My brother would be so proud...

Chris did an amazing job helping redo some crappy 1927 plumbing in our house last month. The washer and dryer now make for a functional laundry room, and no more unsightly sewer line hanging below the basement ceiling.

Of course with this house, it seemed like every time he fixed one thing, another problem cropped up. The last fix he made was to the garbage disposal which required re-aligning an old galvanized vent pipe to stop water from pouring out of the separation. We fixed this, and everything seemed to be good again in the world.

Lo and behold, the first rainstorm we get and water is pouring in from the vent penetration on the roof. It's running down the outside of the pipe, into the guest bedroom floor, and into the basement. I should mention at this point that re-sealing that vent penetratoin was the only part I helped with on the entire plumbing job. Read into that as you like.

So the next morning I decided to take the day off, move the vent away from the roof valley channel, and install a new vent penetration. Plus, I removed the old galvanized pipe and replaced it with newer piping, and subsequently found out the vent pipe had a hole in it and was leaking sewer gas into the attic crawlspace since who knows when. (mmm, sewer gas)

Long story short, I did a decent enough job to keep water out (for now) and the vent penetration is actually installed to code. (Found out needs to be 18" away from all roof valleys) Good thing I took a break to ask Chris a bunch of questions while he was here.

All in all, not too bad a job to undertake, but definitely punching a hole in my roof was extremely nerveracking. More pics of this adventure here.