5 comments about Plumbing a House.

1. When I set out to build my own home I purchased several books on plumbing from the local Books-A-Million and local home improvement centers. But this one, which was recommended by a friend, tops them all. This book, along with a copy of your local code, is about all you need to do the rough-in plumbing on new residential construction. I frequently carried it with me to the building site to refer to when necessary. There is an obvious bias toward copper in the book. But the reader needs to remember that the book was written at a time when copper prices were more reasonable than they are today. According to my local plumbing supplier, there's hardly a professional plumber remaining in our city that still does copper. They've all been converted over to CPVC. Maybe copper will become popular again when prices come back down. But the book is still a valuable resource regardless of whether you do copper or CPVC, for either the do-it-yourselfer or the aspiring professional plumber.



2. Like most Taunton Press books, this one is excellent, but its big drawback is that it only covers rough plumbing, not finish plumbing, so you're forced to buy two books to cover most projects.



3. This book has basic plumbing down. Peter is obviously somebody who has no interest in updating his work and I unfortunately didn't look closely enough at the reviews. Hard to go wrong for less than $15. I can always use this as supplemental material, oh wait I'm using pex and there is nothing about the stuff in the book. Go with the Rex Cauldwell plumbing for pros by pros. It was written in this decade at least. Shame on you Taunton press for not removing your outdated stock.



4. In Plumbing A House, Peter Hemp provides thorough and accurate information with very useful details and insights. I recommend this book to anyone who is doing any plumbing, having any plumbing performed for them, or who just owns a house and wants to have some idea of what provides the water and gas and what takes it away. The book is especially useful to read before performing an inspection of the plumbing in an old house, before major repairs, or before you build a new house. A "For Pros By Pros" companion volume, "Wiring A House", by Rex Cauldwell, also gets my 5-star rating, for similar reasons.
   
   Solid information is provided for tools; materials; pipe sizing; joinery; drain, waste, and venting; water distribution; fuel gas distribution, and for venting gas water heaters and furnaces. Remodeling is also considered, but an area that could benefit from a little enhancement is the renovation of fuel-gas distribution systems. Much important information is there, but there are a lot of insights an experienced plumber could provide that are missing.
   
   I have the version printed in 1998, and another shortcoming I found is that there is one new technology that is not covered deeply, and the book needs an update to add this. The information presented is amazingly complete and helpful without having a book 3 or 4 inches thick.
   
   I should say that I have enough experience -- and tools -- to give plumbers and electricians a lot of gray hair when they work for me, but not enough to pass any professional test. If any of them read this, I want them to know how much I appreciate true professionals!
   
   The information I found to be missing concerns PEX (Polyethylene Cross-Link tubing) and a manifold for water distribution. Only brief mentions of PE tubing is made. PEX, especially combined with a manifold distribution system, resolves a number of plumbing issues with many benefits. Many new houses are now plumbed with PEX and manifold systems, and owners seem blissfully unaware of the benefits--the way plumbing should be.
   
   My house (46 years-old, and we are the fifth owners) recently had its galvanized steel pipe system fail due to years of electrolysis. There were a number of complicating factors that contributed to its early end: improper grounding of the electrical system, improper installation of a water softener, improper repairs, and a failure of previous homeowners to recognize that something was wrong and do something about it. (If you have faucets falling apart, don't just assume that it was a cheap faucet!) This book helped me figure out what was wrong, why, and what I might do about it. I had to do my own cost and benefit analysis, of course. And the book didn't tell me about the solution I picked.
   
   The entire water distribution system in my house has now been replaced with a Vanguard Piping Systems, Inc. ManaBloc(tm) manifold system with PEX tubing. The manifold is in the garage next to the hot water heater, and a tube runs from the manifold to each fixture for cold and hot water. The tubes are color-coded. The manifold has a valve for each tube. Each tube has only two connection points: 1) at the manifold and 2) at the fixture. Flow volume is determined by tube size, pressure is evenly divided, and temperature remains constant. Four people performed the entire replacement project in 12 hours. All water was off for less than 30 minutes, and each bathroom was re-plumbed separately. The sheetrock repairs took a bit longer, but they were small compared to other options using rigid pipe.
   
   What a book like "Plumbing A House" could add are the rules for routing the tubes and for installing the manifold that will prevent further hassles down the road. It is my experience that plumbers (and especially their helpers) want to get their current job done, and don't want to have to come back to fix a problem for free, but don't care a whit if what they do causes the carpenter, electrician, HVAC technician, or some other guy a nightmare or two. "Plumbing A House" can give you the information to help the plumber have a bit more consideration--and to give him a few more gray hairs while you are at it.



5. This is a great book! After having read it cover to cover a few times now, I feel very comfortable to tackle most of the plumbing work I am doing as I remodel my house. It explains everything not only step by step, but also explains why, when and where different materials out perform eachother.

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