Water Heater Changes on April 16, 2015

This is the biggest change to plumbing since the low flow toilets in 1994.

The water heaters will be fatter, taller and more expensive than they were on April 15, 2015. The feds required the water heater companies to design a better unit and the best they could come up with is more insulation. And a higher price, of course, up to 30% more.

This will affect those who have their water heaters squeezed into those tight spots. The changes go far beyond what I wrote here, but for our slice of America, this is enough.

If your water heater is 10 years old or more, now is the time to replace it.

Bellingham Bathroom Remodel

This is in a condo in downtown Bellingham. Our customer is slowly remodeling the entire place.

I didn't picked out the fixtures; I have a hard time finding matching socks. The set-up is as elegant as it looks.

Bellingham bathroom sink drain

Bellingham Bathroom sink

Kitchen Faucet Replacement

This is in one of the newer and pricier neighborhoods in Whatcom County. The mansion is less than 5 years old and used as a retreat from the owner's job.

As is common here, the builder got the plumbing fixtures (faucets, toilets, etc) from some discount store. The property manager called Ball Plumbing about the leaking faucet and general sadness of the set up.

The plumber took everything out and started over. Plumber kept it really simple with a Delta faucet with pull out hose and a new air gap for the dishwasher. Gone is the under-counter water filter that was never cleaned and the insta-hot that was never used.

Before Kitchen sink faucet

After kitchen sink faucet

Broken toilet in Bellingham

Ball Plumbing gets a lot of calls for toilets that are leaking from the bottom.  Sometimes, the toilet leak is from the top, but the water runs down, around and across before it falls to the floor. The picture below is a little obvious, but it shows that toilet tanks do crack for whatever reason.

broken toilet in the Numbered Streets 'hood of Bellingham.

Bellingham Chamber of Commerce

Ball Plumbing is back at the Bellingham Chamber of Commerce! We took some time off during the Great Not-A-Recession Depression, but things are looking different now, so time to get involved again.

Ball Plumbing hosted the Chamber's radio show for a number of years and hopefully we will be able to do it again.

Bellingham Chamber Page

Bellingham Water Heaters

water heater expansion tank and circulation pump

This work of art is seven years old. It is looking and acting a lot older, though.

The unit of the right sprung on Sunday afternoon and I bypassed it to get the house hot water. There are a few major code and common sense violations in the current set up, so we're looking at different options for replacing the system. Quite a mess.

Bellingham water heaters

Another Bellingham sewer clean out

This sewer clean out was a little more manageable than the 15' deep one we did last month.

A good sewer clean out is installed as close to the house as possible, which some plumber did back in 1989. Where he went wrong was to install it 12" below ground level and then put the stairs back over it.

I found the old clean out after selling the new homeowner on installing a clean out in order to clear the whole house sewer stoppage. Turns out the stoppage was at the joint the other plumber installed for his clean out.

All is good now. I did use the old clean out to clear the stoppage and installed the new clean out above ground level in front of the steps.

Got eaten alive by mosquitoes, too. I got 12 huge bumps on my arms from the li'l vampires.