I am a graduate student of the "School of Hard Knocks". In January I was reminded that getting your education is a never-ending process.
While troubleshooting a leak, I became so "flustrated" that if I had had a shotgun, I would have shot holes in the walls to find the leak. I had just added three inlets to a house addition and had done a vacuum seal check when finished with the rough in to ensure that the existing system was good. Then I discovered a buried inlet behind an end table with a broken door. Whenever adding to someone else's work, always double-check their work before finishing. Otherwise they will say, "Why didn't you check this while we had the walls open?", and they would be right.
Your job as a professional is to foresee problems. The "Trick of the Trade" is to double duct tape the wide end of an inlet extension and then plug it into your rough-in plate, then put the plaster guard on. This allows you to check the sealed vacuum and leaves the system usable for the homeowner in the rest of the house during the remodel. Always warn the customer not to use their CVS for any drywall cleanup, as it will void the motor warranty.
I made it a point to let the contractor know that I did this so he would know that we are thorough and professional. And if any problem did arise, he'd know someone had to have caused it. I sent my installer to finish the job and demonstrate the upgraded attachments we sold them. He called me and said, "Bro, you're not going to believe this!" I said, "Try me". He said, "I hear a leak in the area where you put a new inlet." After trying to troubleshoot over the phone, we agreed that I would have to go and do this myself. When I got there, I could hear what sounded like a leak in the low closed attic ceiling where I ran the pipe. Because I installed the pipe just before the drywall, I figured that it had to have been something I did. So I reluctantly cut the ceiling to discover that there was no leak. I then walked up the stairs and heard it at the new inlet there. This time I used a doctor's stethoscope to hear the roar just above the inlet where I thirtyed over and up. After cutting another hole and finding no leak, I was perplexed. How could I hear the roars of leaks and have no leak? I was able to check the pipe run above the added room, thus leaving the section above the extended room upstairs. Unfortunately, this required a balancing act on my knees on the 2 x 4 rafters cutting an access hole through the old roof sheeting into the new attic with my sawsall and extension cord. This particular insulation made me cough. This is why you should never run out of respiratory masks. After crawling through the access hole to find no leak, I began to get irritated. This was the first time I cut two holes and missed, let alone climbed into a hot attic.
My saving grace was an old saying, "Those who never make mistakes are those who never do anything." This was all that kept my sanity when I remembered one of the "Tricks of the Trade." Because I heard what I thought was an obvious leak, I failed to do a simple time-saving trick, "isolate the leak." I then went to where I brought in the three pipe runs above the motor unit. By cutting each separate run, I quickly isolated which run the leak was in. This was three hours after I started. Thus, "Troubleshoot before you shoot." Believing that the leak was a result of my workmanship, I then had to cut the faux-finished ceiling of the new bathroom where I connected an inlet to the original run for the downstairs. Needless to say, the contractor was not happy about this cut. What I found out is that you cannot just touch up paint on a faux-finish, you have to do the whole ceiling.
After cutting behind my TY, I discovered the leak was in the main house. This was shocking to me because I had done a sealed vacuum check of the system during rough-in. This is, in part, why I felt that the leak had to do with my work and did not think to properly "isolate the leak." I wasn't out of the woods yet. I could still not hear the leak along the line of the four downstairs inlets. Without wanting to cut any more drywall, the general contractor and I agreed that it would be best to pay a plumber $250 to bring in a scope camera to check inside the pipe. "Trick of the Trade"; make sure they have a one-inch camera, not a two-inch. P.S. Some rental yards have these; you can do it yourself. However, by the time you add up your hourly cost lost getting and returning it and rental cost, I have found it is cheaper and quicker to pay the plumber. This camera has proven to be successful in the past but not this time. We saw in one of the pipes, eight inches of flexible pipe. Because the camera could not get through all of the pipes, we took our shot that the flexible pipe was the problem. This meant that I had to cut the ceiling in the pantry. After cutting the ceiling, I heard the leak in the pipe, above the roar of the running refrigerator. Somehow an original 90-degree fitting that was not glued came off of the 13-year-old system. This was above an insulated ceiling and explained why I could not hear the leak, since a two-inch open pipe does not make a loud roar.
Not gluing a pipe is the one mistake of an installer that I will not criticize, since clear glue is invisible when dry. This is why we put a dab of blue glue in with our glue just to give a little color. When we do our parts usage count at the end of each job, we now instinctively check for blue glue. My continuing education continued when I called the CEO of Modern Day CVS, Grant Olewiler. I called to tell him of this adventure of my mistake of forgetting to "isolate the leak". He then reminded me of an old "Trick of the Trade" that I had learned but had forgotten at the School of Hard Knocks. Before you cut a hole, make a 1/4" drill hole to hear air flow. All I could say when he reminded me of this trick was "Duuhh!" The moral of this story is don't forget the basics, and no matter how long you have been doing something or how good you are, do not make the mistakes I made.
