This post won’t be very long, but I wanted to share a few photos representing another bit of progress from this past week before I head down to the Ace Hardware store to pick up a few more pieces of sheet rock.

Here’s the first picture:

Followed by this one:

And finally, there’s this shot:

Sharp-eyed readers might notice that these are three shots of the same pressure gauge all showing 40 psi and they would likely wonder why I’d bother posting the same picture three different times.  Sharper-eyed readers might notice some slight differences in the shots, and my answer to that is; they were taken over a span of two full days.  The significance, of course, is that our replacement pipes and fittings are holding pressure and there are no leaks.  Obviously, if it holds air, it will hold water, so we’ve taken another giant leap forward!

I finished running all of the red (for hot water) and blue (for cold water) Pex the other day and went through the house to ensure that all of the kitchen, bathroom, and laundry room fixtures were turned off, and fired up the air compressor to charge the system.  At first, I could barely get the needle to move at all and it wouldn’t hold any pressure.  I began getting discouraged, fearing that we still had some major problems, but I decided to call it a day and try again the following morning.  I actually woke up that night with a flash of realization:  the plumber that installed the hot water heater also ran a small, copper line to the humidifier attached to the furnace.  Just as I suspected, that tiny, 1/4 inch line was open, and once I closed it, I saw a vast improvement on the gauge.  It would take pressure, but wouldn’t hold for long, so I shut the compressor off to listen, and clearly heard hissing air.  I had overlooked one crimp clamp on a ‘T’-fitting, and once I tightened it, the hissing stopped; just like magic!

I filled it to 40 psi and took the first photo.  The next morning, I took the second photo, and yesterday, I took the third.  My Google searches all said that if the pressure holds for 15 minutes, it’s good, but obviously, it wasn’t good enough for me (a tiny bit of OCD, perhaps?)…..  though 48 hours was.  I’m convinced now, and pleased with the results, especially considering I’d never done anything like this before.  It was fairly simple, didn’t require any soldering or glue, and was cheaper than the alternatives and far less expensive than hiring a plumber.  In fact, I’d estimate that we saved somewhere in the neighborhood of $5,000 doing this ourselves.

The next step is putting up sheet rock in the basement ‘closet’ where the main water supply line comes in from the well and where the new pressure tank will be installed.  Once all that is taken care of, we’ll be able to replace the air with water and we all know what that means…….  flush toilets coming soon!!!

Ace Hardware needs some more of our money, so I’m going to wrap this up and head down the hill.  We’re going to take a couple of days off this week and head down to Colorado Springs for the holiday.  Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!