Water connections in the kitchen¶

Tags: house

Yeah, today I finally got the water connections for the kitchen done! All the connections had to shift to the right a bit to fit with the new kitchen setup. So:

• I disconnected the water.

• I drained the pipes. Don’t forget to ALSO open a tap upstairs, otherwise there’s a whole amount of water trapped at a higher level, ready to rush downstairs if someone DOES open a tap upstairs. I didn’t forget that, btw :-)

• I sawed off some pipes and hooked up new ones. “New ones” mean two lenghts of pipe, one 12mm and one 15mm. And a couple of right bents with so-called compression fittings (Dutch: knelkoppeling).

• I added a new connection (a big tap) for the dishwasher.

• I bought two bends for the water disposal tube to shift it right a bit, that was enough.

In the picture below, you can still see the old water tap dangling, as that’s the only means I’ve got right now to close off those water pipes :-)

Just a quick note for building an ikea kitchen. They tell you to put a length of timber on the wall to place your bottom drawers on. Ok, you can drill holes and so, but you need to place it absolutely horizontal. And drilling holes isn’t THAT precise…

The solution, if you have a quite soft wall, that is:

• Use a spike to hammer one end at approximately the right height.

• You ought to have chosen a vertical “base” line at which you measure all the heights. Hammer the timber at EXACTLY the right height at that point.

• Move half a meter left and use a spirit level (Dutch: waterpas) to get the timber nice and level and hammer it in place.

• Repeat throughout the length of the timber.

Ok, now you’ve got the timber in place at the right height.

• Pick a good-sized wall plug size. I picked a good brand of 8mm plugs. Plus matching screws.

• Drill an 8mm hole through the timber with a wood drill. Every meter or so.

• Drill those same holes with an 8mm stone drill, deep enough for the plugs.

• I had plugs with small “fins” so they wouldn’t rotate in soft stone, so I had to drill up the wood with a 10mm drill.

• Put in the plugs. In the wall, not inside the wood. That’s where that extra 10mm wood drilling might come in handy.

• Use a big washer together with your screw and tighten it in place.

Tadaaah, you’ll have a perfectly placed timber to place your bottom drawers on. See the picture below: