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After opening the wall and downstairs ceiling in six places trying to identify where the smell was coming from, I finally tracked it down. A dead critter in the toe kick base of the bathroom cabinet. I *think* it was a gopher, but hard to tell - it was kind of bloated after a week. There's no...

The problem has gotten worse. Now, the smell is continuous, regardless of the attic fan. And it's definitely specific to the sink area. If I close the door to the (separate) toilet/tub area, and open the window and turn on the fan in that room, the tub/toilet room stays fresh, while the sink...

Thanks for the suggestions. I - tested with the bathroom window closed tested with the door to the tub and toilet room closed and sealed with a towel (no smell in the tub/toilet room) removed the traps for both sinks and sealed the drain stub-out with a heavy plastic bag and rubberbands...

I'm suddenly smelling sewer gas in a bathroom when the attic fan is on, and I can't figure out the source (and yes, I flushed :p ). We use the attic fan daily, and the smell just started today. Turn the attic fan on, and you get the sewer gas within a minute or two. Turn the fan off, and once...

The surest test is a pressure gauge, comparing readings at one of the shower heads to a faucet upstream of the in-house plumbing (hose faucet near the main entrance?) If you noticed the issue immediately after the repipe, it's possible you introduced some crud into the system and have clogged...

One wall of my garage abuts a dead space under a stair landing and I want to make use of that space to install a utility sink (there's easy access to drain, vent and water in this dead space). I could open the wall and frame a niche for the sink -- but that would make the sink awkward to use...

New house, bare dirt back yard, and we have future plans for a BBQ and fire pit. I want to lay the PE gas line while I'm trenching for sprinklers (yes, I know the gas line gets buried deeper than the sprinklers :) ). I'll include a trace wire, and leave enough room at either end that the...

I have a shower drain in a new house that's consistently admitting sewer gas two days after its last use. We have 50% humidity, no heating or a/c running, and none of the other drains are doing this, including two guest baths that go weeks without having water run through them. The shower is...

If not used for a long enough period, the water in a trap will evaporate to the point that the water no longer seals the bend in the trap and sewer gases are admitted past the trap and out the fixture drain. A vacation home makes it more likely that the drains will have infrequent use, and...

I had a similar riser replaced, and they ended up taking out down to the ground. Every time they tried to cut it with a snap cutter, it broke in shards.

41 years and not a stain (my parent's house). Now if only my dad had done periodic maintenance on the valves :p Thanks for the advice. I was pondering changing the above-ground plumbing to PVC. But then I figured - "the first set of valves lasted almost 40 years - why mess with a good thing".

My pool is plumbed in 2" copper. After 40 years, all but one of the brass gate valves has stripped it's stem, and of course, the manufacturer has gone out of business and I can't find a match to swap parts with. I've got four valves side by side, feeding into a manifold, and I'd like to...

Thanks for your feedback, Kaitlyn. You're correct about it being a custom trim on a standard valve. (the shower mixer was a Champion, as I recall - I'm not sure what the Lav valves were). In your experience, is Andre hard to get in touch with? Back when we got these faucets, I sent multiple...

This was a project for family-friend of 40+ years - someone who'd been a second-mom to me -- profit wasn't a motive.

Yep - that's what I was picturing. Curious about the PEX-spout thing. What is it about the PEX that it restricts the spout flow enough to cause a backup out the shower head? Or is the real issue "don't use *undersized* PEX between the mixer and diverter"?

I've got a mixer and several volume controls to rough-in (multi-head shower), and was surprised to see that there are no mounting bosses on the valve bodies. I can't simply hang the valves off the piping, as my supply is PEX and I had the wall framed with an extra wide bay to accommodate valve...

your local big box store should have a 5" wide x about 1/8" thick roll of foam wrap. Half a dozen wraps around your pipe will provide the needed expansion room -- and unless you've got a really bad hydrostatic pressure issue, should provide sufficient seal on it's own

Standard tub - no motors/heaters/etc. (otherwise, I'd definitely provide a removable panel). So it sounds like while a removable front panel would be nice, access through the chase will be sufficient. Thanks for the input.

I'm building a cabinet front for a drop-in tub, and wondering if I should make it removable for the purpose of future plumbing access. The floor is slab-on-grade, and half the tub projects into an exterior bump-out, with interior walls bracketing the tub on boths sides where it projects into...

PEX is about as flexible as a stiff (non-rubber) garden hose. You can get the play you need by either offsetting the supply tap and baseboard connection about 1-1/2 to 2', or using 3-4' of pex to make a loop.