Rambling "How I Spent My ${DURATION}" braindump.

Last week I was carrying bags of water softener #salt into my furnace room and noticed a small #limescale deposit on the floor in the middle of the room that hadn't been there a few days before. Directly above it are a bunch of water #pipes going off in different directions. Found one 90 degree elbow that had more than the usual accumulation of green stuff on it, like a tiny #stalactite. Okay, water #leak found.

I was going to wait for the weekend to fix it, but it seemed to be speeding up, so I did it Wednesday. I had to cut a chunk of #convoluted pipe out of the system that was way more complex than it should have been. It had to go around other #pipes and join another #pipe and around some joists, but the #plumber who put this in 40 years ago had a #fetish or something. No word of a lie, it reminded me more of the Windows NT "pipes" #screensaver than anything else.

In a volume about the size of a 2L bottle of pop, there were 4 #elbows, 3 #unions, and five little pieces of pipe if I remember correctly. I soldered together a matching jumble of parts ... and then couldn't solder one side of it in, because it's at a local low point, and I couldn't get the last dribbles of #water to stop. Any water wicks the heat away and the #solder doesn't stick.

Ended up using a #flex line with #sharkbite connectors to replace the whole thing. What a shame, I was proud of my replacement.

#DIY #plumbing #HomeRepair

Limescale (Petrology 💎)

Limescale is a hard, chalky deposit, consisting mainly of calcium carbonate. It often builds up inside kettles, boilers, and pipework, especially that for hot water. It is also often found as a similar deposit on the inner surfaces of old pipes and other surfaces where hard water has flowed. Limescale also forms as travertine or tufa in hard water springs. The colour varies from...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limescale

#Limescale #Water #Fouling #Limestone #Petrology

I've been working at cleaning the calcium buildup of the tub all day. Limescale remover spray sat on here for hours in two passes. I scrubbed the bejeezus out of it several times. I rinsed it out and used a powdered cleanser for a while. Scrubbed the bejeezus out of that, too. Then I rinsed it all out thoroughly. Ended it with a vinegar and baking soda soak for more than an hour. Believe it or not, this is progress. This is the most limescale I've been able to remove in a few years.

I'm not sure how to get the rest. I obviously can't spend hours every day scrubbing this bathtub. It always looks filthy because of the scaling, even though I do clean it regularly.

Now I'm going to enjoy the fruits of my labour with a long soak. #limescale #HardWater #calcium #bathtub #cleaning #bath