There was an update on this today. I had forgotten all about this. Today the homeowner dropped off a note saying:
Hi microbet!
The job is all finished. City signed off. There is zero liability, since it was owner/builder your name was NOT mentioned. I hope I can call you again for electrical/solar!
Thanks microbet!
Along with a check for $200.
Oh man, I’ve watched many of this guy’s videos. I think mainly ones for making table saw jigs.
I took the guard off my angle grinder because it was on the wrong side for something I wanted to do. It sketched me out so I put the guard back on and ended up hanging upside down to make the cut. Felt safer.
He did say that you should be fairly careful.
Based on the grinder video, my observation that this dude doesn’t appear to have any dust collection in his shop, and that his current featured video is about how to apply Danish oil to green wood… you should stop watching his videos. My clown meter is pegged.
I was going to post about a leak in the air conditioning drain line, because I notice a little pool of water and the soffit containing the ductwork was where the water was coming from. I took a shower today, and the leak is not from the A/C. It is from like a foot-long split along the top of an iron drain pipe. I called the plumber to have them take a look after the weekend. There’s a lot of wires and other pipes, not to mention a joist in the way.
How much more will I need to open up in order for them to replace the pipe? I assume they will use PVC, so if the iron can be cut in this area that we’ve* already opened up, and then on the other side of the wall (maybe 4-5 feet, and possibly a turn or two). There are large (15" or so) insulated flexible ducts that take up most of the large gap on the other side of the wall. One is likely terminated at a register at the bottom of the photo, and the other goes somewhere else. The wall itself is an old stone foundation with the soffit on top of a storage cabinet on the front side.
Can’t wait to sell this house, if I can just get it to a point where everything works long enough to put it on the market. I already have a list of major projects, so this one is minor in the grand scheme but still a PITA.
I’m not zikzak or rivaldo or anyone who really knows here, so this is just taking a shot for fun, but it seems like a section of that pipe can be replaced without cutting those “joists” and I put “joists” in quotes because it seems like so much has been cut away to let that pipe through that they aren’t really much good as joists anyway.
Yeah, not surprisingly, the floor above this area was sagging, so we put in a post and a new support beam parallel to the “joists”, and looks like added/replaced at least one. I’m pretty sure this massive crack has been there forever, and we’re only noticing it because of a drain blockage closer to the sewer. It goes from close to the joint in the iron pipe to somewhere above or past the older joist, so they will have to cut on the other side of that. I guess if they need to go past that, we’ll* have to take out the soffit as well.
*I hurt my back, so my wife ripped out the ceiling after a fight.
A fight where she made you stop or where you made her rip out the ceiling?
I really can’t tell, there’s a lot going on in that pic. Generally the plumber is going to want enough room to slide in full length sections of pipe, which clearly isn’t going to happen as-is.
I’m guessing the framing is holding up the soffit only? microbet’s right, they aren’t holding up any significant load. I want to say just remove the entire soffit since it’s probably less work in the long run, but there’s also a crapload of new romex, coax and cat-5 stapled to it. Oh, and some MC too. Quite the variety pack in that little space.
I’d probably still remove the entire soffit, unless it’s huge. If you leave it up to the plumber they’re going to hack the shit out of everything and leave you such a mess that you end up replacing it all anyway.
I know what the bucket is for. Use two plastic bags. Better safe than sorry.
I made her rip out the ceiling. She was like call the plumber, and then I made a generalization about her attitude towards me. Not good, but she got 'er dun.
Are you putting in another tub?
Those are some wide floor planks. You people in other parts of the country do weird stuff.
Probably a pre-plywood house. I know you west coasters are baffled by anything more than 50 years old.
The soffit is actually below that framing, but is probably supported by it, yes. I guess it was originally for the radiant heating pipes, and now it’s holding the strapping for the ceiling. I looked more closely, and there are 2x10’s or maybe 2x12’s running perpendicular and above to the things I called joists. So they are supporting the floor above. Here’s another picture showing the position of the HVAC.
So you think the plumbers would try to put a new iron pipe in, or that they would want a 4-foot section of PVC? The plumber who did the work when we were adding the HVAC replaced large sections of iron with PVC, even in accessible areas.
MC = metal conduit? There’s also a nice bundle of ancient low-voltage wiring, which is a lot of fun.
The house I live in is 70 years old. 
Subfloor boards are 2x6 or 2x8 here. I think. What are those 2x12?
yeah, generally when replacing old, expired cast-iron drain lines, they modernize with a preferred, lighter-weight PVC or ABS
MC = metal clad I think, but it just looks like flex to me. Metal flex.
the proximity to the drain line, of what appears to be a 3/4" diameter copper water line, is going to be a challenge. that wiring, too, that runs alongside it.
I might legit turn off the water and drain it down via a lower-elevation fixture(if that’s an option), so any nick to that copper pipe doesn’t confront you needlessly during the demo of that drain line, then reconfigure as necessary afterwards if you in fact nick it. Or just get it out of the way entirely, then reassemble after the drain is repaired.
