Eric Z, a long-time reader, experienced renovator/builder, and former owner of a large building supply store in Toronto, had some smart suggestions after reading our reno-demo checklist.
“I lost an entire renovation,” he writes. “$40,000 in damage – due to a shut-off valve failing in the night the day before the new sink was to be installed.”
As you can see from this photo, during the entirety of our long kitchen demo and reno, I left the pipes extending from the floor, with pressure-fitted shut-offs attached.
An accident waiting to happen.
I’m thanking the reno gods. We did actually have an incident in which the rolling scaffold used for mudding bumped one of the pipes, causing a slow leak which wet the floor and some stuff stored in the basement before we discovered it. It could have been much worse.
Eric’s advice: Either…
1. Jumper the two valves with a flex hose. Connect a flex hose from the cold valve to the hot valve. If a valve fails or gets turned on, the water’s not going anywhere.
2. Solder a cap to a short section of pipe, or crimp and solder a short section of copper tubing, and attach to the open end of the valve with a compression fitting. Repeat.
3. Or, the most thorough method, remove the valves completely and solder a cap to the pipes. The closer to the floor the better.