Plumbing

[Chris]

We just got a great deal on a water softener for our 2003 Fleetwood doublewide entertainer. We have had 5 plumbers come out and quote the job and they are saying anywhere between 550.00 and 800.00 to install this. I think thats a crazy price and told my wife we could do it ourself. I am no master plumber, but with the right tools it's just tapping into the water main in the utility room and running a drain to the dryer right next to where the softener is to go. Am I crazy thinking we can do this and will I be able to get all the pipes and valves I need at home depot ( white PVC pipes in house) or do I need to go to a mobile home parts store?

Last, we also want to put in a garbage disposal (none currently installed) all but 2 plumbers told us not to tap into the power line for the dishwasher because of safety, house burning down, blah, blah, blah. I agree with the plumbers that said we could tap into it since very rarely will both be running at the same time. Your thoughts?

Thanks in advance for your input

[Danny]

these guys charge these prices for a reason a professional can make a hard and aggrovating job look so simple...it comes from experience...however if you want to attempt this then ..yes you cn get all the materials at your local home improvement store...but look closly ...is this PVC or CPVC ?there is a diffrence....as for your disposal ....it depends on what all is on the circuit...a dishwasher will pull approx. 8 amps. a disposal will pull about 12amps (depending on horsepower) there is a data plate on the desposal that will tell you the full load amperage.....thats 20amps total ...if this is a 14ga. wire ,its good for 30amps. so your breaker should not exceed 30amps....if these are the only things on this curcurit then you shoud be fine.....NOTE: when you make any electrical joints always give a firm pull on the wirenuts after tightening them and wrap over your wirenuts and wire with electrical tape to ensure a good solid & safe joint

[Bill]

I have normally done all my own plumbing in the past, some farily extensive, but it was standard copper plumbing. My "new" house has the CPVC (grey plastic line that uses crimp rings at the fittings). I ended up paying a plumber $250 for my hookup, mostly because I didn't know what to buy or where to get what I needed to make the transition from CPVC to copper.

As far as the disposal, I also did one of those when I redid our kitchen. I used the same circuit as the dishwasher. Never tripped the breaker yet from using both at the same time.