Ron from Guelph, Ontario writes: "My wife and I moved into a newly built home in June 2001. There is an orange plastic cap on top of our vent stack. The builder says that the plumber needed this cap on so he can pressure-check the system, but that it is to be removed following the test. He sa...
Neville from Ajax, Ontario writes: "I have an older home built in 1972. The bathtub faucets are on 6 inch centres. All the new fixtures I can find are on 8" centres. I want to install a single control valve in the tub and shower. Does this mean redoing all the plumbing inside the wall or do ...
First you have to have a toilet plunger. That is one that has a bulb shape, or a folded skirt inside a flat plunger. The round shape or skirt is needed to seal to the sides of the toilet bowl. A flat plunger just won't do the job.Then push down gently so as to not squirt everything all over th...
Tom from Toronto, Ontario wants to know how to go about putting a vent pipe into the drain of a kitchen island sink.Good question Tom, because you don't have a wall which will simply allow you to go from the drain pipe uphill to the vent stack as we usually do. The first drawing shows a simple me...
One woman in Toronto removed an old hot water radiator that was under a counter and can't find anything small enough to take it's place.We went digging and came up with two that would fit. Myson is a company from Colchester, Vermont that makes hot water d?cor radiators from 6 inches to 79 inches...
Viewers have asked me to list the pros and cons of acrylic and metal bathtubs, so here goes.The big old cast iron tubs are probably the most durable tubs you can buy. However, if you don't want it as a stand alone tub, that rolled rim on the top makes it very difficult to frame into a bathroom a...
Judy from Stoney Creek, Ontario is baffled by the fact that her cold water is hot, at least for the first few seconds of running.Faucets that combine the hot and cold water to come out of a single spout are of two basic varieties: two completely separate valves each feeding the spout, or a combin...
Todd from Calgary wanted to convert his portable dishwasher into a built in one but couldn't find the parts. In fact most of the manufacturers do make special kits to accomplish just this, so contact your manufacturer.Basically you need to put a Y joint in the drain just below the sink and b...
The critical steps to a soldered plumbing joint that will not leak are:Scrape the two surfaces clean with steel wool or a soldering brush;Liberally apply flux to prevent oxidation of the surfaces to be soldered and choose your flux to match your solder, i.e. lead free;Heat the joint on one side ...
Seigfried from Richmond Hill, Ontario hears some very strange creaking whenever he pulls the plug and lets hot water down his drainpipe. He sent us an audio recording of the noise which did help me to identify what was going on.Expansion and contraction of plumbing pipes, because of a sudden cha...
