My mother owns a house just up the street from out family cottage. Which works out well as our cottage does not have running water. However as the house was closed up over the winter we ran into some problems. Mainly the sump pump burned out and the basement flooded with water. On top of this the platform holding the water pump finally rotted away and collapsed leaving everything dangling from a single pipe.

We bought a new sump pump and drained the basement and set to work removing all of the years of crap plumbing and stuck together bits in an effort to remove as many of the future potential leaks as possible. We also installed a number of shut off valves as any that were down there either went to some long ago piece of pipe that no longer exists or where so badly corroded they refused to move. Some did both and just slowly dripped showing their age.

I failed to get any before pictures but grabbed some after everything was redone.

New pump and plumbing all installed and working.

New platform, up on concrete blocks to prevent any future floods from rotting the wood.

All plumbed in, notice the two disconnects on the water in and out pipes. Now we can remove the pump in the fall.

All new fittings, removing years of hose clamps and different sized pipes and adapters.

All new fittings, removing years of hose clamps and different sized pipes and adapters.

The original compression tank, thank god it didn't leak.

Straight runs of pipe replacing years of T connectors and leaking valves.

Shutoff valves installed for the hot water tank.

New shutoff valves for the upstairs washroom. These are off until we can fix the problems up there.

New shutoff valves installed for the downstairs washroom.

Why does the wall say "leak"?

Damn rock in the well caused us nothing but problems.

The new sump pump, installed in its well.

The new sump pump, installed in its well.

Mystery pipe in the well, no idea why but its in the way.

I should also mention that I did all of the solder connections and didn’t have a single leak. Not bad for a guy who’s only training was soldering electronics and DIY shows on TV.