacing a charcoal water filter with a four-stage reverse-osmosis system.

[Bumped]

16 thoughts on “Home Ownership”

    1. John,

      I agree. Nice effort.

      But Rand, we need to know more. For example, we can’t decide whether there was an anthropogenic change unless we know whether the gate valve (if it is a gate valve) was left partially open for an extended period of time.

  3. Looks like it only played in one theater in all of Canada. What a shame. Of course tonight is Purple Rain night, tribute to Prince.

  4. So I guess no shower for her in the morning.

    Why is there only one person skipping a shower?

    I went out and saw the movie. It cost $16, which is more than an IMAX 3D movie but the theatre it was in had lazyboys for everyone. It was a sold out show. Assigned seating and plenty of room for everyone. It looked like some people bought tickets but didn’t show up though. Decent age range was there but mostly old people.

    The content of the movie was OK but you get more in depth discussion in the comments here. Judith Curry was great and so were the other interviewees. It wasn’t too political until the panel discussion after the movie. A handful of people walked out when Palin started talking.

    It was a good effort but the main problem with the movie is that it had poor production values. I won’t go into that because it might spoil things but it felt like watching something on public access from the 1980’s. People on the right, who want to make documentaries, really need to step it up on the quality of the production.

      1. So tell me, how to you replace this valve? Does the Water Department person have to come out and shut off your water at the street? Many of us may need to know this — thanks.

        2. In theory, I just turn the water off on the street. In practice, after spending $14 on a wrench at Home Depot, and soaking it in WD-40, it won’t budge. So I’m about to call the water department.

          1. Next time, penetrating oil.

            WD-40 is a water dispersant; it’s neither really a penetrant nor a lubricant (as a side effect of its carrier solvent it’s okay for getting sticky residue off of things, though naptha is superior).

          3. Try “PB Blaster” or some other bolt-specific product? WD-40 is a generic light-distillate not specifically formulated for this?

            Get a “breaker bar” wrench extension (an iron pipe around the handle of a pipe wrench can work).

            I know that too much torque can bust things, and after applying my full geek-weakling strength to a wrench extension to loosen an automobile brake-caliper bolt, I realized that I was tightening it as I had lost my right-hand-rule situational awareness in changing sides of the car with respect to a bolt head that I accessed “back handed.”

            But sometimes tightening can loosen the crud on the threads to allow you to get the nut off. I learned that by a Google search — after the fact . . .

  7. I’ve been rebuilding my house as well. The ball valve is far more reliable than the gate valve. However, when the ball valve is turned off, it has a small slug of water trapped in the ball. That means if the pipe gets too cold and that slug of water freezes, it will blow out the sides of the valve casing. So it shouldn’t matter if you are using it as a house shut off, not much chance of you shutting off the house on a cold night. But it might not be the best choice if you expect it to freeze while off. The only other recommendation I have is to use PEX for all indoor plumbing.
    I love that stuff.

    1. It never freezes at the beach in southern California. Or if it does, climate change is a lot worse than anyone is predicting. If I ever have to repipe, I’ll use PEX. My current fear is that what happened to the front house will happen to ours (same design): corroded supply lines to the downstairs bath in the slab. If that happens, then I’ll have to repipe through the walls.

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