Looking for suggestions on where/how to begin inspecting a partial plumbing system. Here's the story...
My father had always dreamed of building his own house from scratch. After he retired, he started to build it, but passed away before completing it. So, my brother and I are now the owners of a roughly 70% completed house. The house is not in a condition that we can rent it out, and my brother won't sell it unless he can get 'full value' for it ("but it's new-built house", yes dear brother, but it's an "incomplete new-built house"). To make matters worse, the house is Iowa, I live in Texas. My brother lives in the same city as the house, but has no desire to work on it (for emotional reasons; he and my father were very close and being at my dad's house dredges up lots of heartache for him). I'm only in the area a week or two a year, but want to work on the house to try to get it up to minimum standards to rent it out so we're getting a little income from it rather than just paying taxes on a building that's going to sit there until it falls down. There's a lot of work that needs to be done (honestly more than I can do in a week or two each year), but I'm hoping to recruit some of my brother's friends to help out.
The drywall is up, but not painted; flooring done, but no carpet yet; outside siding is up on 3 sides of the house (4th side is built up against a pre-existing building that needs to be torn down, but my father was using it as a storeroom for materials; so while "un-sided", it is at least protected from the elements); stove hood vent laying on the floor of the kitchen; etc. I know how to do most of this work, but I don't know much about plumbing (I've replaced toilets and the occasional burst water pipe, but that's about the end of my plumbing expertise).
The plumbing in the house is partially complete. In the bathroom, the toilet, sink, and bathtub are all installed and connected. You can use the toilet, but you have to pour water in from a nearby bucket for it to flush. So the outgoing sewer line is complete (honestly, I took my brother's word for this; I haven't "tested" it myself). There is no incoming water. We don't know if this is because it was never completed, or if it was simply never turned on by the city.
Where would I begin inspecting the plumbing system to determine what work I need to do to get it up and running? (I'm fairly certain the answer to this question is to hire a plumber or a building inspector to come look at it, but I'm hoping to get some suggestions on what I can try myself without having to pay someone else to do.)
My father had always dreamed of building his own house from scratch. After he retired, he started to build it, but passed away before completing it. So, my brother and I are now the owners of a roughly 70% completed house. The house is not in a condition that we can rent it out, and my brother won't sell it unless he can get 'full value' for it ("but it's new-built house", yes dear brother, but it's an "incomplete new-built house"). To make matters worse, the house is Iowa, I live in Texas. My brother lives in the same city as the house, but has no desire to work on it (for emotional reasons; he and my father were very close and being at my dad's house dredges up lots of heartache for him). I'm only in the area a week or two a year, but want to work on the house to try to get it up to minimum standards to rent it out so we're getting a little income from it rather than just paying taxes on a building that's going to sit there until it falls down. There's a lot of work that needs to be done (honestly more than I can do in a week or two each year), but I'm hoping to recruit some of my brother's friends to help out.
The drywall is up, but not painted; flooring done, but no carpet yet; outside siding is up on 3 sides of the house (4th side is built up against a pre-existing building that needs to be torn down, but my father was using it as a storeroom for materials; so while "un-sided", it is at least protected from the elements); stove hood vent laying on the floor of the kitchen; etc. I know how to do most of this work, but I don't know much about plumbing (I've replaced toilets and the occasional burst water pipe, but that's about the end of my plumbing expertise).
The plumbing in the house is partially complete. In the bathroom, the toilet, sink, and bathtub are all installed and connected. You can use the toilet, but you have to pour water in from a nearby bucket for it to flush. So the outgoing sewer line is complete (honestly, I took my brother's word for this; I haven't "tested" it myself). There is no incoming water. We don't know if this is because it was never completed, or if it was simply never turned on by the city.
Where would I begin inspecting the plumbing system to determine what work I need to do to get it up and running? (I'm fairly certain the answer to this question is to hire a plumber or a building inspector to come look at it, but I'm hoping to get some suggestions on what I can try myself without having to pay someone else to do.)