Plumbing a new Faucet

DMS General
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My wife and I had our master bathroom remodeled by a professional. He changed out fixtures for the master jacuzzi tub, the two sinks and installed a new shower and tub. It looks great. My wife picked out some brand-new delta hardware, and we replaced all the towel racks, toilet roll holders etc. too.

Then she told me she wants the same fixtures and a hangar/hook for the powder bath. I told her to order it and I’d install it. Did I mention I hate plumbing. My dad was an electrician and I studied computer science and electrical engineering in college, so I’m very comfortable around electrical apparatuses, but I am NOT a plumber. Thankfully, there is YouTube. Seriously, even Delta and Home Depot put out DIY plumbing videos.

After studying several very good videos, meticulously reading the documentation for the faucet my wife ordered and praying a lot, I successfully installed all the new hardware and faucet today. Not even a hint of a leak either, which was my biggest fear. Did you know that there are now six different ways to plumb water connections? There are probably more since there is PVC and PEX piping now. But here are some of the options depending upon tools and skill level.

Here are the ones:

SOLDERED FITTINGS
YORKSHIRE FITTINGS
PRESS FIT FITTINGS
COMPRESSION FITTINGS
SHARKBITE FITTINGS
PUSH FIT FITTINGS

from this video:

In any case, I used compression fittings to replace the old soldered ones, bought some new flex hoses and everything looks much better now.

Here’s a picture of the old professional plumbers solder job. I was not impressed. It was done in 1991 so I guess at least it has lasted somewhat. (I did have a small leak a number of years ago, and I had to tighten some of the connections to mitigate the tiny leak.)

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I still hate plumbing, but I’m getting better at it, still I never look forward to any plumbing work.

BTW: We asked a plumber for a quote, and it was $400 just for the sink fixture install. I installed the sink, the towel rack, a toilet roll holder and a nice dual hook on the back of the door in about 4-5 hours, so I’m pretty happy.

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Nope that was not a professional plumber. That may have been a plumber but not a professional one. A professional would not have left those dog nuts on there. I’m not a plumber nor professional plumber, but I would not have left those on there. You wipe the solder whilst still hot and put the proper amount of flux on before hand. That will prevent that.

Btw soldering or brazing is still my go to, in most cases. I don’t like zoom lock or pro-press at all.

Good job getting it done yourself.

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Yorkshire is just a sweat (solder) fitting with a solder preform in the groove. It provides a consistent joint if properly fluxed.

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If you pumped unleaded gasoline through that joint leaded gasoline would come out the other side.

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That actually depends on the PH of the water, or the calcium content. High calcium water will usually coat the lead sections and often prevent the lead from going into solution. Also, lead itself usually isn’t very soluble in water. But it does over a long time form other lead compounds that are stable in the PH they formed in. Change that PH, or add other minerals/chemicals that react with those compounds, and you can get a sudden surge in the lead content of the water flowing through.

It is certainly better to avoid having it there in the first place, but a lot of us spent a lot of years drinking from pipes with leaded solder and have no apparent side effects. And honestly the lower levels of lead in younger generations are generally attributed to the switch to unleaded gas, not the switch to unleaded solder in plumbing.