Don't Sweat the Little Stuff
Owning an older home gives you the opportunity to be a Jack-of-All-Trades...and who knows, you may even get to be a Master of a few. Of course, with all the work that usually needs to be done to an older home, you must perfect the art of prioritizing (that's what procrastinators tell you they are doing when they are perfecting their art). When I bought my home, one of the problems that I found was that the plumbing was a mess.
The water lines in my basement are a collection of copper and galvanized iron, which is typical of older homes. As galvanized iron pipe corrodes and rusts, the inside diameter is reduced and the flow of water is restricted. Imagine what happens when a person is afflicted with hardening of the arteries and you will have an idea of what I am talking about. The easiest way to repair galvanized iron water lines is to replace them. Copper has been the material of choice, but there is a trick to joining copper to galvanized iron...and the person who did the work in my basement did not know what it was.
When you join copper to galvanized iron, a reaction takes place between the two metals that is part chemical and part electrical. This reaction speeds up the rusting of the iron and the failure of the joint. The solution to prevent this electrochemical reaction is to use a dielectric union, which is made of brass and doesn't react with either the copper or iron. Dielectric unions now come with a plastic spacer to better protect the joint.
So, with that in mind, let's head back to my basement. As my wife was looking around the house with the realtor, I was looking around the basement. One of the first things I noticed was a drip coming from a copper/iron joint. It was a small drip...nothing to be too alarmed about. I inspected the rest of the water pipes and found that were about a dozen copper/iron joints and not one had a dielectric union. Knowing that my wife loved the house, I made a mental note to replace and upgrade the plumbing.
Fast forward a few months. I go downstairs to see what I need to fix the leak and it's not leaking any more. Well, I quickly re-prioritized the leak and went on to another project. (See where the line between prioritizing and procrastinating
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