_PLUMBING_
A generous supply of water for a house brings with it desires for the
conveniences necessary to its enjoyment. As soon as running water is
established in a house, the kitchen sink fails conspicuously to fulfill
all requirements, and a wash-tub seems a sorry substitute for a modern
bath-room. A single pipe supplying cold water only, no matter how pure
the water or how satisfactory in the summer, does not afford the
constant convenience which an unlimited supply of both cold and hot
water offers, and the introduction of running water is usually followed
by an addition to the kitchen stove whereby running hot water may be
obtained as well as running cold water. The next step is the equipment
of a bath-room, affording suitable bathing facilities and doing away
with the out-of-door privy.
_Installation of the plumbing._
These things are reckoned as luxuries, not among the necessities of
life, and it must be understood at the outset that such conveniences
cost money, both for original installation and for maintenance; the
water-back in the stove will become filled up with lime if the water is
hard, the boiler will become corroded and have to be replaced, the
plumbing fixtures will certainly get out of repair and need attention,
and there will be, year by year, a small but continuous outlay.
Again, it is idle to propose installing plumbing fixtures unless the
house is properly heated in winter time, and this calls for a furnace
for at least a portion of the house. Usually the kitchen is kept warm
enough through the winter nights, so that running water may be put in
the kitchen without danger from frost; although the writer knows of a
house where it is the task of the housewife each winter night to shut
off all water in the cellar and to clean out the trap in the sink drain
in order to prevent freezing in both the supply pipe and drainpipe.
Usually a water-pipe may be carried through the cellar without danger of
freezing, but in most farmhouses heated by stoves, except in the kitchen
and sitting room, water-pipes would, the first cold night, probably
freeze and burst.
Various makeshifts have been employed to secure the convenience of a
bath-room without adding to the expense by installing a furnace. In one
house the bath-room was placed in an alcove off from the kitchen, with
open space above the dividing partition, so that the kitchen heat kept
the bath-room warm. This is not an ideal location for a bath-room, but,
in this case, it avoided the necessity for an additional stove or
furnace. In another house the bath-room was placed above the kitchen,
with a large register in the floor of the former, so that the kitchen
heat kept the room warm; and in still another case the bath-room was
over the sitting room, and a large pipe carried the heat from the stove
below into the room above. The stovepipe also went through the bath-room
and helped to provide warmth. It is better, all things considered, to
defer the installation of a bath-room until a furnace can be provided,
since then there is no danger of frozen water-pipes at intermediate
points where the cold reaches the pipes. A full list of fixtures and
piping required is as follows:--
1st. A tank in the attic to store water in case the main pipe-flow or
pump-capacity is small. This tank, of course, is not needed if the
direct supply from the source is at all times adequate for the full
demand.
2d. A main supply pipe from the outside source or from the attic tank
connecting with and supplying the kitchen sink, the hot-water boiler
through the kitchen stove, the laundry tubs, the bath-tub, the
wash-basin, and the water-closet tank. It is wise, in order to save
expense, to have all these fixtures as close together as possible; as,
for instance, the laundry tub in the basement directly under the kitchen
sink and the bath-room fixtures directly over the kitchen sink.
3d. A hot-water pipe leading out of the hot-water boiler to the kitchen
sink, to the laundry tubs, and to the bath-tub. Although not essential,
it is desirable to carry the hot-water pipe back to the bottom of the
hot-water boiler, so that the circulation of hot water is maintained.
This will avoid the necessity of wasting water and waiting until the
water runs hot from the hot-water faucet whenever hot water is desired.
4th. The necessary fixtures, such as faucets, sinks, tubs, wash-basins,
kitchen boiler, water-back for the stove, water-closet, tank, and
fixtures. These may be now taken up in order and described more in
detail.
_Supply tank._
The attic tank may be of wood or iron, and its capacity should be equal
to the daily consumption of water. Its purpose, as already indicated, is
to equalize the varying rates of consumption from hour to hour and
between day and night. The minimum size of this tank would be such that
the flow during the night would just fill the tank with an amount of
water just sufficient for the day's needs. Of course, the additional
supply entering the tank during the day would reduce the size somewhat,
but the basis for computation given is not unreasonable.
Several accessories must be provided for such a tank. An overflow is
essential, and this is best accomplished by carrying a _pipe out through
a hole in the roof_. This must be ample in size, provided with a screen
at the inside end, and be examined frequently to make sure that the
overflow remains open. A light flap valve to keep out the cold in winter
is also a desirable feature for the overflow pipe. The tank must be
water-tight, and while it is possible to make a wooden tank water-tight,
it is wiser to line a wooden tank with lead or sheet iron. The latter
can be painted at intervals, so that it will not rust, and is safer than
wood alone to prevent leakage.
Care must be taken to give sufficient strength to the wooden tank; it
should never be made of less than two-inch stuff, and should not depend
upon nails or screws alone for holding the sides together. Figure 56
shows a suitable way to put together such a tank. Certain firms that
make windmills and agricultural implements generally can furnish
wrought-iron tanks, warranted to be water-tight, of suitable size to go
in an attic. Such a tank, as we have already said, should hold about
five hundred gallons and should therefore be a cube four feet on a side
or its equivalent. It needs to be very carefully placed in the house, or
else its weight will cause the attic floor to sag. A tank of the size
named will weigh a little more than two tons, and such a weight, unless
special precautions are taken, cannot be placed in the middle of an
attic floor without causing serious settlement, if not actual breaking
through, of the floor.
[Illustration: FIG. 56.--Construction of a wooden tank.]
A good way of placing such a tank is to nail the floor joists onto the
bottom of the rafters, so that a truss is formed, and the box or tank is
properly supported on the floor and also hung from the rafters by iron
straps bolted both to tank and rafters. If possible, this tank should be
placed directly over a partition carried through to the cellar, in which
case no settlement is possible.
_Main supply pipe._
The main supply pipe, except when pressure is very great, is most
satisfactory when made of three-quarter-inch galvanized iron pipe. Even
with a high pressure, half-inch pipe is unsatisfactory because of the
great velocity with which the water comes from the faucets and because
the high pressure causes the packing in the faucets to wear out rapidly.
This three-quarter-inch pipe should have a stop-and-waste, as it is
called, just inside the cellar wall, so that if the house is not
occupied at any time, the valve may be shut and the water in the pipes
drawn off, to prevent possible freezing. The pipe should never be
carried directly in front of a window or along the sill of the building
unless protected by some kind of wrapping. The laterals and the
different fixtures are taken off from this main supply pipe as it rises
through the house, and the pipe is capped at the top.
_Hot-water circulation._
To provide hot water, a branch must be taken off at the level of the
kitchen stove and run into the hot-water boiler at or near the bottom.
The circulation in the tank and through the house is then provided for
by a separate circuit running from the bottom of the hot-water tank to
the water-back and back into the tank at a point about halfway up. The
house circuit is then run from the top of the boiler around through the
house, and if a return pipe is provided, it comes back and enters at the
bottom. This hot-water pipe is also of galvanized iron and should be of
the same size as the main supply pipe (see Fig. 57).
[Illustration: FIG. 57.--Hot-water attachment to the kitchen stove.]
The fixtures may be as elaborate as the purse and taste will allow, but
some general instruction may not be out of place. There are many types
of faucets, all good, and differing from each other only in some minor
detail of construction. Experience with the so-called self-closing
faucets or bibbs has not been entirely satisfactory, since, with high
pressure, the packing very quickly wears out. Similarly, experience with
those faucets that open and shut by a single turn of a handle shows that
frequent renewals of packing are necessary. The simplest, most reliable,
and the easiest faucets to repair are those in which the valve is
screwed down onto the valve seat, which is a plane, and where the
water-tightness is made by the insertion of a rubber or leather washer
that can always be cut out with a knife from a piece of old belting or
harness. The faucets may be nickeled or left plain brass, and the
advantage of the added expense of nickel is in the appearance alone. If
the faucets themselves are nickel, then the piping also should be
nickel; that is, brass nickel-plated. Galvanized iron piping and brass
faucets do not, to be sure, have the same satisfactory appearance as
highly finished nickeled faucets, but the one is quite as serviceable as
the other.
_Kitchen sinks._
In providing a sink for the kitchen, choice lies between plain iron and
enameled iron. For special work, sinks have been made of galvanized
iron, of copper, slate, soapstone, and of real porcelain. There is
hardly any limit to the cost of a porcelain sink, and while an enameled
iron sink with fittings costs from $30 to $60, a cast-iron sink of the
same size will cost only $3 or $4. A good quality of white enameled iron
sink, of size suitable for a kitchen, with white enameled back and a
drainboard on the side, costing $30, is very attractive as an ornament,
but it serves no more useful purpose than a $3 sink and a fifty-cent
drainboard. Figure 58 shows an enameled iron sink, containing sink,
drainboard, and back all in one piece. This is pure white, and when
fitted with nickel faucets makes a very attractive fitting.
_Laundry tubs._
If running water is to be put in a house, stationary tubs for the
laundry, into which water runs by a faucet and which can be emptied by
pulling a plug, are certainly worth their cost over movable wooden tubs
in the labor saved. Stationary tubs may be made of wood, of enameled
iron, or of slate.
[Illustration: FIG. 58.--Enameled iron sink.]
Wooden tubs are not as desirable as the others because in the course of
time they absorb a certain amount of organic matter and have a
persistent odor. They are, however, very inexpensive, a man of ordinary
ability being able to build them himself at the cost of the wood only.
Enameled iron tubs of ordinary size cost, with the fixtures, from $20 to
$40 apiece, and a set of three slate tubs costs $25. To these figures
must be added the expense of the piping to bring both hot and cold water
to the tubs, together with the two faucets and the drainpipe
connections necessary. Figure 59 shows three white enameled iron laundry
tubs costing about $75 installed.
_Hot-water boiler._
The kitchen boiler is to-day almost always made of galvanized iron and
is placed on its own stand, usually back of the kitchen stove, although
it may stand in an adjoining room,--the bath-room, for instance,--and
aid in keeping that room warm. Such a tank costs about $12, to which
must be added the necessary piping, and it is always desirable to put a
stop-cock on the cold-water supply entering the tank. Then if the tank
bursts, the cold water may be shut off without doing harm.
[Illustration: FIG. 59.--Enameled laundry tubs.]
A drainpipe from the bottom of the tank is also desirable to draw off
the accumulations of sediment.
_Water-back, wash-basin, bath-tub._
The water-back is merely a hollow box made to fit the front of the fire
box in the stove, usually shaped so as to replace the front fire brick.
The cold water comes in at the bottom of the box, is heated by contact
with the fire, and the hot water goes out through the other pipe into
the boiler.
The wash-basin in the bath-room is either marble, enameled iron, or
porcelain. The marble basins with a slab can be had for about $7.50,
while the enameled iron basins cost from $6 to $40. To this must be
added the cost of faucets and piping, together with the drain and the
trap that belongs with the drain. The enameled iron basins which are
being used to-day more than ever before have proved very satisfactory,
have but little weight, can be fastened to the wall without difficulty,
and take up less room than the old marble basin. A fancy porcelain basin
costs about $75, and is no better for practical use than either of the
others.
Much the same kind of material may be used for bath-tubs, although
warning ought to be given to avoid the use of the old-fashioned
tin-lined bath-tub. This lining will easily rust or corrode, is very
difficult to keep clean, and while the first cost is less than the
enameled iron tub, it has no other advantage. An enameled iron tub five
and a half feet long will cost from $20 to $100 without fixtures.
_Cost of plumbing installation._
A fair estimate of the cost of the plumbing in a house, including all
the fixtures mentioned except the tank in the attic, including also the
plumber's bill, is $150. This requires very careful buying, and implies
an entire absence of brass or nickel-plated piping. If a high grade of
fixtures, including nickel fittings and nickel piping, wherever it
shows, is used, the cost of the fixtures alone, not including labor or
piping other than mentioned, will be from $150 up.
_House drainage._
The term "plumbing" is generally used to include both the water-supply
in the house, with all the fixtures pertaining thereto, and the carrying
of the waste water to a point outside the house; it remains, therefore,
to discuss the waste pipes connected with the plumbing fixtures.
[Illustration: FIG. 60.--Leveling the drain.]
The house-drain, or the pipe which carries the wastes from the house to
the point of final disposal, is generally made of vitrified tile, and in
ordinary practice is five inches inside diameter. The lower end of this
drain discharges into a cesspool, or settling tank, or into a stream, as
local conditions permit. This house-drain should be carefully laid in a
straight line, both horizontally and vertically, for two reasons. In the
first place, the velocity of flow in a straight pipe will be greater,
and therefore the danger of stoppage will be decreased, and in the next
place, if a stoppage does occur in the pipe, it can be cleaned out
better if the pipe is straight than if it is laid with numerous bends.
Such a pipe should have a grade of at least one quarter inch to a foot,
and this is conveniently given by tacking a little piece of wood one
half inch thick on one end of a two-foot carpenter's level and then
setting the pipe so that with this piece of wood resting on the pipe at
one end and the end of the level itself on the pipe at its other end,
the bubble will be in the middle. Figure 60 shows the carpenter's level
in position on a level board, which rests on the hubs of three pipes.
The joints of this pipe should be made with Portland cement mixed with
an equal part of sand, and the space at the joint completely filled.
When nearing the house, it is very desirable that a manhole should be
built so that if a stoppage occurs, it may be cleaned out without taking
up the pipe. In city houses a running trap is always inserted just
outside the house with a fresh-air inlet on the house side of the trap,
as shown in Fig. 61. But for a single house this is not necessary, and
it is wiser to omit the running trap.
The soil-pipe begins at the trap or at the cellar wall and runs up
through the roof of the house, so that any gas in the drain or soil-pipe
may escape at such a height as not to be objectionable. Through the
cellar wall and up through the house the soil-pipe should be of
cast-iron, which comes in six-foot lengths for this special purpose. Y's
are provided by which the fixtures are connected to the soil-pipe, and
the top of the pipe is covered with a zinc netting to keep out leaves
and birds. This soil-pipe weighs about ten pounds per foot and is almost
always four inches inside diameter. The length necessary is easily
computed, since it runs from the outside cellar wall to the point where
the vertical line of pipe rises and from that point in the cellar
extends to the roof. Such a pipe may be estimated at two cents a pound
with something additional for the Y's.
[Illustration: FIG. 61.--Water-supply installation.]
The soil-pipe must be well supported along the cellar wall on brackets
or hung from the floor joists by short pieces of chain or band iron.
Special care must be taken to support the pipe at the elbow, where it
turns upward, since a length of thirty feet of this pipe, weighing three
hundred pounds, has to be provided for. It is a good practice to build
a brick pier from the cellar bottom up to and around the elbow to
support it firmly in the masonry.
The joints in this drainpipe should be made with lead, ramming some
oakum into the joints first and then pouring in enough lead melted to
the right degree to provide an inch depth of joint. After the lead
cools, it must be expanded or calked by driving the calking tool hard
against it.
To prevent rain finding its way between the soil-pipe and the roof, a
piece of lead is generally wrapped around the soil-pipe for a distance
of twelve inches or so above the roof, and then a flat piece of lead
extending out under the shingles is slipped over and soldered fast to
the other lead piece.
The fixtures are connected to the iron pipe usually by lead pipe, the
lead pipe being first wiped onto a brass ferrule, the ferrule being
leaded into the Y branch. These Y branches are usually two inches in
diameter and the lead pipe usually one and one quarter inches. Between
the soil-pipe and the fixtures a trap must be provided with a water-seal
of about an inch.
_Trap-vents._
In city plumbing it is customary to vent traps; that is, to carry
another system of pipes from the top of the trap nearest the fixture up
to and through the roof. On most roofs, where modern plumbing has been
installed, are seen two pipes projecting, one the soil-pipe and the
other the vent-pipe, indicating the location of a bath-room below (see
Fig. 61). In a single house, however, and particularly in view of
experiments made recently on the subject of trap siphonage, these
trap-vents seem hardly necessary. They were formerly insisted upon
because of the feeling that by the passage of a large amount of water
down the soil-pipe, sufficient suction might be induced to draw out the
water from some small trap on the way, thereby opening a passage for
sewer gas into the room. Experiments have shown that it is practically
impossible to draw off the water from a trap in this way, and that the
system of vent-pipes does little more than add to the cost.
The traps themselves, however, are essential, and great care should be
taken to see that each trap is in place and has a seal of the depth
already mentioned. The best trap to use in any fixture is the simplest,
and a plain S trap answers every purpose. It is always wise to have a
clean-out at the bottom of the trap; that is, a small opening which can
be closed with a screw plug, so that when the trap becomes clogged, it
can be easily opened and cleaned (see Fig. 62).
[Illustration: FIG. 62.--A trap.]
_Water-closets._
A great many kinds of water-closets have been made and used, with
various degrees of success. The old-fashioned pan-closet becomes easily
clogged, allows matter to decompose in the receptacle under the valve,
and, in spite of its being cheaper, should not be used. The long-hopper
closet is also objectionable, for the same reason. A recent bulletin of
the Maine State Board of Health, which gives the relative merits of the
different forms now available, very directly and briefly, is here
repeated:--
"The choice of a water-closet should be made from those which have the
bowl and trap all in one piece, which are simple in construction, are
self-cleansing, and have a safe water-seal. None should be considered
except the short-hopper, the washout, the washdown, the syphonic, and
the syphon-jet closets.
"Short-hopper closets not many years ago were considered desirable, but
other styles costing but little more are better.
[Illustration: FIG. 63.--Washout water-closet.]
"The washout closet (Fig. 63) has too shallow a pool of water to receive
the soil, and the trap below and the portion above the trap do not
receive a sufficient scouring from the flush.
[Illustration: FIG. 64.--Washdown water-closet.]
"The washdown closet (Fig. 64) is an improvement over the washout.
Having a deep basin, a deep water-seal, smaller surfaces uncovered by
water, and a more efficient scouring action, it is more cleanly. The
washdown closet is really an improved short hopper.
[Illustration: FIG. 65.--Syphonic closet.]
"Of late years the principle of syphonic action has been applied to the
washdown closet. Figure 65 shows the outline of a syphonic closet. It
will be seen that the basin, as in the washdown closet, has considerable
depth and holds a considerable quantity of water; but it differs in
having a more contracted outlet. When the closet is flushed, the filling
of this outlet forms a syphon, and then the pressure of the air upon
the surface of the water in the basin drives the water into the
soil-pipe with much force. At the breaking of the syphon, enough water
is left in the trap to preserve the seal.
[Illustration: FIG. 66.--Syphon-jet closet.]
"In the syphon-jet closet (Fig. 66) there is added to the mechanism of
the syphon closet a jet of water which helps to drive the contents of
the bowl more rapidly into the outlet. These two closets, syphon and the
syphon-jet, are preferable to those of any other style. Among other
advantages they are more nearly noiseless than any other kinds.
"Recapitulating, it may be said, while the short-hopper and the washout
closets may not deserve absolute condemnation, the advantages of the
washdown, syphon, and the syphon-jet closets are so much greater that
they should be chosen in all new work."
Properly to flush out the closet, a water-pipe connection must be made
from the supply main. It would be quite possible to connect directly to
the closet rim where the flush enters, but there are two objections
urged against this. Sometimes, when the pressure is low and water is
being drawn in the kitchen, if a faucet in the bath-room is opened, not
only will no water come, but air is drawn into the pipe by the force of
the running water below. A direct connection with a water-closet, it is
conceivable, might allow filth to be drawn up into the water-pipe under
certain conditions. The other objection is that the small pipe generally
used in a house does not deliver water fast enough for effective
flushing.
It is common, therefore, to put in, just back of or above the closet, a
small copper-lined wooden tank which holds about three gallons and which
can be discharged rapidly through a one-and-a-quarter-inch pipe. This
tank with fittings costs about $10, and in a great many cases is
probably unnecessary. It has the advantage, however, of allowing a small
flow to enter the tank whenever emptied, to be automatically shut off by
a float valve when filled. If the house has a tank supply or if the
pressure is strong enough to insure a positive flow at all times, there
can be no objection in a single family, where the flushing action will
be insisted on by the mistress of the house in the interests of
cleanliness, to making a direct connection between the closet and the
house supply pipe. An automatic shut-off bibb would then be used on the
water-pipe, allowing the water to flow freely as long as the bibb was
opened, but closing automatically when released.