I spotted this on an inspection the other day. The toilet for the primary bathroom is immediately behind this rig up. Any thoughts on the hose feeding into the trap? Thanks.
Water softener line with an air gap adapter? I don’t think that trap will fare well in the winter though
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There is apparently an abandoned water softener in the garage, which would be about 15 feet to the left of this device - I could not see the softener because of the pile of stuff in the garage. The water line, assuming that’s what it is, comes right up out of the ground. A friend thought the water line might be a trap primer.
Yeah, the trap will freeze - this is in Houston, but it still gets cold enough here.
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Yu Zhang is on the money with his assessment. It is a flush line for the whole house water filter. Unfortunately I see this completely incorrect installation frequently here (Dallas) even on new home builds before closing. For the new home ones the AHJ passes it even though it is wrong in several ways.
There are a couple of companies (one I believe is based in Houston) that typically sell these through the Big Box stores then send sub-contractors out to install them. Out of all that I have seen I’ve only found a few that were actually installed properly.
Typically you see the flush line (black hose) coming out of the brick near the filter system. One new home build they actually pre-plumbed it under the slab with absolutely no protection (sheathing, insulation, etc.). One I saw they ran it into the attic above and out of the soffit and down.
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Thanks, Emmanuel. That makes sense.
By the way that exposed PT Cable live end is not typical. There is no sign of a proper grout ever having been applied. That looks like concrete in the pocket former opening. If the pocket former was not properly set against the form boards the paste can leak into the former during foundation pour and leave that indication. What is concerning then is was that PTC ever actually stressed??
Were there others like that around the foundation?
Yes. Not a single PT cable end was sealed. The house on the other side of this house was the same. No caps on the PT cable ends either.
Wow that is FU! Most likely that’s concrete paste that seeped into the pocket former. If so the HUGE question is how did they even tension that cable and set the cable locks without clearing the concrete?
That cable is also corroding. If they were ever properly locked in and even one strand breaks it can potentially cause a cable release. The results are unpredictable from damaging or blowing a hole in the side of the foundation (or other lesser damage) to much more catastrophic damage along its length.
When I run into that, even one cable, I advise the client to request/demand the PTC stressing/finishing report, the Engineers post stress inspection report, as well as the foundation plan showing all cable locations. They can compare it to see if the foundation company even reported proper tensioning of PTC’s. I did encounter one like that years ago and it turns out the foundation company never came out to finish stressing cables and they, or others, just cut the cable ends off. In effect there was no reinforcement in the slab as a result. The Builder’s Engineer passed it and the DA AHJ never looked at it even though they were so visible it was pathetic!
Me thinks something smells fishy!!
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