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At my current house I have one expansion tank on my water heater, and another on the boiler system piping for my radiant heat. I'd like to replace them when they get "old," but I don't know how to read the date codes on the tanks. I've Googled this subject with no luck, so I thought I'd try...

The gas-fired water heater for my home needs to be replaced. It has started a small, oozing drip from the bottom in a location where it can't do any damage at that low rate (concrete floor in basement). For reasons too complicated to explain, I can't get a new one installed for a couple of...

My neighbor asked me to help him because he was getting water damage to the ceiling beneath an upstairs bathroom. I cut out some sheetrock and could see a couple of ounces of water run down the outside of the toilet drain when the toilet was flushed. I pulled the toilet and found that the ABS...

I'm considering switching to a tankless gas-fired water heater when my conventional gas-fired water heater starts to die. The tankless models I've been looking at require about 155K Btu/hr, compared to 75K Btu/hr for the water heater I have now, and there is another load of 95K Btu/hr in the...

I have a newer (10+ year old) house that is well-insulated. The heating system is radiant in slab floors. My existing gas-fired boiler uses about 95k Btu/hr, and it seems well-sized. Regular hot water for the house is supplied by a standard gas-fired water heater. I'm considering replacing...

I'm doing a master bath remodel in a 14-year old house and decided to replace the cartridges in the two faucet valves and the two shower valves. From the looks of some of the ones I pulled, it was probably a good idea. They look like this (new replacement on the right, old cartridge on the...

I have a wall-mounted vanity faucet (Newport Brass) with lever handles in a powder room. It looks like this: The normal closed position is with the handles horizontal. When you want water, you rotate them downward. I recently had to turn off the water at the meter to change out a valve...

I'm in a 14-year-old house that's undergoing a master bath facelift, which includes replacing the tile on the floor and walls. Both vanity fixtures, and the two shower faucets are original and all match. We can't determine what brand they are (see my other post asking for an ID), but the...

I am updating the bathroom in my 14 year old house and will be changing to a freestanding tub. I would like the tub hardware to match the existing vanity faucets. I can't find a brand logo anywhere. Can anyone tell me the brand of faucet in the photo below? Thanks.

I'm a pretty experienced DIY plumber. Six months ago I installed 1/2" copper piping for a new powder room, with a pair of standard shutoff valves under the sink. After a couple of weeks I noticed a very slow leak from the compression fitting nut on one of the valves, so I cranked it down...

I just got back from two weeks in Japan and it was an interesting trip. Just about everywhere we stayed -- even many public restrooms -- had fancy, heated toilet seats with washing nozzles and sometimes even white noise generators, apparently to mask bathroom sounds. I understand the...

For months my wife has been complaining that our dishwasher has been leaving specks on the dishes and I haven't been too concerned, but now I've got 2" of water that won't drain from the bottom. I've done the following: -removed the cover on the float...it's working fine -checked the air gap...

I'm helping a neighbor who has a plumbing leak in the ceiling beneath the bathroom, and I'm certain that it is due to water from the shower head that runs down the wall to the tub spout and then goes through the wall where the supply for the spout comes through the wall. The back of the tub...

I am finishing a new bathroom and have drain lines that were plumbed into the concrete slab years ago. The never-used toilet flange is in perfect shape and plumb, but was installed about 1-1/4" below the slab surface; now, with tile added, it's at 1-3/4" below. I was thinking of using a...

Below is a picture of the P trap I'm installing for my new shower. It's in a hole in my slab, and currently dry-fitted together. Before I glue up the ABS and re-concrete the slab I want to make sure the configuration is ok. The vent is in the upper left and comes up through the slab just...

I'm installing a sink above an open counter in a small guest bathroom, so the P trap will be exposed. Rather than go with a standard chrome P trap, I was considering a good quality bottle trap. I understand that the use of some bottle traps is not to code in some areas. I'm in King County...

I'm running a 2" vent for a new shower and sink. It's taken three 90 degree bends (all are more than 6" above the flood elevation of the sink) to get to where I need to go up through the roof. However, I encountered another obstruction and need to offset one more time. I can do this either...

I'm putting in a shower P trap that will be buried under a concrete slab. The lines and P trap are ABS, but the shower drain base I want to use is PVC. Based on advice from this forum, I'm avoiding using transition cement and will likely use a banded coupling to connect them. However, one...

I'm putting in a shower located on a slab. The slab was plumbed for this when the house was built, and I have a 12" X 18" hole in the slab which has a capped off ABS drain pipe to connect the P trap to (and a properly plumbed vent coming up through the slab right next to this drain pipe). My...

I'm hooking up a small tankless water heater to 3/4" copper supply lines and would like advice on the best choice for the flexible 18" connection hoses I'll need. It looks like the most common types are the corrugated copper hoses, the corrugated stainless steel hoses, and the PVC ones covered...