The service should be laid below the frost line, and carried as directly as possible to the building. Where the service pipe enters the building, it should be provided with a good, serviceable stop and waste cock, placed at a l;oint easily reached by the occupants of the building in case the water should require shut ting off at any time on account of leaks, bursting of pipes, etc.
As the job we are installing is what is termed a "city water" job, we shall proceed to install the piping. It is understood that this is to be put in place before the plastering is done or the bathroom floor is laid.
We start the cold-water line at the front wall where the service enters; and rising to the ceil ing, we run directly to the bathroom riser, where we place a stop and waste cock so that the bath room can be shut off independently of the bal ance of the system; in making this run, we put in tees at intervals for the connections for the other fixtures. The bathroom line is carried up to underneath the floor of the bathroom, where it branches to the tub, closet, and lavatory. The nipples of these branches are left extending through the floor at the proper places, being capped for testing purposes and to prevent dirt getting into the pipe.
We shall now extend the first-floor lavatory supply to the proper point, placing a stop and waste cock on this line also.
Next we shall extend the branch that sup plies the laundry tubs, sink, and hot-water boiler, placing stops on the wash-tray and sink lines, but placing the stop for the range boiler at the top of the boiler. This will cut off the entire hot-water supply for the house; and sepa rate stops can be placed on the various hot-water lines to the fixtures, if desired. The hot water for the bathroom can be either extended to the ceiling and carried across to the bathroom, or it can be taken to the cellar and carried up along side the cold-water line. The hot lines, after leaving the boiler, can be run about the same as 6 the cold-water supplies; but on both lines there must be a definite place to which the pipes will drain in case it is desired to empty the entire system of water.
In connecting up the range boiler with the cold supply, a piece of pipe usually extending to within six inches of the bottom of the boiler— known as a boiler tube—should be screwed into the boiler coupling to which the cold-water sup ply is connected, for the purpose of carrying the cold water down nearly to the bottom of the boiler. The object of this is to avoid chilling
the hot water, which leaves the boiler by a pipe at the top alongside the cold-water inlet pipe. This cold-water pipe should always have a small hole drilled in it at a point about one inch below the top of the boiler, to prevent the possibility of the water being siphoned out of the boiler, which might occur in case the supply were shut off for any reason. This vent-hole in the cold inlet pipe should be about one-eighth inch in size, and should always be turned away from the hot supply, or it will throw a spray of cold water directly across the hot water leaving the boiler; and it may puzzle you for a while to find out why a job that is to all outward appearance piped correctly will nevertheless not give a good supply of hot water.
In some cases, it is required that the job shall be supplied with soft water. This calls for the use of a water lift, and the soft water can be either pumped to an attic tank, or pumped di rectly into the system. There are a number of water lifts or motors on the market, operated by either electricity or by water power. In the electrically operated lift, the necessary wiring will be installed, and the soft water end will be connected by a suction pipe to the cistern, and a discharge pipe to the attic tank or directly to the system of piping through the building. In the case of a lift operated by water power, the cold city water will be connected at the opening marked for it on the lift, and the waste water can be discharged to the sewer or run to the kitchen sink (if an attic tank is used), in which case the lift will pump water whenever cold water is drawn at the sink; the discharge and suction on the soft water end will be connected up as before described.
Where the soft water is discharged directly into the piping it is necessary to place a com pression tank in the discharge line. This is usually a 30-gallon range boiler, which acts as a cushion for the pump or lift to work against, and insures a steady flow at the faucets when water is drawn. If such a tank were not in stalled, the water would come in a sputtering stream as the lift delivered it into the pipe system.