10 Beginner MISTAKES To Avoid When Doing Your Own PLUMBING! | GOT2LEARN

here are 10 common beginner mistakes that you want to avoid when doing plumbing yourself starting with number one not installing drill plates or shield plates when passing pipes on a wall i can't stress the importance of taking the time needed on the job to protect any pipes whether it's a pressured line or just a drain line they must absolutely be protected against dry wallers or finishers from installing their drywall baseboards or anything that's screwed into the wall afterwards think about it this way a one or two hour job of installing these could save you months of headaches with insurance claims and that's not even counting the costs of it all these protection plates costs around 50 cents each and they could be bought at your local hardware store in the electricity department or you could just use the link in the description box below number two is not holding your fitting and pipe together after they've been cemented plastic fittings have a tendency to pull back from each other which is due to them having an interference fit let me explain these fittings have a slight taper to them this does two important things it prevents the cement from being pushed back and two it creates a good static seal between the pipe and fitting as a consequence the interference fit pushes the pipe out because of the outwards taper so always hold them together for a few seconds before calling it done number three is using plumber's putty plumber's putty is an ancient way of sealing two mating surfaces together to get a leak-free joint you typically see it under faucets on bathtub strainers and kitchen sinks it would do the job but it's not as reliable as a good quality silicone for example what happens with plumber's putty is that with time it dries up and if it's moved the seal could break and you'd get a leak silicone on the other hand stays flexible with time allowing for some movement without the compromise a lot of old school plumbers will tell you that silicone isn't made for this and they're not wrong but it just works better number four is using teflon tape as a sealer i made a complete video on teflon or ptfe tape and i urge you to watch it to better understand what it's meant to be used for briefly teflon aids in getting proper penetration for tapered threads straight or parallel threads such as hoses supply lines and compression fittings do not need teflon tape as they rely on a rubber gasket or compression not to leak so it's totally unnecessary to use the tape on these types of fittings i also have a complete guide on different types of threads so i'll leave the link in the description box below talking about compression fittings number five is not installing a brass insert as seen here these brass inserts aren't necessary when using copper piping but for plastic piping they're an absolute must as a compression fittings do as they say they compress onto the pipe to be watertight if these inserts aren't installed the plastic pipe would just collapse as it's being tightened and not seal which is why it's crucial to install one you'd normally see these fittings used for water filtering systems and refrigerator feed lines the sixth problem i often encounter is when a beginner is trying to solder a joint there's a lot of things that could go wrong when soldering but one thing that many newbies ignore is using a low heat on their torch a plumbing torch is meant to be used on medium to high strength if you use it on a low setting the tip of the torch will overheat weaken and eventually make it easier to deform which would give you a poor performing flame so always set it between medium and high for this not to happen number seven is not turning off the power when emptying a hot water tank before swapping it out whether it's to replace an element to flush out any sediment in the tank or to replace the tank itself the power must absolutely be turned off before emptying it if it's not emptied before one of the elements will overheat and blow so always close the breaker before emptying a hot water tank the eighth mistake is when soldering valves depending on the manufacturer some valves are recommended to be soldered in the opened closed or half closed position and a lot of people don't know about this some particular brands if soldered in the open position could distort the teflon seat which would result in a leaking valve and some in the closed position would blow out the same seats so always check the tag and follow each manufacturer's directions for best results number nine is not chamfering or reaming drainpipes normally you debur copper pipes to prevent turbulence and flow loss but drain pipes also need to be reamed let me explain if you were to cut a pipe with a saw and just leave the shavings there waste would eventually catch on and possibly block the pipe leading to an overflow so always remove any burs from your cuts it only takes 5 seconds and it could save you a ton of money and number 10 is cementing pvc to abs with normal cement pvc and abs are two completely different materials they both use different cements and they cannot be joined together with these cements instead there is a special cement called transition glue which is able to melt both materials for them to properly fuse together and a lot of people don't know about this and it's very important to know before connecting them together or it might just leak and lastly make sure you check your municipal code before using transition cement as most times only one transition joint is allowed in a building and that's it i hope this video was helpful and if it was please hit the like button share it and subscribe for more videos like this one and until the next one thanks for watching [Music] foreign

Channel: Got2Learn

Views: 1,609,757

Keywords: got2learn, plumbing trick, do it yourself, pex plumbing installation, plumbing hacks, plumbing, plumbing tools, plumbing repair, plumbing diy, plumbing how to, how to do plumbing, how to repair plumbing, how to fix plumbing, toilet, rough in plumbing, solder with mini torch, how to solder, how to solder copper, how to fix copper leak, how to fix copper pipe, soldering copper pipe, sweat copper pipe, plumbing tips, plumbing hack, plumbing fail, copper pipe, life hacks

Id: VqBAMEbo-OE

Length: 6min 43sec (403 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 25 2021