Tub waste that is...the tub waste line is the current plumbing fix I'm working on. Something entirely different (and new) for me as well. A couple of months ago Corey heard something leaking (yeah, it takes me a while to get mobilized on some of these projects, and in my own defense, we don't use the tub that often, so it took me a while to get going). After peeling back the subfloor insulation I found water leaking at a joint connection in this waste line. The tubing looked like copper to me so my first attempt was soldering the connection. Turns out that was the wrong thing to do. All that black stuff duct taped to the floor are heat shields. Those turned out to be quite useful, but as I learned yesterday at the Home Depot, these connections don't need to be soldered at all!
The tubing is actually brass, not copper. Now apparently it may be possible to solder, but these connecctions are meant to be connected via a slip joint. I didn't know what that was until the Home Depot guy showed me how it worked. It's quite simple—just a threaded nut that goes on to a threaded ring present on the brass T-coupling (not shown in the pics—I have that disassembled, it's sitting in the garage). The key is a rubber gasket that slips on to the pipe that the threaded nut tightens against the ring. And it doesn't need to be all that tight apparently. Start by hand-tightening, then if it leaks, try maybe 1/4 turns with a wrench to stop the leak.
Last night I bought all the parts that I think I'll need to fix this after work today. The brass pipe is supposed to drop in to the PVC pipe sticking up vertically. Last night I couldn't get it to fit properly and by reefing on the PVC pipe I cracked the 90°elbow sitting atop the trap in the lower pic, oops! So now I have to rebuild the whole PVC assembly. That's ok though; I don't mind working with PVC, it should be easier than trying to solder brass!
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