Plumbing go-round

Sometimes it feels as if I'm doing one renovation project inside of another, kind of like a set of Russian Dolls.  The house is being renovated and many of the parts that are going towards the renovation need renovation themselves.

I described the rehab of an old sewing cabinet into a sink vanity so that I could make use of a salvaged sink.  Now I'm in the midst of resurrecting a salvaged bidet.

Bidets are just uncommon enough that they fetch a pretty high price here in the U.S.  Anybody who wants this special toilet fixture must be willing to pay about double the price of a standard toilet.  I was lucky enough to come across one at a salvage dealer a couple of years ago for $50 and snapped it up.

My bargain bidet sat collecting dust in the barn for a while, and then it sat unplumbed in the little closet that would be its home for even longer until last week when I was finally able to devote attention to this minor plumbing project.

The first step to connecting the bidet to the rough plumbing was to solder (or 'sweat') shut off valves to the supply lines.  This required turning off the main water supply and prepping the 1/2" copper using plumber's cloth and solder paste.  Then, after placing the valves, I could heat the pipe using a Bernzomatic torch and apply the solder so that it flowed around the joint, quickly wiping the excess off with a damp rag.

With the  shut off valves in place, I was ready to put the bidet in place by fitting the waste tail piece into the drain trap.  Once the fixture was in place and the waste connection made, I installed the supply lines.  These attach to the faucet and the shut off valves by compression fitting.

Now that all my connections were made, I turned on the main water supply and searched for leaks.  Sure that I didn't have a leak, I opened the valves to try out the faucet.

Two things became immediately apparent: (1) the supply lines were crossed so that hot water was coming from the cold tap, and (2) the hot water tap valve was stuck.

As far as the crossed supply lines, this was something that I hadn't paid close enough attention to when doing the rough plumbing two years prior.  It was no big deal really because with flexible supply lines between the shut-off valve and the taps, I could re-cross them.  Unfortunately, I had used short rigid supply connectors so I would have to buy some new ones.

The problem with the frozen hot water valve was another story. My first instinct was to use brute force to try and free up the valve.  This didn't work.  I then decided that buying a salvaged bidet was a mistake and I should just take a sledge hammer to it.  Before doing that, however, I thought it might be more reasonable to try to find a replacement valve.

A visit to the manufacturer's web site (Kohler) gave me the hint of soaking the valve in a 50/50 mixture of vinegar and water.  This dissolved the calcium deposits that had encrusted the valve and freed it up.  (And without spending a dime!)  Now I was sorry I had resorted to brute force originally because the threads that hold the knob to the valve got stripped a little when I took a wrench to it.  Luckily the threads weren't stripped beyond use.

Next:  Reconnecting the supply lines introduces a leak...