PLUMBING
A generous supply of water for a house brings with it desires for the conveniences necessary to its enjoyment. As soon as running water is established in a house, the kitchen sink fails conspicuously to fulfill all requirements, and a wash-tub seems a sorry substitute for a modern bath-room. A single pipe supplying cold water only, no matter how pure the water or how satisfactory in the summer, does not afford the constant convenience which an unlimited supply of both cold and hot water offers, and the introduction of running water is usually followed by an addition to the kitchen stove whereby running hot water may be obtained as well as running cold water. The next step is the equipment of a bath-room, affording suitable bathing facilities and doing away with the out-of-door privy.
Installation of the plumbing.
These things are reckoned as luxuries, not among the necessities of life, and it must be understood at the outset that such conveniences cost money, both for original installation and for maintenance; the water-back in the stove will become filled up with lime if the water is hard, the boiler will become corroded and have to be replaced, the plumbing fixtures will certainly get out of repair and need attention, and there will be, year by year, a small but continuous outlay.
Again, it is idle to propose installing plumbing fixtures unless the house is properly heated in winter time, and this calls for a furnace for at least a portion of the house. Usually the kitchen is kept warm enough through the winter nights, so that running water may be put in the kitchen without danger from frost; although the writer knows of a house where it is the task of the housewife each winter night to shut off all water in the cellar and to clean out the trap in the sink drain in order to prevent freezing in both the supply pipe and drainpipe. Usually a water-pipe may be carried through the cellar without danger of freezing, but in most farmhouses heated by stoves, except in the kitchen and sitting room, water-pipes would, the first cold night, probably freeze and burst.
Various makeshifts have been employed to secure the convenience of a bath-room without adding to the expense by installing a furnace. In one house the bath-room was placed in an alcove off from the kitchen, with open space above the dividing partition, so that the kitchen heat kept the bath-room warm. This is not an ideal location for a bath-room, but, in this case, it avoided the necessity for an additional stove or furnace. In another house the bath-room was placed above the kitchen, with a large register in the floor of the former, so that the kitchen heat kept the room warm; and in still another case the bath-room was over the sitting room, and a large pipe carried the heat from the stove below into the room above. The stovepipe also went through the bath-room and helped to provide warmth. It is better, all things considered, to defer the installation of a bath-room until a furnace can be provided, since then there is no danger of frozen water-pipes at intermediate points where the cold reaches the pipes. A full list of fixtures and piping required is as follows:—
1st. A tank in the attic to store water in case the main pipe-flow or pump-capacity is small. This tank, of course, is not needed if the direct supply from the source is at all times adequate for the full demand.
2d. A main supply pipe from the outside source or from the attic tank connecting with and supplying the kitchen sink, the hot-water boiler through the kitchen stove, the laundry tubs, the bath-tub, the wash-basin, and the water-closet tank. It is wise, in order to save expense, to have all these fixtures as close together as possible; as, for instance, the laundry tub in the basement directly under the kitchen sink and the bath-room fixtures directly over the kitchen sink.
3d. A hot-water pipe leading out of the hot-water boiler to the kitchen sink, to the laundry tubs, and to the bath-tub. Although not essential, it is desirable to carry the hot-water pipe back to the bottom of the hot-water boiler, so that the circulation of hot water is maintained. This will avoid the necessity of wasting water and waiting until the water runs hot from the hot-water faucet whenever hot water is desired.
4th. The necessary fixtures, such as faucets, sinks, tubs, wash-basins, kitchen boiler, water-back for the stove, water-closet, tank, and fixtures. These may be now taken up in order and described more in detail.