Friday, September 20, 2013

Gas, heat, electricity, water ...

There's always something.

The weather is turning.  Unusually early for us, but with the extra-long summer we had last year, I suppose I can't really complain.  Anyhow, it's time to think about the furnace again.

Last year, Son was given a furnace that was coming out of a house being renovated.  Should be a good furnace.  Last furnace barely made it past March this year.  Running it again is not possible.  So, while I have meant all summer to get on it, there is no more room for procrastination.

Or is there?

Hubby and I get down to the cellar to move the 'new' furnace into it's 'new' position, and discover a small stream of water dripping from the ceiling, right next to the stack.  Aha!  Likely it's the stack!

Checking upstairs, this is what we find - The stack itself is leaking between the attic toilet and the upstairs toilette.  The stack, you understand.  Stacks almost never leak, because there isn't any water pressure behind them..

For the moment, we wrapped a towel around it and continued with the furnace, even though the ceiling of the cellar is very soaked, because ... well, because there is no water pressure behind a stack, therefore it can't be leaking all the time.  In fact it can't be leaking if there is no one in the attic using water.

And there isn't.  So where is it coming from?

I still have no answer to that.  We turned off the water to the attic.  It continued to leak.  In fact it kept getting worse, soaking up a towel every hour or two.  The only possible reason is if the toilet isn't seated right, but I don't really see how that can be the answer, with the water turned off.  I finally turned off all water to the upstairs, except the hot water to the shower, which has a direct lead.  And the leak finally stopped.

Next issue - how to fix it.  Now a stack is a straight pipe made of unbending material.  How do you take out a section, fix it, and put it back?  You don't.  Well, the actual solution is to get a rubber piece to insert into it and clamp tightly around the two ends.  It's a poor solution, and one which was already used lower down.  It tends to collapse a bit, leaving the inner hole too small and (yuk) toilet paper catches on the sides and clogs up.

(No matter how you look at it, it's going to be a dirty job.)

I think what we're going to have to do *sigh* is unseat the attic toilet, pull up the stack, repair the leaking section, and seat the toilet back down.

Time, money, and no upstairs toilet until done.