On Mon, 18 Feb 2008 15:45:12 GMT, "Donna Ohl, Grady Volunteer
Coordinator" wrote:

On Mon, 18 Feb 2008 06:54:10 -0800 (PST), wrote:

all your galvanized needs replaced, when corroded that bad soon it
will leak

Hi Hallerb,

It was disgusting how corroded the *inside* of the galvanized pipes were!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/donnaohl/2273250265/

That's not corrosion. It's mineral scale. Stone, basically.

We had to reuse the 3/4 inch galvanized elbows.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/donnaohl/2273268515/

Why? Because we just couldn't get them off no matter how much we twisted!

We had to put Jack's stands against the wall just to hold it back.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/donnaohl/2273268509/

The horizontal pipe kept bending and twisting with every application of
force.

An 18" or 24"pipe wrench taking a bite on that pipe would have
prevented that. You need to see how a plumber does it. Those ells
would come off easily enough. Don't need jackstands, though that was
creative, I must say. Good for you. You have initiative.
BTW, older pipes were sometimes assembled with a hardening dope.
Whacking the joint repeatedly with a hammer usually breaks the bond.

Three questions came up that we'd like to ask:

1. We could easily twist the horizontal galvanized pipe; but how would we
replace this corroded pipe since it apparently connects to an elbow
*inside* the wall?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/donnaohl/2273268515/

If the flow is ok, don't worry about it. You never saw inside that
pipe, and it may very well be fairly unrestricted. Scale forms more
at fittings, where the water changes direction, or becomes turbulent.
If the pipe connects to an ell inside the wall, you would have to
knock out the wall to get a bite on the ell with a wrench to prevent
the possibility of breaking a pipe. If the pipe goes into a tee (for
example the run continues to feed elsewhere) you can probably just
twist it out. Just remember that one has to continue replacing if
anything screws up.

2. Could/should we have just hack sawed the horizontal galvanized pipe and
rethreaded somehow (it's leaking very slightly from where the corroded
threads meet the new steel nipple)?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/donnaohl/2273262551/

Most likely you didn't crank it in enough, or the ell threads were
fouled with hardened dope. That's a good reason to replace ells.
OTOH the external pipe threads can often be cleaned of old dope and
inserted further than before into the fitting, making up for any
corrosion.
If the leak doesn't stop, you'll have to redo that. There may be
remedies for the leak, but I can't recommend any.

3. Is our cold water shut off valve too close to the hot vent flue for
safety?
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2385/...86c459d6_m.jpg

Still don't know why you used a lever valve. The least you could have
done was to install the valve with lever away from the vent, 90
degrees rotated from where it is.
I doubt it's an issue though, unless the valve has plastic that can
melt. See how hot it gets after a heater run.

Please advise as this job brought up more questions than answers!
Donna
http://www.flickr.com/donnaohl

Except for the leak, you did fine. Don't overthink it. Galvanized
pipes can easily last 50 years. The pipes in my house are that old
and in fine shape, but perhaps restricted a bit with scale.
If you decide to replace them with copper or PEX, you can no doubt do
that yourself, since you are willing to study how. It will be tougher
than a water heater though.
Somebody mentioned the gas flex you used, and you should be absolutely
certain you've done that safely. I have used only black pipe for gas,
so don't know about the flex fittings, except I use the new, certified
ones when I replace a range. There was a batch of faulty gas flex
hoses installed on ranges that caused some explosions/deaths, so check
into that too.

--Vic