Plumbing
What is plumbing?
A system for an individual building that transports water and moves waste to be
disposed of.
Can also be a part of a hydraulic or pneumatic system
Composed of fittings, drains, pipes, valves, and fixtures all part of a system.
Each system is can be made from a variety of materials such as PVC, PEX,
copper, and galvanized pipe.
History of plumbing.
•Ancient civilizations used plumbing to move water about for agricultural
purposes.
•Rome became famous for their use of aqueducts and the early creation of a
sewer system.
•Into the middle ages and early modern era, plumbing systems became more and
more complicated.
• Mostly due to increasing concerns about health and safety.
History of plumbing cont.
• Francis Bacon’s experiments with desalination aka removal
of salt from water led to better filtration for plumbing.
• Salt in water lead to fast corrosion of various metal pipes.
• 1804- First confirmed modern filter using sand to provide
clean water to people.
• 1879- Chlorine first added to water to reduce amount of
bacteria found
• 1940’s- Flouride is added to water to help citizens combat
tooth decay.
• Is NOT part of a communist conspiracy!
Plumbing in modern buildings
•Plumbing in modern buildings is designed to cover 3 areas: Water supply system, water and
waste removal system.
•Each of these systems uses a variety of materials.
•Galvanized pipe- potable water and other major components of a typical household water
supply
•Copper tubing – Used primarily in transport of either hot or cold water.
•Plastic Pipe- Carries both potable water, sewage, and can be used as a hot/cold supply line.
Galvanized Pipe
•Galvanization- Process of coating metal in zinc to prevent rusting.
•When heated, galvanized pipe can produce poisonous fumes. Proper ventilation is required.
•Expected life of about 70 years.
•Can vary depending on corrosiveness of water.
•Replaced cast iron and lead as main plumbing for many years.
•Mostly used in outdoor plumbing systems, mainly due to steel’s superior strength.
•Attached to other pieces using threads.
Copper Pipe
•Has been replacing galvanized piping for indoor use.
•Very good at maintaining water temperature.
• Used mostly for hot/cold supply and carrying refrigerant.
•Connected to other pieces of copper using a process called soldering. Soldering- Using a torch
and solder to glue two copper pieces together with metal
•Copper has a long life span- 70+ years.
•Can develop pinhole leaks through corrosion and improper soldering of connections.
•Becoming very expensive, so slowly being phased out.
Plastic Pipe
•Many different variations of plastic pipe used in modern plumbing.
•Two most common: PVC and PEX.
•PVC = Polyvinyl Chloride.
• Advantages: Cheap, easy to make, flexible, good for many plumbing situations.
• Disadvantages: Can easily break from too much force on its surface,
•PEX = Cross-linked Polyethylene. Newer plastic pipe that is slowly becoming more and more
popular to use.
• Advantages: Strong, especially at fittings and joints, cheap, less likely to burst from cold like PVC and
Copper, no corrosion.
• Disadvantages: Breaks down in sunlight, cant use adhesives, fittings can be expensive.
•Most homes and structures use some form of plastic pipe as part of their plumbing system.
Plumbing Tools:
•Galvanized tools:
•Hacksaw: Used to cut pipe to specifc size.
•Deburring tool: Used to remove any sharp edges left after cutting.
•Pipe threader: Creates threads on outside of pipe to a specific diameter.
•Threading Oil: Lubricates pipe threader so that tool doesn’t wear out too fast.
Plumbing tools cont.
•Copper Pipe:
•Copper Pipe cutter: Small blade that rotates around pipe in order to cut it.
•Deburring tool: Same as for galvanized.
•Copper brush: Used for cleaning off surface and inside of copper pipe.
•Flux and acid brush: Acts as a cleaning agent for copper, brush used for putting
on flux.
•Solder: Low melting point metal used to fuse copper connections.
•Propane torch: Heats up copper metal to use solder.
Plastic Pipe Tools
•PVC Cutter: Tool used for cutting PVC Pipe
•PVC Primer: Like flux, used for cleaning and prepping PVC
•PVC Glue or Cement: a very strong adhesive used to join PVC parts.
•Plumbers tape: seals in threads to prevent any leaks