Up next in 10
Common Plumbing Fittings
43 views
Feb 27, 2025
āļø SUBSCRIBE to my FREE weekly newsletter: https://askthebuilder.com/newsletter/ āļø DIY Phone Coaching HELPLINE: https://shop.askthebuilder.com/15-min... š COMPARE BIDS: https://shop.askthebuilder.com/produc... š¤ SECRET TIP to Add 40 Years to Your Roof: https://www.askthebuilder.com/asphalt... š Deluxe Two-Story Shed Plans: https://shop.askthebuilder.com/deluxe... This description may contain affiliate links. The companies you purchase from pay me a tiny commission for introducing you to them. http://www.AsktheBuilder.com founder, Tim Carter, discusses common plumbing fittings.
View Video Transcript
0:00
YouTube I'm the ass the Builder guy I
0:02
also happen to be a master plumber and I
0:05
surveyed my newsletter
0:08
audience oh I don't know a couple of
0:10
weeks ago and I told them I was going to
0:12
start to do more of these vertical uh
0:14
live videos and I asked them what they
0:17
wanted to to know to you know to know
0:20
about discover and one of the
0:22
interesting topics somebody wanted to
0:24
know about common uh plumbing fittings
0:28
and it's kind of an interesting topic
0:31
um if you're not a plumber uh you may
0:34
you may not know what um what fittings
0:37
to use we and I can tell you that uh
0:41
I've gotten quite a few photographs I
0:43
got a really interesting photograph from
0:45
a homeowner in England of all places and
0:50
they had a plumber putting in some
0:52
underground piping under slab and it
0:54
didn't look to them that that the piping
0:56
was right and they were correct the
0:58
plumber was doing a horrible job he was
1:00
using the wrong fittings so let's I I
1:02
I've got some of the fittings and I want
1:03
to show them to you um here's probably
1:06
you know one of the most common ones uh
1:08
this is a 90Ā° fitting all right
1:12
so and most most PVC fittings you know
1:16
the standard ones have got a female you
1:19
know these are these are hubs and the
1:22
pipe you know fits into here all right
1:24
so this is a female Hub that's a female
1:27
Hub but guess what you can also Al get
1:30
fittings uh that have got a female and a
1:34
male all right and the reason that you
1:36
want to have this is called a street is
1:39
so that sometimes you need that extra
1:41
you you you don't have enough room and
1:44
so this shortens up the distance of the
1:46
fitting so understand that you can get
1:49
fittings that have a female and a male
1:51
all right pretty
1:52
interesting so let's go back to this 90
1:55
um this 90 is typically this is what you
1:58
would use
2:00
if you were imagine you you get
2:02
underneath your kitchen sink or your um
2:05
your maybe a bathroom vanity all right
2:08
and you see a pipe come out of the wall
2:10
all right so this is the pipe that you
2:12
would want to have so it's probably
2:14
oriented in the wall like this so here
2:16
is the end of the pipe coming out to you
2:19
but behind the wall you've got this long
2:22
radius 90 you know long radius and the
2:24
reason you want to use a long radius is
2:27
that if you have to put a plumbing snake
2:28
in here it has a much easier time to get
2:31
around the bend all right so these are
2:34
really really handy to use at the end of
2:36
a branch run all right so that's that's
2:38
what you want to
2:39
use the probably second most common
2:42
fitting is what we call a sanitary tea
2:44
all right so this is a sanitary T and of
2:47
course it gets his name because it kind
2:49
of looks like the letter T if you had a
2:51
pipe you know coming down from here all
2:54
right so these are really interesting
2:57
fittings these can be used for both
3:00
water and for air for a vent pipe all
3:03
right but they're installed differently
3:06
let's talk about it so a sanitary tea
3:09
just think of it like a waterfall so
3:12
here is the this end of the sanitary tea
3:16
is the part that that aims down the wall
3:19
to the branch room remember imagine if
3:21
we had here's I'm going to do this again
3:24
for you imagine we had this setup right
3:27
here where we've got the San in the wall
3:30
and here is the pipe that's coming out
3:32
of the wall all right so you can see
3:34
what happens the water enters here goes
3:37
through the pipe comes over to the te
3:41
and then it Go and my then it goes down
3:45
all right so that's why you see this
3:47
curve part right here so make sure if
3:50
you're installing it for water this way
3:53
but on vent pipes you would put it
3:56
upside down and the reason why is this
4:00
air would be coming down from the roof
4:02
and the air would go I'm sorry about my
4:05
finger the air would go this way all
4:08
right so it's really important how you
4:09
Orient it so these are used uh for a
4:13
horizontal branch that comes over
4:15
eventually to a vertical stack and then
4:18
of course the waste water goes down and
4:21
eventually gets to the sewer and to the
4:23
septic tank all right
4:26
now here's one that kind of confuses
4:28
people this is a y
4:30
all right and uh I think you can
4:32
understand why it's called a y I mean
4:34
it's uh kind of looks like the letter Y
4:36
right all right so this is a really
4:38
important fitting all right this is a
4:41
fitting where you want to introduce
4:44
water from one branch like let's say the
4:46
water what typically would be happening
4:48
is the water's flowing down this
4:51
Direction all right so maybe this is a
4:53
stack going up to another fixture and
4:56
then you have another fixture over here
4:59
and you want to introduce water into it
5:01
all right so you do it just like the way
5:04
rivers and streams work if you ever look
5:07
at a in the real world I mean so think
5:09
of think of this the plumbing in your
5:11
home is not much different than the way
5:13
mother nature takes care of water so out
5:16
in the real world when one stream or
5:20
smaller River intercepts another one it
5:23
rarely comes in at a 90 you don't see
5:25
Rivers doing this you don't see Rivers
5:28
coming in and just crashing into the
5:30
other River you generally see them come
5:32
in at an angle all right so we want to
5:36
do you want to do the same thing in your
5:37
house so this could even be installed
5:40
horizontally under a slab where you
5:43
would want you know one fixture to come
5:45
into another so in other words under a
5:47
slab you would never install this
5:50
fixture where water just comes in and
5:53
crashes into this wall here and then it
5:56
doesn't know which way to go all right
5:58
so the reason reason that a wise use is
6:01
it directs the water in the direction
6:03
it's supposed to go it makes it it
6:05
forces it down into the stack it's
6:07
really that simple
6:10
um okay so uh let me go to some of the
6:13
comments here I'll do my best looks like
6:14
some of them scrolled here we go
6:17
um let me go back up Mario hey Mario how
6:20
you doing
6:21
um
6:23
uh no I'm not Helen Keller uh no uh no
6:27
no are boy somebody's F all right so um
6:30
no I don't know what I am I think I'm
6:33
farsighted all right so um what do you
6:36
want to do to introduce water through
6:38
one branch um a lot of different
6:41
questions why are you a builder well I
6:42
was a builder for 20 plus years and then
6:45
I decided to go into this media career
6:47
and I started ask the Builder back uh
6:50
1993 as a syndicated column and I was
6:53
the first Home Improvement Channel on
6:54
YouTube Believe It or Not So anyway um
6:58
so here's a great one Mario says why do
7:00
you want one fixture to come into
7:01
another Well Mario that's simple because
7:03
you generally only have one pipe that
7:06
exits your house that goes to the Sewer
7:08
the city sewer or to a septic tank but
7:11
think how many fixtures are in your
7:12
house um you might have an average house
7:15
um let's see let's say a two-b house
7:19
it's going to have 1 two 3 four five six
7:22
six fixtures in the bathroom a kitchen
7:24
sink is seven washing machines eight
7:26
might have a floor drain nine uh so you
7:30
could easily have nine 10 fixtures in
7:32
one house so you've got to join all
7:34
those pipes together to be able to go
7:37
into one pipe that goes outside all
7:39
right so let's talk a little bit about
7:40
pipe size pipe sizes are really
7:43
important you would generally in a house
7:46
when that pipe leaves your home uh it
7:49
should be a 4-in pipe uh 4in pipe you'd
7:52
be stunned how many fixture units it can
7:55
handle we talk about fixture units
7:57
that's that's a measure of the volume of
7:59
water uh that that goes through or
8:03
counts for a fixture for example a
8:05
typical bathroom we count of six fixture
8:08
units all right so one 4in pipe can
8:12
easily handle 10 15 20 bathrooms no no
8:15
problem whatsoever there's all kinds of
8:17
tables online that you can look this up
8:19
but toilets a residential toilet you
8:22
always have to pipe that with a 3-in
8:24
pipe um showers a residential shower is
8:28
a 2-in pipe just about any sink in your
8:30
home a kitchen sink lavatory sink
8:33
bathtub those are inch and a half pipes
8:35
all right and you have to do kind of the
8:38
same thing in Reverse with vent pipes so
8:41
a toilet can be vented with just one
8:44
inch and a half pipe but as you start to
8:47
gather all your vent pipes together uh
8:50
you start to kind of collect them up in
8:51
the attic uh eventually they're going to
8:53
go out of the roof you should do a 3-in
8:55
pipe minimum the code sometimes let you
8:57
do a smaller one but believe me you want
9:00
to do a 3in fullsize vent out of uh out
9:03
of you know out of your house and if you
9:05
live in a really cold area uh like upper
9:08
Minnesota northern Maine uh where it
9:11
gets really cold you want that to be a
9:13
4in pipe and the reason why is in really
9:16
cold weather like we've been having you
9:18
can have hor Frost that's what it's
9:20
called h a r kind of build up in the
9:23
pipe and it starts to choke off the pipe
9:25
and then air can't get in and by the way
9:27
let's talk about B pipes really quick
9:30
so you may think that pipe up on your
9:32
roof you may think it's a smoke stack
9:35
and the reason for it is to emit gas out
9:38
into the atmosphere you know sewer gas
9:41
nope it's the exact opposite that pipe
9:43
up the roof you know what it's for it's
9:45
to let air into the system because every
9:48
time you put water into a drain pipe
9:52
let's say you flush a toilet let's say
9:54
no water's being used in your home as
9:57
soon as you what's what's in the pipes
10:00
then if there's no water in the pipes
10:01
there's air as soon as you flush the
10:05
toilet and you introduce a gallon and a
10:07
half or two gallons of water into the
10:09
pipe it pushes the air in front of it
10:12
and so you need to replace that air and
10:15
so that air comes from through the pipe
10:17
in the roof and it comes down into your
10:20
system so vent pipes are really really
10:22
important and if you install them
10:24
correctly guess what the benefit of a
10:26
pipe being up on a roof like that it can
10:29
actually be a cleanout because if you
10:31
don't put too many bends in that vent
10:33
pipe and you've got pretty much a flat
10:35
roof or a flatter roof you can get up on
10:37
the roof and put a uh garden hose you
10:40
can put uh one of those drain cleaning
10:41
snakes down that pipe and potentially
10:44
get a clog out of the way and it's also
10:46
a good idea every now and then to put a
10:49
garden hose down that vent pipe turn the
10:51
garden hose on and flush it out you want
10:53
to keep that your your vent pipe system
10:55
very clean um let's see if there's any
10:58
um other question questions I might be
10:59
able to answer um why do you want I've
11:03
already answered that one uh yeah thanks
11:07
oh yeah Jennifer how you doing um hor
11:10
Frost yeah hor Frost it's big
11:13
um I it's I've seen it happen before in
11:16
in Cincinnati we had a really cold spell
11:20
uh back in the
11:21
1980s and you could see the frost build
11:24
up on the top of a vent pipe and we had
11:27
some windy weather and you could
11:28
actually see the frost kind of going the
11:31
direction of the wind it was really
11:32
pretty interesting so
11:35
um anyway um I don't want to take a lot
11:38
of your time I just want to try to do
11:40
some of these shorter videos to explain
11:42
things if you have any more questions
11:45
about um Plumbing fixtures uh Plumbing
11:48
drain systems if you need a riser
11:50
diagram drawn I draw Riser diagrams all
11:53
the time in fact this afternoon I just
11:55
finished a really complex gas line
11:58
drawing uh you need need to have those
11:59
drawings to uh get your permits and I
12:03
think I'll probably do a video pretty
12:04
soon about gas lines uh because gas
12:07
lines let me I'll just say this really
12:08
quickly people always ask about sizing
12:11
water lines in homes like a typical
12:13
waterline system and in fact this
12:14
customer that I'm working for he's out
12:16
he's a developer out in California he
12:19
asked about that and I I explained to
12:21
him I said
12:23
look you generally don't have in a
12:25
residential home you don't have a big
12:27
problem with water volume or pressure
12:29
because we're operating at pressures
12:31
like 50 60 70 pounds per square inch
12:35
that's a lot of pressure all right and
12:37
you generally don't want to go above 70
12:38
lbs you can start to kind of damage
12:41
things uh 70 lbs is a really good number
12:43
if you can get it the trouble with gas
12:46
though I say like natural gas so when
12:49
the gas comes to your house it stops at
12:51
the meter and on the meter they've got a
12:54
pressure regulator on purpose they have
12:56
to kind of Choke it down so the pressure
12:58
of the gas that's on the house side of
13:01
the meter is measured in ounces all
13:04
right so it's just like it just kind of
13:07
puffing puffing gas through the system
13:10
it's not a lot it's not a lot of
13:11
pressure at all so because it's not a
13:14
lot of pressure you have to size the gas
13:17
lines perfectly if you don't size them
13:20
correctly and all of a sudden you try to
13:22
use a lot of things at the same time
13:25
they don't work there there's none
13:26
they're starved for fuel so that's a
13:28
whole whole another video on another day
13:31
but uh if you need a gas line drawing a
13:33
gas Riser diagram drawn I can do it need
13:36
a a drain pipe where Riser D I can do
13:39
that I like drawing these things it's
13:41
like a crossword puzzle for me uh all
13:43
right no more questions um thanks for
13:47
watching I'm trying to keep these videos
13:48
under 15 minutes uh I think that's a a
13:51
really good length and if you have any
13:54
suggestions if there's a video that you
13:55
would like me to do just go to my
13:58
website ask thee builder.com and go to
14:01
the ask Tim Page you can fill out a form
14:04
and just uh suggest a video you'd like
14:06
me to do I'd be happy to do it so thanks
14:09
very much for watching and of course if
14:11
you haven't liked and subscribed please
14:13
do it uh those really really help the
14:15
likes really help because um that
14:18
factors into the the YouTube algorithm
14:21
and then they'll show the video more to
14:23
other people who are just randomly
14:25
watching shorts so thanks very much have
14:27
a great day and be safe I'm Tim Carter
14:30
this was ask the Builder
#Home Improvement
#Other
#Plumbing