Mueller Time: Underground Work

While waiting for engineer drawing and permits, we started with a little plumbing work on part of the house.

When we bought the house, we found that the pipes to the kitchen and hall bathroom were original...

Meaning installed in 1960.

They were 57 years old!

We had a test done and they still worked but when the inspector put the camera down the pipes, they were very corroded. They were cast iron pipes and are only expected to have a 50 year life expectancy. Everything put in now is this new fancy PVC pipe that doesn't corrode!

So decision time...

Do we replace the pipes now, while we're not in the house?

-or-

Do we wait until we're in the house and hope they don't leak?

Because they were at the end of their life expectancy and knowing they have the possibility leaking and causing further damage and inconvenience, we opted to replace them.

The other reason is that our family (ok, just Teagan and Brian) can clog toilets every day, so the idea of old pipes corroding and easily clogging didn't make for a pretty mental picture.

So to replace them, we would have to get to them, under our concrete patio in the backyard and under the house to where they connect to the bathroom.

Here are some of the guys starting to dig one of the many holes.

The same hole, after a few more hours.

This is some of the old corroded cast iron pipe they pulled out.

(Notice the new fancy access pipe on the upper left!)

Continuing from that access pipe and going under the foundation of the house, you can see that we now have all new PVC under the bathroom!

Now after the cast iron pipe came out from under the house, it was connected to concrete pipe that basically had some signs of beginning to crack.

The guys posed while we were taking pictures.

Now back to work! Keep digging!

Here's the trench all dug up. Below is the same trench but with shiny new PVC pipe laid in the base.

So now the bathroom is all set but we still wanted to replace the kitchen pipes.

The could have gone under the foundation for this as well but they had a much less expensive solution of rerouting the drain to the outside of the house.

Here is the new pipe coming out of the side of the house right where the kitchen sink is located.

Here's the new trench and new pipe extending down the side of the house to meet the previously laid bathroom drain pipe.

To get under the concrete, they could have made a long line, but instead just made holes every few feet. The holes in the concrete are under those boards. The board are so we wouldn't fall in.

The girls thought they were cool and liked to run over them.

So now we have new PVC drain pipes!