Fun with Plumbing

Okay, so the radiators were disconnected by the contractor, and after I fired him, I installed hardwood floors and reconnected them. Of all my home-improvement skillz, plumbing was probably my least-well developed. Unlike tile or carpentry, I have only seen pipes being soldered, but never actually done them myself until now. Luckily I had my dad, the contractor, in Florida whom I could ask questions to. I must say, the results are pretty impressive. I was worried that my first attempts at soldering might leak, but they all held up during my test firing of the heating system. The only soldered leak was something that the fired contractor had done. This pictures confirm that I am not only smarter and better looking than him, but also a better plumber.

This is my first soldering attempt. For some reason, the supply pipes face away from the radiator, so I had to put in some interesting angles to get it to the radiator. In case you are wondering why I didn't just turn the pipe to face the radiator the reasons are:
1. That pipe is realllllly low to the ground so I couldn't get a monkey wrench on the pipe below the elbow. If I turned that elbow to face the radiator it might unscrew the pope that it's attaced to...beneath the floorboards. 2. I hate working with galvanized or black iron pipes (for reason's I'll explain in a subsequent post). So if I can leave it alone, I will.
3. Don't tell me how to plumb!




Also note the hardwood floors. I installed those myself, thankyouverymuch. Okay, okay, my brother helped me. This next one was also a really weird angle, but it came out okay methinks.






I placed the radiators on a piece of wood so the weight of the radiator doesn't cause it to eventually "sink" into the hardwood. Also, the floor will now be perfect and scratch free if the next owner wants to do away with radiators.



But if he even thinks about touching my hardwood floors or marble tile, I will kill him with my bare hands...unless he's bigger than me, in which case I'll write him a sternly-worded letter...anonymously.