Minor disaster, while getting ready for Cozumel trip 2015

[luis]

Here are some pictures of the insulation disaster I had the week before going to Cozumel. This is my gear room and some of my vintage gear display.

An insulating company was sealing air leaks in the attic and adding cellulose insulation in some areas (and above all the fiberglass). There is a sloped cavity closed by rigid foam. The rigid foam was not well supported and it let go. No one was in that room to stop it in time.





























Here are pictures after it was cleaned by the subcontractor. It looks good, but I still have to reorganize everything and there is still a lot of cleaning I have to do. I will probably find insulation dust inside some of the regulator for years into the future.




















And this picture is a totally non-related pluming issue I had to deal with the Saturday before flying to Cozumel. I had to add those two isolation valves due to a shower faucet failure. The good thing is that discovered Shark Bite fittings. I was ready to start soldering, but the Shark Bite changed a very involved pluming job into a 10 minute fix.



Note: I still need to fix the shower faucet and organize the gear room. It is mostly clean, but a mess.

[Drado]

Looks like they did a pretty good job cleaning up, though I would definitely purge the regs first before inhaling from them

Thanks for giving a glimpse into your workshop!

[bbain]

Shut off valves used to be fairly standard in houses - in many pre-WWII homes you will find a small access door on the wall that provides access to the shut off valves for the water lines to the shower and/or tub. Not sure why they fell out of practice, I guess the "extra" plumbing effort fell out of favor in the rush to put up post-WWII housing for the GIs returning home. At one time, particularly where the water lines came through an unheated basement or crawl space, the water lines to the toilets were often both hot and cold so that the water temperature could be adjusted so the tank wouldn't sweat. They don't seem to do that today either.

When we remodeled our bathrooms, I had the plumber put shut offs in -- without them the only way to stop a leak from the water lines to the showers and tubs was to shut off the water at the street. It paid off when a brain dead Comcast contractor thought he was drilling through an outside wall for cable (he wasn't) and nicked the hot water line for a shower, fortunately, above the shut off I had just had installed. Still ruined the celling below, but could have been much worse if I hadn't been able to turn off the line.

Glad you caught it before you left -- it could have been real ugly otherwise.

[luis]

Access to the back of the tub is from the back of a linen closet, so cutting drywall was easy. I already had the access cut from previous “exploratory surgery”.

I just had to shut off the water to the house at the entry point shut off valve in the basement.

The fact that the repair only took 10 minutes... it was like magic. Christine could not believe me when I asked her to go ahead and open up the water main. I was checking for leaks… there were none.

I still think there has to be some witchcraft in this Shark Bite stuff… it is just too good to be true.

[swimjim]

My mother would say you have to put away your toys. In other words, you have too much stuff out in the open. The 40 + regs in my collection live under plastic unless they are in use or are being dried out from same. YMMV. LOL

[luis]

IMO, the point of owning some of this gear is to display it and show it to friends. I want to show it, not just preserve it.

Some of the more interesting items I have were actually design failures or not dive-able for a number of reasons. Most of those items have a story behind them. I like to share stories or learn more about the items… it is all about the story.

[antique diver]

Luis,
That was an awful mess of insulation to have to clean up, but they did a pretty good job of it from what the pictures show. You have quite a collection of neat vintage stuff, and good that you have a place to show so much. I wish I had room to get more of my old gear out where I could enjoy it.

[luis]

Thanks, and yes, they did a pretty good job of cleaning all the outside surfaces. The issue I am going to have is that since the hoses were not attached to the display regulators, I will eventually have to open each one of them and clean the inside.
I have been thinking about adding some horn caps or plugs to keep (future) dust out. I never felt a need for it before, but...

They tried to tell me that they could restored everything to the pre-accident condition. I knew from the beginning that they were way too optimistic (in their initial selling talks).

The major disappointing thing about the cleaning service (subcontractor) is that they didn’t return many of the containers back to their place. I am going to spend a long time just re-organizing.

The good thing is that at the end I hope to be a bit more organized and I may get rid of some stuff. I will be giving away some stuff soon and maybe selling a few items.

[Bronze06]

Hey Luis,

Sorry about the house issues. I guess that is par for the course as far as home ownership is concerned. Yes to the Voodoo of Sharkbite connectors. I have them attached to my water filtration system. They are created by elves and they are the shit!

[8dust]

Very nice looking collection and display, Luis!
Hopefully your computer's cooling fan wasn't running...

BEWARE OF EASY SHORTCUTS

those fittings, super SUPER handy, to be sure, especially when you're fooling with an unanticipated repair, Momma's mad at you for something else already, and you don't want to loose an entire day on the fix... but... they completely rely on the integrity of an O-RING...
and we all know about those little buggers around here, yes?

the manufacture warranty is 25 years, which sounds like a really long time, but not so much to the person who buys your house in 20 years... My roof, I'm completely willing to replace when it eventually needs it, my plumbing... ah... no, that should be one less thing to ever think about.
A well soldered joint will last forever.

That being said, I will freely admit to having at least 3 drips in my crawlspace "repaired" with that self-sealing stretchy silicone tape...
now that stuff is Magic Elf quality shit... it's bailing wire, duct tape, and fairy dust in a nice handy roll for $5. The crawlspace, basement, under a sink, or the backside of a tub behind an access door, pretty good application for the SB fittings, but to anyone else, please please don't ever seal them up inside a wall!!!
If nothing else, it's not fair to the next guy on down the line.

This concludes this morning's public service vent.

[couv]

Suggestion: Ship (wink, wink) all those regulators to Bryan and have them professionally cleaned. Bryan sends a bill to the insurance company. Someone should be responsible to pay for all the labor necessary to do the in depth cleaning. After all, this is life support equipment.

[luis]

Suggestion: Ship (wink, wink) all those regulators to Bryan and have them professionally cleaned. Bryan sends a bill to the insurance company. Someone should be responsible to pay for all the labor necessary to do the in depth cleaning. After all, this is life support equipment.

I have actually been thinking of something similar. I need to talk to the insurance company... this is for real. Lets just say that I am not real happy with the outcome, so far.

I got back from Cozumel and I have been having to sort through stuff and there is still more cleaning to do.

[luis]

but... they completely rely on the integrity of an O-RING...
and we all know about those little buggers around here, yes?

Don't be afraid of O-rings... O-rings are your friends.

O-rings are even used on life support equipment.

[8dust]

Not afraia at all, I'm a fan... just not in attics, or worse still, closed up in walls.

Sending regs off for a compensate-able cleaning sounds like an excellent strategy.