Tips For Plumbing A Basement In Clay Soil

Cellar construction in clay soil poses several issues

. Expansive soil may cause cracking in the foundation, cellar walls and floor if good precautions are not taken. Natural movement due to expansive clay soils also need special cares to be taken when installing cellar plumbing. Pipes can burst if plumbing is too stiff.

Floating walls keep the walls and floors from being damaged as the home moves with the expansion of clay soil. This allows the walls to move independently from the floor of the basement. The pipes need to be able to move upward with the floor but not push against the first floor of your home. The drainage pipes under the basement floor need to be able to breathe as well.

When you install bathrooms, laundry room, or a mudroom in the basement you need to allow for natural movement of clay soil. Installing flexible expansion couplings and expansion joints on basement plumbing will allow for this movement and keep the pipes from leaking at the joints or cracking.

Your pipes should be new during installation. If you're working with established pipes ensure not to go from one kind of metal to another. If you use copper stay with copper pipes and the same applies for other metals. Take care to not to switch the dimensions of pipes accidentally. It is easy to go from one size to another but it isn't invariably customarily sensible idea. You must also commence with new pipes whenever it's possible. Older pipes can have lead solder split up while you are working with them and you don't need this to get into your water supply, even though it is for a shower and not drinking water.

Anywhere that you are attaching one length of pipe to another you need to add an expansion coupling. Expansion couplings are made of a synthetic polymer sleeve that slips over the ends of both pipes. Steel clamps are used to hold the coupling and pipes together. Once applied, the coupling will allow for a small amount of movement in the pipes. It is important to make sure you have the expansion couplings and not regular couplings as the expansion couplings are made to breathe with the home and the regular couplings aren't made to move.

When installing a shower you can use reverse floating walls to stabilize pipes in the basement and allow movement in the top of the pipes. You should put as much of the plumbing in the same area as possible and use the same wet wall. A chase should be included and access can be either along a wall or in the ceiling.

Flex lines are required for water supply lines. The main water supply line should go into the chase and have flex lines attached in that area to the pipes utilized in the cellar. The most logical place for the chase access panel is in the use room together with the water heater.

In addition to having growth joints and flexible couplings installed the pipes there should be adequate space between the pipes and the ceiling / floor to avoid having the pipes push into the ceiling as the ground expands with the changes in the moisture in clay soil.

Growth joints will be required for installation of ground water drainage pipes also. This will be done below the basement floor, above the foundation. Drains can be placed in the cellar floor permitting moisture that does enter the cellar to run into the drainage system and away from the home.

by: Phill Lancaster

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