Plumber

My grandpa was a plumber. He worked until he couldn't. I was in my 20s when cancer prevented him from continuing to work. I watched him replace a toilet once.

Incoming water cast iron re-piping

One day (one year buying the house) I noticed soggy grass and water flowing down the street. We had a leak underneath the sidewalk, after the incoming meter, so it was my problem says the water company.

Had a few plumbing companies quote us, all around $3800 to replace the 60' cast iron incoming line all the way up to the house with PEX.

Home Depot sells 100' of PEX for $50... I youtubed how to sweat copper to make the connection from copper to PEX where it was copper to cast iron.

I finished my homestead application to do work in my own house.

Got a permit for $80, and called the utilities #811 to mark the land before we started digging. Then we (my girlfriend, my girlfriend's family, our neighbor, & myself) dug the trench exposing the water line to be removed, while carefully working around the gas line.

My girlfriend and I pulled out the cast iron, dug the trench deeper, bought a truckload of backfill dirt. We rented a truck, had it filled it for just $50, drove it home and emptied it shovel by shovel, took it to a car wash and returned it the next day.

We laid 3" of soft sand backfill, the PEX pipe tunneled under the sidewalk, then another 3" of backfill, and then filled the rest of the trench with the original clay soil.

The total cost to repipe the water incoming line was less than $300. This included everything: the permit, PEX pipe, fittings, and crimper, truck rental, backfill sand, new front faucet, propane torch, and sweating materials.

Outgoing sewage cast iron re-piping