January Plumbing News

The work continues! Little by little, the oldest and weakest pipes in the building are making themselves known. Mr. Simpson, the plumber, is undoubtedly quite happy we like to repair leaks before they become more serious.

Today's jobs included a new "lead bend" which connects the nasty end of the toilet to the main waste riser, and some steam vent repairs on the lobby radiator. He also inquired about the pump, and I will say that it seems hot water arrives more quickly in my bathroom than it did before, let me know if you disagree.

In the middle of steam heat season, there are some knocks and bangs from our radiators and steam pipes. This was discussed with Mr. Simpson, he noted a few things. First, steam vent valves may fail over time. They can be easily unscrewed and replaced and as they are available in all local hardware stores, it's a simple task to do. If your valve hisses or "spits", or you have a radiator that takes too long to heat up, consider a new vent valve.

For banging and clanking noises, make sure your radiator valves are fully open. Steam is an "all or nothing" system, and if the valve is not all the way open, condensation will collect and cause the rattling and banging noises during the steam cycle. Sometimes, the oldest valves will have some loose or broken parts, and will make lots of noise when the steam goes on and off.

He also advised me to make sure the radiators are properly pitched. The valve end needs to be lower than the vent end, to let the condensate run out and back down to the boiler. Over the years, the constant movement can push the radiator's feet into the wood, and the radiator will be out of alignment. You can cure this by placing a small flat piece of wood under the radiator's feet farthest away from the control valve, and this should restore the pitch.

After all of this, he did say that steam is not a 'silent' system and he's never seen one that is completely quiet. By following some of his advice, you can make your radiators quieter and more efficient. There's a website http://www.heatinghelp.com/ that has lots of interesting steam heat information, if you really want to know more!

is it hot yet?

Today, the hot water recirculating pump was replaced. Our plumber noted the old one had a couple of it's propeller blades broken off, and simply wasn't pumping. He also thought it had survived far longer than they are designed to, and so a new one was installed. Shut off valves were installed too, on both sides of the pump. This will allow the water flow to the thing to be repaired/replaced without having to shut off water to the whole building, and will allow it to be shut off if it ever sprung a leak. You can see the work in the boiler room, right at the door to exit to the alley, just look up!The function is pretty simple, it will pull hot water slowly thorough the pipes, and should seriously shorten the wait time for hot water at any particular sink. It won't be instantaneous, this is a slow flowing pump, but we expect to see an improvement over what we had before.

As occurs when the house water supply is drained and air enters the pipes, expect some brown water, some spitting from the taps, and if there was sediment or rust in your plumbing, the little aerator or strainer at the end of the faucet may have to be cleaned. Let's hope the cold water problem is a thing of the past now!

Do we really need a computerized bookkeeping system?

After talking with Lolita about this, I no longer think we do. We can certainly teach her how to put her monthly reports into Excel, but the bookkeeper takes those and produces the yearly reports we need. It doesn't seem to be that complicated.

Anybody else have any thoughts?

it's a group blog now!

The holidays are over, our house tree is lying in the front yard, on it's way to being chopped into mulch for spreading over a city park somewhere. A short walk around the neighborhood is short, cause it's so cold. And here at the co-op blog, it's becoming a group affair.

Our tenant-owners got their email invites today, and once you get a google password, you're an author! That should make things interesting. I Can't wait to see what happens next!

Dumbwaiters care and feeding

Our Dumbwaiter is a luxury that few apartment houses can match. Used primarily to dispatch trash, but in the old days it got more use. Deliveries from neighborhood merchants were placed on the dumbwaiter, along with firewood and various packages, saving us from having to deal with delivery people.

Nowadays, some of the historic district co-ops have abandoned them, but we consider it indispensable. Operated manually with an original 1920's rope pulley system, they really meet our needs. There aren't a lot of people who can maintain the things, and so we do our best to take care of the minor issues ourselves. That Once or twice a year, the pulleys need basic lubrication, these are photos of how to do this task.

NOTE- want to see these pictures larger? Right click and hit 'save target as' and save it to a file for future reference. When saved to your computer hard drive, they open up in a larger size.

On the roof, inside the shaftway, is a giant pulley that, when spun by the rope, lifts the car up and down. The mechanism is a wood cradle holding the rod, which has the pulley and a primitive break system, so a heavy load won't cause the thing to plummet to the basement.

Periodically, this mechanism needs oiling. You'll know when the rope is so hard to pull you are sweating by the time the car is at the 2nd floor. So, when this happens, it's time to lubricate. Get the little key for the dumbwaiter doors from the rack in the meter room, open the doors and look inside. You'll see the large round wheel with a smaller wheel behind it (that's the brake). Generously squirt WD-40 on the rod that attaches to the wooden ends, and reach behind the large wheel to squirt the oil into the openings on the smaller one. Pull the ropes up and down, they should be measurably easier to operate. If not, repeat squirting the oil. For some reason, the dumbwaiter serving apts 2. 22. 32 42 side stiffens up sooner, the other one is usually easier to pull in general.

This maintenance is required every 6 months to a year, or when the ropes become hard to pull. All in all, easy maintenance job that saves the house money bringing in an expert to squirt the same can of oil. These photos are from last week, when I oiled the pulleys on both sides.