Unfamiliar territory..... MasterMech uses a nail gun...

So SWMBO has decreed that our water is to bad to ignore any longer and declared a new water conditioning system should be installed.

My old system was installed in a goofy insulated plywood box enclosure that became a mold factory every summer as the system condensated with zero ventilation. And after a pump replacement/upgrade last spring, I've noticed that the cycle time for the pump is pretty short. To make a long story longer, I decided in addition to simply replacing my defunct water softener, the entire system and the mechanical room needed to be addressed.

So here we go.



The top is already off the box in this pic but you can kind of see what we had. Things look a lot cleaner in these pics than what actually was. Originally the pressure tank, and the softener were wrapped I. Pink fiberglass insulation as an attempt to insulate them. Removing that sopping mess was fun when I discovered it a few years ago. Note that the box appears to built into the wall of the mech room. The wall was actually built around the box!



Just one example of the corrosion happening in here.



The box was equipped with this little heater to keep the system from freezing as my garage is insulated but not heated.

Interesting note, that's foam rubber HVAC insulation on the main water line. All of my pipes are wrapped in the stuff which wouldn't be a bad thing as it has a higher R value and is much more expensive than the typical poly-foam insulation. Too bad it's all ruined with a healthy 5-6 layers of duct tape or I'd re-use any of it I have removed.



Creative..... And a royal PITA to demo..... I actually disassembled much of these walls and the box and we burnt the pieces for a couple shoulder season fires.



Hmmm, this unfortunately is the best pic I have of my water system post-demo. I temporarily hooked the water lines and electrical back up with wire nuts, electrical tape, and copper unions. I can disconnect the whole system in minutes and move it out of the way and hook it back up before the wife and kiddos get home. It's tough to see but I'm feeding the house with a garden hose right now from my pump main as I will replace the 3/4" copper line with 1" copper.




Framing in progress on one of two new walls. I actually quite like the process, especially with my FIL's framing gun.







Walls are up, I apologize but due to the other crap in my disaster of a garage, I couldn't get a great angle on this. But you can see the entire new section. The door is just temporarily wedged in place. Was the most out of the way place to keep it!

Eagle eyed members will noticed that the electrical is mostly in, at least the in-wall stuff. More on that tomorrow. But this is pretty much where I'm at for now. I'm actually ready for exterior Sheetrock, then insulation and finally interior Sheetrock. But I am painfully slow at this stuff due to a combination of busy work schedule, my ocd, and just not knowing what the heck I'm doing. But I'll keep stumbling through it and posting as I go....

 

This is my middle son (2yo) helping me lag down the walls. Good help he is! My oldest (4) was vacuuming the dust as I was drilling the holes.

 

Commentary points
Work scope
You and middle child.....priceless
Eagerly awaiting more pics, story

 

I've used one of those plenty of times. We use them to drive studs into steel structure (I-Beams) and such for electrical boxes and other light duty jobs. They are handy! But I wanted something with a little more beef since these walls will likely have to support some beefy shelving in the near future. Those are 3/8" wedge bolts (Think 3/8" Lag Bolt for concrete) holding that wall down. Ain't going nowhere! I was able to borrow a real rotary hammer from work too so each hole took about 10-15 seconds to drill as opposed to doing it with a cordless "hammer drill". If you have seen the "hammer" mechanism in a cordless hammer drill, you know why they are a joke.

 

A slightly bigger softener and an air chamber type Iron/Manganese/Hydrogen Sulfide filter.

I'm not planning on using much, if any Pex tubing for this job. I know it's just a utility room but I don't really care for the looks of the flex tubing. I am leaning towards flex connections from the piping to the softener and filter units but not final on what I want to use yet. I would do Pex in the wall in a heartbeat however.

 

For those looking for a good hammer drill, the one I borrowed isn't all that expensive. It's the same Bosch unit you typically see in home centers for under $300.

 

This is why I posted this thing. Even though I didn't think of that, it makes perfect sense. I guessing this one will be fine as the wall that was here before it was in perfect shape and there wasn't a stick of PT in it.

 

Looking good Brian! I love working with pex, my entire house is plumbed from the basement to the 2nd floor with it.....the Maniblock water manifold is a delight ......just like a circuit breaker panel but for water.

I recently put a new water tank in (like two days before the GTG) and we used those "Shark Bite" fittings for the copper inlet and outlet lines. I was very skeptical of those fittings but after installing them, I'm now sold on them too......