Recent content by Schustermarie54

You’re talking about a fairly rickety old drain system so the answer isn’t easy. If the original problem was a non-draining drain line the plumbing contractor may be at fault. Maybe I’m wrong, but the only way I can think of to find a stoppage in a buried line is to run a snake in thru the...

I've seen commercial floor drains built to code. What they look like is a large square hole in the garage floor with a grate over the top of it. A stand pipe comes up in the middle of the hole, flips around forming a trap and then comes straight up to within a few inches of the grate. This forms...

In my opinions, forget the M. It is just too thin walled. Also in my opinion copper is for homes of the past and there is no good reason to use it in new homes. Look at the posts here for frozen, burst, leaking, pin-holed pipes and the trouble most Diy'ers have repairing it. PEXa or CPVC...

This gets way nerdy on the pump/plumbing of the Reservoir System. Beware. If you are super nerdy, this is where you can jump in and start making this system better!! Your reservoir system is a liquid circuit controlled by a pump on a timer. The pump needs to only pump water, not air. Running a...

Maybe someone dropped a huge bomb with a bird sitting on the edge of the pipe and passed out from the fumes. All joking aside though i would imagine one sniff of the top of the vent gives a pretty good idea if its working or not. I always try to find something else to do when it comes time to...

You could try a local plumbing supply house. Ours carries a few different brass bypass valves for softeners. Or......just plumb a bypass in yourself. There is a distince advantage to this if/when you eventually want to install a different softener. There will be no sizing compatibility issues...

I once had the same problem. I put a piece of PCV (it was either 3/4 or 1 inch...don't remember) into the drain hose and used a pipe clamp to hold it. That constricted the drain size and reduced the volume. It did help. OF course I'm not sure if that is good for the pump or not. Some of you may...

I assume you have checked to see that the air gap is plumbed the right way? It's hard to get it reversed but I've seen it done through creative plumbing. Try pulling the hose off the disposal and running a drain cycle into a 5 gal bucket. If it still spills out of the air gap, you'll have to...