Construction - Plumbing and Gas
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Even though we live a fair way out of town we are on town gas. We have two instant hot water systems, hotplates, pool heater and large ducted heating system running off our supply. Due to the large possible volume of gas that we could, in theory, be using at the same time we had to have a much larger regulator installed. Your gas company should be able to determine the size that you will need if you can supply the details of all of your appliances.
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The Plumber hard at Work
Our plumber was great. Very through and particular. He made sure all the copper work was securely fastened to avoid knocking.
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Take photos of the Pipes
An idea of the sort of pictures that will come in handy after you do your sheeting. This picture shows the wall between the laundry and the kitchen where the smaller hot water system was installed. The three pipes there are gas, hot water and cold water.
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Shower
This picture shows one of the shower heads in the round shower in the ensuite. We cement rendered over this and then tiled.
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Fixing the off Centre Toilet Pipe
Thanks to our drainer the sewerage pipe in the toilet was off centre. I think we mentioned earlier his measuring wasn't AOK. The waste was around 65mm off centre. If you look at the waste in relation to the tiles.
I had to chisel a large hole and retrofit this collar. Half is buried under the tiles and the other half is covered by the pan.
It all worked out fine in the end but we would rather the drainer got it right in the first place!!
Tips and Tricks
- Ensure that your gas fitter know what size appliances you are connecting and any special needs that you may have. We ran a larger than normal line from one end of the house to the other to cope with the demand on the ensuite/pool/bathroom side of the house.
- We installed two water heaters, one at each end of the house. The small system runs the laundry and kitchen and the other runs the shower (with 2 or 3 heads) and the bathroom
- We ran all water and gas pipes through the ceiling. This has the risk that if you spring a leak that you will flood the house from above - but at least you can get to it :) Inside the wall or under the slab buries it away and makes it very hard to modify if need be.
- Ensure that your pipes are securely fastened to avoid knocking.
- As we live in Canberra and can morning temperatures as low as -10 degrees we insulated all pipes to avoid bursting. We also lagged all hot water pipes for maximum efficiency.
- Take photos of your electrical cable before sheeting. We have referred to them many times already, same goes for plumbing.