…and in its way it was more trouble than the bulkhead on the ‘up’ line. This one was full of calcium carbonate from the time we had a calcium or alkalinity test go bad (can’t remember which, but either will do it)—so we over-added, in our first year in this house, and it calcified the hoses.
Our big plan to replace the spaflex we use for a drain hose came a cropper when Lowes sold us 30.00 worth of hose that even THEY don’t have a coupling to fit. Crap does not begin to describe our language as we tried to find, cobble, or coerce that hose into service. We are taking it back and describing it to them in loving detail.
We used white vinegar to clear calcium carbonate out of the one pipe we couldn’t replace—If you don’t know that trick, take any white ‘lime’ encrusted piece of pipe or glass or fixture and put it in white vinegar for a few hours—overnight if it’s bad, but remember a fish tank can’t be shut down indefinitely.
We got the main drain hose pretty clear, then mated it to the spa-flex: the answer turned out to be using the old spa-flex, and using a ‘quick-connect’ joint from Ace; then a piece of PVC where it passes through the floor, then another quick-connect joint to attach it to the drain hose. This piece of pipe goes through the floor, connects to the spaflex, which runs over to the unfinished side of the basement and into the sump…
where the return pump cycles it back up (after cleaning in moss and by skimmer action (a piece of equipment that makes water froth, collects the froth—like that stuff on the beach, it’s amino acids from fish poo) and disposes of it, thus purifying the water—and up it goes, to cycle round again. Corals (of which I have grown a tankful) are living filters, so they nosh down on the fish poo first, plus making part of their living (and color) due to embedded algaes which live on sunlight and produce sugars as a waste product. It’s a nice little system when it functions well.
It took us hours of trying to connect those pipes in the ceiling. IF we had had more useable spa-flex, we could have just connected it all directly through the floor up to the drain hose; but no: we had to use the OLD spa-flex, which was a little short, which cost us 10.00 worth of connectors. Then the plumbers glue overset onto the carpet. Fortunately that’s behind the tank, and we choose not to notice that happened. I put Polyfilter into the water to get any chemical that might land on the water surface from the fumes. That was minor, compared to what we’ve been through with the tank plumbing, and I hate the carpet that came with this house anyway. [I want bare floors, but the carpet’s too good to take up.]
I hate it when they change a product very subtly, like that hose. But Lowes, to sell a plumbing hose even THEY don’t have a connector that fits? Gimme a break!
Heating the vinegar speeds up the process. A bit smelly, but it can go outside or in the garage. We use it on the electric tea kettle; the elements get pretty crusty.
To de-scale the kettle I use citric acid, works as well as vinegar and don’t smell so badly 😉 last time I used the vinegar I had rinse the kettle about million times… 🙂
“We used white vinegar to clear calcium carbonate out of the one pipe we couldn’t replace…” Sounds like you may have a longish pipe/tube, but I’ve found the straight bottom secions of wire coathangers (remember them?) very useful for pushing up into tubing to break solids loose. If not that, then a length of 10-12ga electrical wiring that can sometings be scavenged free at home construction sites. The copper that size is both soft enough to bend, and strong enough to ‘push’. (Additionally, one good hit with a hammer can flatten the end a bit so it can act as a reamer.
“Then the plumbers glue overset onto the carpet. Fortunately that’s behind the tank, and we choose not to notice that happened.” Is this a woman who lives with cats? 😉 😉
“I hate it when they change a product very subtly” or it disappears altogether! I’m into buying uneeded extras when there’s something I really like/need and I fear it may disappear.
Tell you another thing that works as a great make-do plumbing ‘snake’…a length of that knobbly hose that is often used for aquariums. A half inch knobby hose shoved down a wider pipe can really knock things loose.
On this one we took the thing loose, about a yard of it, bent it into a U and poured straight vinegar in one end. What bubbled out looked apt for Halloween.
CJ opines: “…I hate the carpet that came with this house anyway. [I want bare floors, but the carpet’s too good to take up.]”
Carolyn, this brought back a memory I had nearly forgotten: when you moved into your current home, you expressed repeatedly in no uncertain terms your intense dislike of the carpeting — but Jane pointedly countered the carpet was only a year old; far too nice to take out, and that she didn’t want to hear you complain about it any more.
You finally backed down: “OK. OK. I’ll say not another word about it. From now on the only thing you’ll hear from me will be the soft sound of ripping!”
If I didn’t know the amount of sawdust that could ensue from having to refinish wood flooring,—oh, I am sooooooooooo curious to know what’s under that carpet.
My brother bought a house built in the 1940s. First thing they did before they moved in was see what was under the wall to wall carpeting — and found beautiful wood floors beneath every room. They promptly had it all ripped out. My mom couldn’t understand why they wanted to take out all that nice carpeting nd have bare wood floors and take down all those beautiful upholstered cornice boards and all those custom drapes. — What she didn’t understand (and still doesn’t) is that a house with blinds instead of curtains and wood floors instead of carpeting is much easier to keep allergen free — my brother and I both have terrible allergies. If wishes were horses, I’d win the biggest lottery jackpot ever, and be able to build my dream house — with wood floors everywhere except the kitchen, which would have tile floors. But then, if wishes were horses, we’d be knee deep in it, wouldn’t we?
We know that the design specs called for red oak flooring. THe guy who lives one house down from our coach Joan had the plans for our house, and walked down one day to hand them to us: seems he had close ties to the builders and some of the original occupants, so we have the actual blueprints—and I’d so love to restore the original flooring, if it’s what I think it is.
that WOULD be beautiful … but what a job. I bought a 1905 built flat in Newcastle upon tyne when I was 39 – my first property – and as I was renting before that I had the chance to spend a week sanding and varnishing all the floors – they were just pine, but they looked pretty. imagine my horror when the removal men gouged great scrapes across the living room floor! that floor got done over with wire-wool and more varnish after we took the ceiling down and had the whole room re-plastered … I am being cowardly about my bedroom here with the sloping (late 1600’s oak beams a bit warped)chipboard floor (2 layers of wood-wormed to death floorboards under the chipboard) – I had it carpeted, and the stairs too 😀 …
OMG about the floor. And I know about chipboard flooring and an unstable floor, though of not so impressive and wonderful an age: when we lived in OKC, we had a house that had a very ‘loose’ second floor, plyboard that wasn’t tied to the beams. It quaked. And being a fool, that was where I put my library—which actually helped stabilize the thing, which I never had the funds to fix, considering the other repairs. Such a house that was—got it ‘distressed’ and leaking, and when we ran the sweeper on the green shag upstairs we picked up a .22 cal rimfire cartridge in the vacuum. It had bent in the force of the roller. I got a metal detector and found the rest of the box. And the carpet? Once we had it cleaned it was actually gold shag.
As messy as those big sanders are, putting fine dust everywhere, you’d think they’d invent one with a vacuum attachment. If you did take the carpeting up to refinish the floors, you’d have to do it a room at a time. I know for a fact this house is built on a cement slab, and that that’s what’s under the carpet. I had a plumbing disaster that ruined my bedroom carpet, which had to be taken up and replaced. Since I rent, I had a naked concrete floor in my bedroom for over a month while we were waiting for the plumber’s insurance to pay up. I had to tape a piece of cloth over the cat flap in my bedroom door. I slept in a sleeping bag on an air mattress on my office floor. I used to work 3rd shift — from 9 pm to 5 am, and sleep during the day, so I couldn’t leave the bedroom door open as the traffic noise and light would have made it difficult to sleep. But the kittehs like to sleep on the bed with me. Hence the cat flap in the bedroom door.
You’re right on the sander. I learned to run one when I was about 13—I was a big kid, and I could handle it, certainly better than me mum. It’s as much like a determined waltzing partner as a piece of machinery, and learning how to ‘lead’ is a hoot. But room at a time, and a thorough hose-down with a tack cloth is the only answer, for sure. That thing will take the legs off bystanding furniture.