I am trying to figure out what is what.

This is a shared kitchen wall between two units of a duplex.

Originally the kitchen sinks are back to back. Some point down the road the sink on the other side of the wall was moved to an island. So they capped the drain - and recently I redid the drain in PVC. Now I am trying to sort out the water supply issues.

There is only one water meter, but two main shutoffs - one for each unit. I have tested everything on the supply side and everything is properly separated EXCEPT the kitchen. Here in the kitchen as I am on unit B, I found out the cold water going into unit B is controlled by the shutoff in unit A.

Here is what I found. On the left is the valve for unit B's hot water for the kitchen sink. It is coming from unit B's HWH. To it's right is unit B's cold supply, it is controlled by unit A's main shutoff. To it's right is a capped manifold.



What I am trying to determine, is since there is only one meter, may be it was always unit A's cold supply for both units there, and what was capped off is unit A's hot water?

I noticed some of these fittings seem old, there is a ridge around the connection.





Do they look like the type of copper fittings in the 1950s? If so then much of this is original and I can proceed assuming sound logic was applied. If not, then anything goes and I need to open up that cap and see what I have.

The objective is to see if I can separate the cold supply going into unit A and B at this kitchen wall. This is the only thing that stands in the way of getting the two units individually metered.

Those fittings with the rings look like the newer fittings that come prefilled with solder. You clean, flux and heat and the solder flows out and you're done. I've never used them, only seen them in stores. It looks like only a few of the fittings are of that style, so I would think when the other kitchen was remodeled was when those fittings were installed.

Any chance of getting a cold water pipe there from B's cold supply?

It looks like the cold pipe going in the slab at the far left has foam insulation and it also appears to have the ringed fittings. Is this the new cold feed for A's kitchen sink?



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I would suspect that the capped manifold was supposed to be unit b's cold water supply. try flushing the toilet in unit b and see if you can hear water water run in that manifold or an outside spigot maybe. The ridge on the fittings was to create a solder pocket in the joint which in some folks opinion was just a waste of good old fashioned lead solder.

The elbows look like copper fittings i used to see at the big box stores and have used a few awhile ago, like 2005 or so. They have a ring of solder in that hump, and was supposed to make for a nice easy, clean fitting. I, as a newbie didn't like them. I have a few here that I installed my first water softener on.

OK if these are not old 1950s fittings then I have to dig deeper.

Possibilities:

(1) A and B have always shared cold water at the kitchen. Hots are separate because they have separate electric meters and separate hot water heaters. Therefore there is not a cold for A and a cold for B. That means the capped line is hot water for unit A and it runs to the island.

(2) The last owner combined the cold water lines for A & B - merged them into one single manifold because there is only one meter.

(3) The cold water line for B was there but was cut off, capped below grade and buried.

I'll open the capped line and see what's going on. Stay tuned.

Those fittings are too old to be the "presoldered" ones sold recently. They may be cast brass. They may even have a hole in the side where the solder was applied to the joint.

My guess is that the fittings are as old as the structure. They appear to be cast brass which makes them 25+ years old. Which would also mean that they contain:


















































l e a d *gasp*



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quote; Which would also mean that they contain:

Don't even go there. IF the lead is going to "leach" out, it has had decades to do it. (Which also means the fittings should be seeping water through the voids left by the missing lead).

steve,

that branch to the left is in some foam insulation, and the rest of the pipes are in the harder thinner sleeves which I believe is only to separate the pipe from the concrete. That branch may be added later during the remodeling.

Also, the branch to the right, the cold water from unit A, is also new, that is a 15' run through the studs to a bar sink.



I have already deleted that entire bar sink and capped the copper pipe there. That bar sink had a unvented PVC 1.5" which runs along the top of the bottom plate (which you can see from the stud to the right there is still the hole for it), and that drain actually climbs uphill to connect to the 2" vent/drain here, all of that I already removed and deleted. I probably ought to cut the pipe to the bar here, instead of having a 15' run that dead ends, right?

If the capped manifold to the right was the hot water for unit A, and it looks original, then somehow they didn't need to run a new hot water branch to the island, which is puzzling. Either they took it from somewhere else, or this branch already run to the bathroom on the other side and they split that line for the island, meaning there are two underground solder joints.



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