Plumbing and Wiring

Plumbing

One of the most important features of the modern house is the plumbing. Without

good up-to-date plumbing a house can never be satisfactory. The kitchen sink is

probably the first fixture in importance, followed closely by the bathroom and the

laundry.

Photo owned by Tom W. Sulcer

The floor plan should show the exact location of each plumbing fixture, and give

the size of the fixture where there is a choice of sizes. In laying out the piping of

the drainage system it is usually best to start at the place where the drain line

leaves the house and run a 4" soil pipe (in some localities a 3" soil pipe is

permitted) in a straight line to the water closet farthest from this point, then

continue on to an outside wall where you will place a 4" cleanout.

A 4" vent must be carried straight up through the roof from a point as near the

water closet as possible. The 11/2" vents from the other fixtures in this bathroom

will join the large vent at any point at least one foot above the water level in the

highest fixture in this bathroom. Often the vents are joined above the ceiling if it is

not convenient to do it at a lower level. Do not let too many vents go through the

roof, as it is expensive, invites leaks and is unsightly.

If there is another water closet in the house run a 4" pipe from it by the

shortest route to the 4" drain first laid out. Then run 2" soil pipe from all the

other fixtures to join these main lines. Place a cleanout where each line starts, so

that all lines can be cleaned if necessary.

Do not let galvanized pipe come within six inches of the ground, and use

"durum" or cast iron fittings to a point above the highest fixture.

Drainage pipes should go as directly as they can with as few turns as possible, and a

cleanout should be provided at all important changes of direction.

One vent in the building must be of the same size as the main house drain, but

the vent from the second water closet may be 2", while the vents from the sinks

and lavatories can be 11/2" or sometimes 11/4". Vents permit air to circulate in

the pipes, and make it so the traps are not siphoned out when the flow of water

in the pipes is heavy.

The expression "soil pipe" means cast iron pipes that are fitted together with lead

and oakum joints. The joints are made by fitting the end of one piece of pipe into

a bell on the end of the next piece and "caulking" the joint by packing "oakum," a

kind of tarred rope, into the joint, then pouring melted lead, hammering it down,

pouring in more lead, then taking a caulking tool, a kind of chisel, and packing the

lead tightly into the bell. Do not hammer too hard on the lead, as this may crack

the pipe.

Galvanized pipe is steel pipe that is coated with zinc. It must not be used within six

inches of the ground, when used as drainage pipe. Cast iron fittings must be

used on galvanized pipe to a point a foot above the highest fixture in the

plumbing system.

Galvanized pipe can be connected to cast iron soil pipe by inserting the end of the

galvanized pip into the bell of the soil pipe, and caulking the same as if soil pipe

were used.

The three common sizes of soil pipe used in houses are 4", 3" and 2". The 4" size

is used for water closet drains. In some places 3" is permitted for this purpose.

The 3" size can also be used where two or three 2" lines come together. The 2"

size is the smallest soil pipe used and is for sink, bathtub, lavatory, and floor drain

connections.

The galvanized pipe most used for drainage is the 11/2" size, which can be used

for sink and laundry drains. The 11/4" size can be used for lavatory drains. Where

two or more drains come together, the 2" size should be used. The 2" pipe can

be used to vent a second toilet, while the 11/2" size is correct to vent a sink,

bathtub, or laundry fixture. The 11/4" size can be used to vent a lavatory.

By means of what is called a tapped tee, the galvanized vent pipes can be screwed

directly into the soil pipe stacks or vents.

In placing drainage pipes, care should be taken to make sure that all parts of the

line slope in the right direction and have a fall of 1/4" to the foot. Too steep a

fall is not good; better keep the pipe to the standard slope and make it

perpendicular where more fall is needed to make the connections.

When the drainage system is complete, it is tested by plugging all the outlets,

filling the vent pipes to the top, and letting the water stay in the pipes all night.

If the pipe is still full in the morning, obviously you have a good tight job of pipe

fitting. Some shrinkage will result because of the contraction of the water due to

cooling during the night, but if the system is again filled in the morning, the

normal expansion from the heat of the day should keep the system full all day,

even if one or two minute leaks may exist.

The water is commonly distributed through the house in galvanized pipe. The 3/4"

size is used for the main lines, while the distribution lines to the individual fixtures

is usually 1/2" pipe. Care should be taken to use as small a pipe as will carry

sufficient water for the hot water lines, to avoid wasting too much water waiting

for the hot water to come from the tank to the faucet.

Copper tubing is coming into general use for water pipes, as it is less subject to

corrosion than the galvanized pipe and is said to last much longer.

Galvanized pipe is put together with screwed joints. The principal tools needed to

install it are two pipe wrenches, perhaps 14" and 18" sizes, 1/2" and 3/4"

threading tools, a pipe vise and a reamer to clean the inside of the pipe at the

ends where it has been cut. For small jobs the pipe can be cut with a hack saw, but

a pipe cutter should be purchased if the job is large. The screwed joints are made

watertight by applying an oily liquid called pipe joint compound.

Copper tubing is put together with soldered connections. The only tools necessary

are a hack saw and a good soldering torch. In some places copper tubing is also

used for the drainage systems where the building codes permit its use. It would

be easier to install for a person not accustomed to making the leaded joints in the

cast iron pipe.

The water pipes should be so placed that all the water can be drained from them,

so the system will not be in danger of freezing and bursting the pipes when the

house is left unheated in the winter time.

A shut-off valve should be placed near the point where the water line enters the

building, and at the wall where the pipe comes out to supply each fixture. This would

mean two valves or angle cocks for each lavatory or sink, and one stop cock for

each water closet. A valve should also be placed in the line supplying the hot water

tank.

Plumbing Fixtures

A kitchen sink made of cast iron and coated with glass-hard white enamel is preferred

by many housekeepers, but stainless steel, pressed sheet steel, and clay are also

used. Sinks vary in size from 18" x 24", through the popular 20" x 30" to the large

double size sinks 22" x 38". A sink with a drainage opening 31/2" in diameter is to

be preferred, as this makes possible the use of basket strainers in the drain. If a

garbage grinder is desired, it can also be installed in a 31/2" opening. The double

sink is preferred by most people who have used this type.

The white enameled cast iron bathtub is preferred by many, but colored tubs are

also available at a slightly higher price. Pressed steel tubes are also made which

seem to be fairly satisfactory. Lengths of tubs vary, but the 5' and the 51/2" sizes are

usually preferred. A tub is about 21/2' wide. For those who want something

different, a tub that is approximately 4' square is sometimes used. The cost is

higher, but this tub might fit better in some bathrooms.

Water closets are nearly always made of china, either white or colored. A seat with a

plastic coating is usually better than a painted or varnished one. These fixtures

should be of good quality, but not necessarily of the highest price. A study of a

catalog will show the various styles. The water closet should have a space 31/2 wide

and a clear area in front of it of at least 18".

A lavatory should be from 32" to 34" high. A working surface and cabinet in

conjunction with the lavatory will be found to be very convenient. Tile back of the

lavatory and on the top of the adjacent cabinet will make a more satisfactory job

than painted surfaces.

The shower bath is often nothing more than a shower head over the tub with a

curtain around the tub to keep the water off the floor. Where there are children in

the family, a separate shower will usually be more satisfactory. The shower stall

should be not less than three feet on a side, although smaller ones are sometimes

built. Tile will make the most satisfactory shower floor and walls. Where economy is a

prime consideration, use ceramic tile on the floor and cement plaster or waterproof

imitation tile over cement plaster on the walls. Doors of glass are to be avoided

because of the hazard of injury from the probable breaking of the glass, unless the

glass is reinforced with wire. Plastic is probably safer for shower doors. Be sure to

arrange things so that the water from the shower does not get out on the floor

of the bathroom.

An important part of the plumbing is the hot water tank. The 30-gallon size is

widely used, but for a large family a 40- or 50-gallon tank would be better. Many of

the better tanks are glass lined. Water can be heated in a variety of ways. Where gas

is available, the automatically controlled hot water tank is easy to install; oil or

kerosene fired tanks also do a good job. Coils in the kitchen stove or in the furnace

will often produce hot water very economically without too much bother.

Hose bibs or outdoor faucets should be provided at places where they will be

handy for washing the car and watering the lawn. In cold countries these faucets

should have shut-off valves inside the house that drain the faucet and pipe

automatically, to prevent freezing.

The Wiring of a House Requires Careful Planning

Several items must be decided before you begin planning the wiring. Will you cook

with electricity and use an electric oven? What about heating water? What about

heating the whole house? This will require special study and will be treated

separately later.

If electricity is used solely for lighting, and perhaps for a vacuum cleaner and the

usual small appliances, you can get by with a rather simple installation.

Photo owned by Dmitry G

Ordinarily in the United States, three-wire, 110-120 volt, 60-cycle, single-phase

current is used. This means that three wires are brought to the house from the

power lines, the center wire, being the neutral, is always the white wire, and

should be placed between the two black wires which carry the current. If you

connect either black wire to an electric light or fixture or appliance along with the

neutral white wire, you will get 110 volts, but if you connect both the black wires to

any piece of equipment you will get 220 volts.

The first step in wiring is to locate the place where the electricity will enter the

building. The power company should be consulted, because the pole that looks the

best to you may not carry the line you are supposed to be connected to. Find out

the exact spot where the wires will leave the pole, and exactly where is the best

place to enter the building.

A piece of 11/2" conduit or other appropriate size is put through the roof at the

point where the electric wires will enter the building and extended down into the

wall to the top of the meter base, and screwed into this meter base. The conduit

must extend up through the roof to a point where the wires entering it will be at

least 10' off the ground. A weather head is placed at the top of this conduit to

permit the wires to enter in such a way that water will not run down into the

conduit.

The meter must be on the outside of the building in a place that is easily

accessible to the man that reads the meter periodically. Get the required height

from your power company. If you can put your main switch and distribution center

just below, or near the meter base, it may simplify the wiring problem. It can be

put on the inside of the wall if you prefer it to be more protected. A conduit

should be run from the meter to the distribution box; sometimes an extra heavy

nonmetallic cable is used with good success. Three No. 6 wires should be the

absolute minimum size of wiring from the meter to the distribution box. If you have

an electric oven and cooking top this should be increased to No. 4 wires or larger.

Consult the local building inspector or the power company for information in any

particular locality.

When your main switch box is in place, nail all the switch, light, and outlet boxes

in place where you want them in the building, including boxes for any special

outlets, such as TV, water heating, fan for forced-air furnace, kitchen fan, etc.

Then run wires for each circuit from the main box to the outlets, completing one

circuit before starting another. You are usually allowed six convenience outlets on

one circuit or ten light outlets. It is better not to mix lights and plugs on the same

circuit, although it is sometimes permitted in living rooms and bedrooms. The

kitchen should have a separate circuit for the plugs, even if you do not use the full

number allowed on one circuit. If you have a deep-freeze refrigerator, it might be a

good idea to put the clock on the same circuit with it so that any interruption in

the electric current to the freezer would be noticed at once.

The principal advantage of having the lights and plugs on different circuits is that if

you overload a circuit and "blow" a fuse you will not necessarily be in the dark.

You can use either fuses or circuit breakers in the main distribution box. Fuses are

cheaper, but the circuit breakers are easier to put back into service.

The electric stove will require a separate circuit of 220 volts with No. 6 wires

running to it, and a 50-ampere circuit breaker or fuse.

An electric water heater will ordinarily be properly served by two No. 10 wires

carrying 220 volts.

Two No. 12 wires are usually used on a circuit for convenience outlets, or plugs, as

they are often called. Use a 20-ampere fuse.

While lights are often served by No. 14 wires, better service will be given if you

also use No. 12 wires for light circuits. It is perfectly permissible to make the wires

leading from any one light to a switch of No. 14 wire. Quite commonly a 15-

ampere fuse is used in a light circuit.

The entrance switch will have provision for placing the neutral wire in the center,

and the black wires one on each side. Then the fuses or circuit breakers will be

placed one below the other on each side to make up the branch circuits. Note

that the neutral wire is not fused, but each circuit taking off from the black wires is

always fused.

Where codes permit, the most satisfactory wiring material for the home builder is

the non-metallic cable, which contains either two or three separately insulated

conductors and often a bare wire for grounding the outlets and switches. One

wire will be white; one will be black; and if there is a third wire it will often be red.

The white wire is always the neutral, while the red wire serves the same purpose as a

black wire; the color merely keeps one from confusing the circuits.

In wiring the light switches, always switch the hot wire; that is, the black or red

wire, never the white or neutral wire. The bare grounding wire is connected to each

box as it comes to it, and to a water pipe occasionally to ground the circuits and

prevent people from getting a shock from the switches or outlets.

All wires must terminate in metal boxes, and no joints may be made except in these

boxes. This eliminates the possibility of a poor joint's being concealed somewhere in

the walls with no chance to find it, and makes the wiring safer.

The holes for the wires should be bored near the center of the studs or joists to

eliminate the possibility that the lathers might drive a nail into the insulation and

short-circuit the wiring. This is especially annoying when a nail joins the stucco

wire with a hot wire. The whole house is "hot" and the short is almost impossible

to find. Keep the wires where nails will not reach them.

In wiring for convenience outlets or plugs, run two wires from one box to the next,

as the fixtures usually have two screws on each side, one for the wires entering

the box and one for the wires leaving. Always connect the white wire to the

nickel-plated screw and the black wire to the brass-colored screw.

All joints in an electric system should be soldered together and be well taped with

plastic tape, or rubber and friction tapes, to prevent short circuits. If wires can be

fastened by means of screws that will hold them tightly together, they will not need

to be soldered. A loose joint has considerable resistance and will get hot when

current runs through it, and it might start a fire; a loose joint will also result in

poor service.

Do your wiring with extra care so it will not cause you trouble later on. Good

systematic work pays everywhere, but especially in the wiring system.

A three-way switch is very convenient where a room has two doors entering it, and

you want to be able to turn on the light from either door as you come into the

room. It is fairly easy to install. Run two wires, usually red, from one switch to the

other. These wires are called "travelers." Connect these two wires to the proper

screws on the switches. These will be two screws that are just alike and at the same

end of the switch. Next bring the power to the light and connect the neutral, white,

wire to the nickel-plated screw on the light socket. Run the black wire from the

main fuse box to one of the switches. Take a black wire from the other switch and

connect it to the brass screw on the light socket. Then either switch should

operate the light.

It is a good idea to test out the wiring, especially the three-way switches, before the

house is lathed, because after the plastering is done, the wiring is pretty well

hidden and almost inaccessible. It must be right before it is covered. If the electric

company does not connect the wires to the building right away, the test can easily

be made by means of a battery. Connect the battery to the wires, one circuit at a

time, and use a small buzzer to test the outlets and lights.

A material called B-X, which consists of two or three insulated wires protected also

with paper spirally wound with a flexible piece of metal so that the wire is well

protected throughout its entire length, is sometimes used for wiring houses.

Although some cities do not permit its use, where it is properly installed, it makes a

good wiring job. The principal drawback to its use is that the insulation is often in-

jured by the hack saw or other cutting tool so that a short develops between the

wire and the metal covering. This can be prevented by extra care in the cutting and

by inserting a small, usually red, anti-short bushing in the end of the cable before

the wires are connected. The wiring material, of whatever kind, must always be

securely fastened to the boxes, to prevent strain on the joints in the wiring.

Where wiring is going to be exposed or where it is enclosed in concrete, blocks,

or brickwork, it should be protected by conduit. This is a pipe specially made for

the purpose and is similar to water pipe, except that it is smoother inside and

comes in 10' lengths. It can be put together with regular plumbers' tools just

like water pipe.

A lighter weight pipe, called "E.M.T.," "electrical metallic tubing," or just

"steeltube," is often used in place of conduit with equally good results. The

principal differences are the greater ease of bending because of the lighter weight,

and the connections which instead of being screwed together are made with small

connectors and couplings which require no threading of the pipe. The most

common size used in houses is 1/2", but a few pieces of 3/4" will be needed where

more than four wires go in one direction. Two or three circuits can often run in one

conduit to make a neat and simple job. The conduit or steel tube must be

securely fastened to each box to make a continuous metal protection for the

wires.

Wires are pulled through the conduit by means of a "fish tape." This is a piece of

flat steel wire with a loop at the end which is pushed through the conduit from

one box to another. The wire is then fastened to the loop and is pulled through

the conduit. This makes the wiring continuous from one box to another. Wires

should be left projecting from the box about 8" to allow for proper joining of them

to each other and to the fixtures.

A person who contemplates doing his own wiring would do well to study a copy of

the national electric code to see what is considered good and safe practice in wiring.

Wiring is not difficult if one remembers that each circuit must be complete with

current going to a fixture in one wire and returning through another wire. The

current changes its direction of flow sixty times a second, and provision must always

be made for complete circuits. It is important to keep each circuit separate, and to

know whether it is 110 or 220 volts. The 220 is used only for stoves and ovens,

water heaters, electric clothes dryers, and similar equipment that is permanently

connected. Portable equipment and lights are always 110 volts.

In planning your wiring, be sure to put in enough lights so that rooms will be well

lighted, and plugs enough so that you will not have to crawl under the furniture to

find one. Plugs under windows or near doors will usually be the easiest to get at,

while plugs near the corners of the room will often be hidden by furniture. There

should be at least three or four plugs in every room, and more in the kitchen and

living rooms.

There should be a light over the sink and one over each important working area

in the kitchen. A light for each outside door is a good safety measure. Floodlights for

the outdoor living area will be found very useful and will not be difficult to put in if

they are planned along with the rest of the house. A plug in the garage will be

used for vacuum cleaning the car and for small electric hand tools if you do minor

repairing at home.

Steps require special illumination to make them safe. A few extra lights, which will

not cost much, will be greatly appreciated, and do not be too sparing in the use of

three-way switches.

In your wiring, the boxes should be left projecting enough so they will come about

even with the surface of the plaster. Care should be taken not to let a box project

too much, as it will then be difficult to make the plate fit neatly against the wall.

Faulty electrical wirings cause fire. Never do electrical wiring installation on your own.

Hire an electrician who can carefully plan and accomplish it. If possible, request your

electrician to make room for fire and safety tools you might want installed. These will

cause added expenses but they can help protect your house from fire or intrusion.

This reproduction is brought to you by Omega Security Solutions. Contact us for

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