3 comments about Wells and Septic Systems.

1. Book reads like a textbook. However, very detailed information provides good fundamental knowledge of the topic.



2. Much of the same comments I made about the "Builder's Guide to Wells and Septic Systems" apply to this book. Although oriented more towards a home owner-builder rather than a professional home builder, it still lacks detail on septic systems. There is no discussion of sand mounds, which account for about 90% of all installations in my region of PA, or other alternative system types. About 1/3 of the book relates to septic systems and the balance to well and water systems.

   If you are interested mainly in wells, this is probably not a bad choice. If your desire is to design your own septic system, then I think this book is lacking.

   Matt




3. This book has given me an introduction to the information needed to replace my septic field with regard to the length and depth of the field trenches and components needed. The book reviews the basics on perculation testing and various calculations for determining the trench dimensions as well as the amount and type of stone and dirt backfill needed. You then need to compare this data to your local code(Pa. Chapter 73 in my case). All States are a little different on their exact requirements for the work.

2 comments about Ultimate Guide to Plumbing: Complete Projects for the Home (Ultimate Guide).

1. This book provides the basic information you need to get started on plumbing a house and the in depth knowledge needed to complete the job. It's a good read for understanding plumbing.



2. Merle Henkenius holds a master plumber's license and has extensive experience in home construction, so he's the perfect author to create a do-it-yourself plumbing guide in ULTIMATE GUIDE TO PLUMBING: COMPLETE PROJECTS FOR THE HOME, which appears in a new, expanded edition to provide basic step-by-step instruction for installing sinks faucets, showers and repairing all such fixtures. Color photos throughout accompany step-by-step instructions and flow charts which are easy to follow, making this an excellent pick for both do-it-yourself homeowners and libraries catering to them.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch

5 comments about Plumbing a House (For Pros by Pros).

1. This is a great book! After having read it cover to cover a few times now, I feel very comfortable to tackle most of the plumbing work I am doing as I remodel my house. It explains everything not only step by step, but also explains why, when and where different materials out perform eachother.



2. In Plumbing A House, Peter Hemp provides thorough and accurate information with very useful details and insights. I recommend this book to anyone who is doing any plumbing, having any plumbing performed for them, or who just owns a house and wants to have some idea of what provides the water and gas and what takes it away. The book is especially useful to read before performing an inspection of the plumbing in an old house, before major repairs, or before you build a new house. A "For Pros By Pros" companion volume, "Wiring A House", by Rex Cauldwell, also gets my 5-star rating, for similar reasons.
   
   Solid information is provided for tools; materials; pipe sizing; joinery; drain, waste, and venting; water distribution; fuel gas distribution, and for venting gas water heaters and furnaces. Remodeling is also considered, but an area that could benefit from a little enhancement is the renovation of fuel-gas distribution systems. Much important information is there, but there are a lot of insights an experienced plumber could provide that are missing.
   
   I have the version printed in 1998, and another shortcoming I found is that there is one new technology that is not covered deeply, and the book needs an update to add this. The information presented is amazingly complete and helpful without having a book 3 or 4 inches thick.
   
   I should say that I have enough experience -- and tools -- to give plumbers and electricians a lot of gray hair when they work for me, but not enough to pass any professional test. If any of them read this, I want them to know how much I appreciate true professionals!
   
   The information I found to be missing concerns PEX (Polyethylene Cross-Link tubing) and a manifold for water distribution. Only brief mentions of PE tubing is made. PEX, especially combined with a manifold distribution system, resolves a number of plumbing issues with many benefits. Many new houses are now plumbed with PEX and manifold systems, and owners seem blissfully unaware of the benefits--the way plumbing should be.
   
   My house (46 years-old, and we are the fifth owners) recently had its galvanized steel pipe system fail due to years of electrolysis. There were a number of complicating factors that contributed to its early end: improper grounding of the electrical system, improper installation of a water softener, improper repairs, and a failure of previous homeowners to recognize that something was wrong and do something about it. (If you have faucets falling apart, don't just assume that it was a cheap faucet!) This book helped me figure out what was wrong, why, and what I might do about it. I had to do my own cost and benefit analysis, of course. And the book didn't tell me about the solution I picked.
   
   The entire water distribution system in my house has now been replaced with a Vanguard Piping Systems, Inc. ManaBloc(tm) manifold system with PEX tubing. The manifold is in the garage next to the hot water heater, and a tube runs from the manifold to each fixture for cold and hot water. The tubes are color-coded. The manifold has a valve for each tube. Each tube has only two connection points: 1) at the manifold and 2) at the fixture. Flow volume is determined by tube size, pressure is evenly divided, and temperature remains constant. Four people performed the entire replacement project in 12 hours. All water was off for less than 30 minutes, and each bathroom was re-plumbed separately. The sheetrock repairs took a bit longer, but they were small compared to other options using rigid pipe.
   
   What a book like "Plumbing A House" could add are the rules for routing the tubes and for installing the manifold that will prevent further hassles down the road. It is my experience that plumbers (and especially their helpers) want to get their current job done, and don't want to have to come back to fix a problem for free, but don't care a whit if what they do causes the carpenter, electrician, HVAC technician, or some other guy a nightmare or two. "Plumbing A House" can give you the information to help the plumber have a bit more consideration--and to give him a few more gray hairs while you are at it.



3. This book has basic plumbing down. Peter is obviously somebody who has no interest in updating his work and I unfortunately didn't look closely enough at the reviews. Hard to go wrong for less than $15. I can always use this as supplemental material, oh wait I'm using pex and there is nothing about the stuff in the book. Go with the Rex Cauldwell plumbing for pros by pros. It was written in this decade at least. Shame on you Taunton press for not removing your outdated stock.



4. Like most Taunton Press books, this one is excellent, but its big drawback is that it only covers rough plumbing, not finish plumbing, so you're forced to buy two books to cover most projects.



5. When I set out to build my own home I purchased several books on plumbing from the local Books-A-Million and local home improvement centers. But this one, which was recommended by a friend, tops them all. This book, along with a copy of your local code, is about all you need to do the rough-in plumbing on new residential construction. I frequently carried it with me to the building site to refer to when necessary. There is an obvious bias toward copper in the book. But the reader needs to remember that the book was written at a time when copper prices were more reasonable than they are today. According to my local plumbing supplier, there's hardly a professional plumber remaining in our city that still does copper. They've all been converted over to CPVC. Maybe copper will become popular again when prices come back down. But the book is still a valuable resource regardless of whether you do copper or CPVC, for either the do-it-yourselfer or the aspiring professional plumber.

5 comments about Remodel Plumbing (For Pros by Pros).

1. I am not a professional plumber and am in the midst of a forced renovation. I have read other plumbing books but none addressed retrofit plumbing as this one does. The way he described procedures, such as installing new shut-off valves gave me the confidence to at least undertake such a project. I am better able to see the whole picture of how a repair fits into or affects the overall system. His coverage of Pex pipe made it possible for me to consider replacing the feed to a second storey bathtub; the current copper climbs the wall at a 5 to 10 degree angle making it impossible to correctly fit the faucets to the wall.



2. I bought this book because it is part of the really useful "For Pros by Pros" series. I had high expectations for this book before it arrived and I was not disappointed.
   
   The book covers plumbing in great detail, and gives enough information to let you really understand what is going on. The writing style is relaxed and pleasurable to read.
   
   I would highly recommend both this book, and the whole "For Pros by Pros" series.



3. The book is an easy read, great diagrams and pictures. The author is a pro and his writing is easy to understand. A lot of information on how to do things the right way, often times better than codes or needs require.
   A very handy resource.



4. This has to be the first 5 star review I've ever done. It covers the things that every other plumbing book doesn't cover; except text books for use in trade colleges.
   This is not a book for changing a faucet or unclogging a drain (there are plenty of other books that cover those topics). This is for the guy who's ripping out a tub or shower, adding a toilet, tapping into a supply line or a DWV line, or redoing all the plumbing.
   
   I'm a big fan of This Old House and many times, the plumbers gloss over things or move too quickly. This is the book to look up to see what they did: not everything they do, but much of it.
   The tool guide is great too - especially the part about right angle drills.



5. I give 3 stars because this book has several tips but missing the whole picture. I read all the good reviews and bought the book but I'm a little disappointed.

5 comments about The Pipe Fitter's and Pipe Welder's Handbook Revised Edition.

1. I have had this book before and gave it away to someone. So I wanted another one for myself, it is good for me in my trade. I am a plumber and pipefitter. Very good book!



2. It was sent quickly. I like no hassles or delays. Great Job



3. excellent book for pipefitting. this is a new copy for me. my other copy is 29 years old



4. This book was to replace my old book that had been borowed and not returned. This book is a "must have" for anyone actively involved in the pipelining industry. While some of the homemade fittings cannot be used in code piping it can and has solved many problems during my 30+years of cross-country pipline cnstruction.



5. If you are a professional pipe fitter or plumber, home owner or handy person you must get this book. It saves the time you would take figuring out angles, pipe length, tank capacities, fittings and pretty much all the time consuming math associated with plumbing. this book helps me at work as well at home. I strongly recommend investing in this book!!

5 comments about Mechanical and Electrical Equipment for Buildings, 10th Edition.

1. This almost 1800 page treatise on mechanical and electrical design as it relates to architecture is one of a kind. It is not an artistic book on the subject, although some artistic ability is always needed in any aspect of building design. Instead it is a very technical book that shows how the architect must be part electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, electrician, physicist, plumber, safety specialist, and transportation engineer in order to design the modern building. And to top it all off, you need to be knowledgable of current mechanical and electrical equipment - their specifications and their costs.
   
   The book has plenty of examples with step by step instructions on how to perform various subtasks. Many of these examples contain numerical calculations, so it will help if you have had freshman engineering physics, especially in the sections on illumination, acoustics, and electricity where calculations, tables, and equations abound.
   
   The book is broken into nine parts encompassing nearly every technical decision involved in designing a modern building. The first section is an introductory one on the context of design. That is followed by sections on thermal control, illumination, acoustics, water and waste, fire protection, electricity, signal systems, and finally in-building transportation. A lengthy appendix contains a great deal of supplemental information, including climate data for various parts of the United States, solar geometry, sound transmission data, and a listing of software that can be helpful in performing the tasks discussed in this book, and how that software can be obtained.
   
   I highly recommend this book to aspiring architects and also to civil engineers that are interested in the construction of modern buildings. It's been the flagship book on the subject for seventy years in its various editions, and probably will continue to be so for the foreseeable future.



2. I was searching for a good general description of central plants. The impending installation of 1000 ton chillers, cooling towers, electrical conversion to primary service, multiple emergency generators, paralleling gear, etc. This book didn't fit the bill. The 9 pages on central plants for HVAC were a disappointment. From the title , I expected more on MEP and didn't expect the book to be more about illumination, color,acoustics etc. My fault, not the book.



3. I came across this book preparing Architectural Registration Exam (ARE).
   I have to say that this book is an essential for architects
   who are preparing MEP (Mechanical/Electrical/Plumbing)section of the ARE.
   
   The book is divided into basically nine sections.
   
   1. design context
   2. thermal comfort
   3. illumination
   4. acoustics
   5. water/waste
   6. fire protection
   7. electricity
   8. signal equipment
   9. transportation
   
   It describes various systems of each section with pretty
   accessible narrative.
   Abundance in graphics and diagrams is very helpful.
   The book is extremely helpful in understanding where each
   kit of parts fit into the overall building systems.
   
   For instance, I heard about AHUs/ cooling towers/ refrigeration
   cycle/ boilers/ duct systems/ etc. , but I never knew how
   they fit and interconnect to one and another. The book, being
   encyclopedic in its contents, really helps to overcome that.
   
   The book also pays particular attention to the "sustainable"
   agendas and strategies.



4. This book was used as a text for two of my classes in my third year of architecture schooling. It is extremely useful, with lots of descriptions and helps you to understand more than just the structure of the building. Lighting, plumbing, all the different systems, etc. It has been very useful and I recommend it as a great reference.



5. As a resource librarian in a mid-size design (architecture) firm, building and maintaining a reference library is one of my responsibilities. I normally wait until I get a request for a book before I review it for inclusion since there is so little space for "real" books. This book was requested so that a designer could study for her registration exam. She gave it a glowing review and said it had been mentioned on the exam blogs as one of the must-reads. It also seemed to have, in one place, all the information a practicing architect would need to design with or around mechanical systems, as well as provide the framework and vocabulary to talk to consultants.

5 comments about The Black & Decker Complete Guide to Home Plumbing: Newly Expanded 3rd Edition (Black & Decker Complete Guide).

1. It is an excellent book not only for handyman beginners but also for construction professionals to review plumbing details.



2. received book in excellent condition and in a timely manner



3. This book is chock full of photos; so much that it detracts from providing information. I was trying to use it to replace a leaking shower faucet, but couldn't find any useful info about my setup. All there was were pictures of valves that weren't mine. I would like to see more troubleshooting chapters, and more possible fitting/material variations outlined. For instance I would like to know how to go from plastic to copper to galvanized etc.
   
   Still if you doing a new install and have access to the exact material they use then it is good for that.



4. This is a great book for a beginner because it covers every plumbing task in detail with pictures. It would be good for the experienced as well because the book is set up in away that makes it easy to zero in on any topic you are interested in.



5. This book, The Complete Guide To Home Plumbing, (although the title is certainly misleading) is an OK book for general/basic plumbing information and is useful to most homeowners.
   
   The book is somewhat annoying in that almost every project or plumbing procedure you are looking at constantly refers you to other pages in the book. It seems that just as you are thinking you have a good visual grasp from the pictures, every other paragraph or sentence sends you away to some other page.
   
   All in all, this book is worth the money, but don't be surprised if you still need to Google for plumbing info on the net. This book is FAR from "The Complete Guide..................."

5 comments about The Outdoor Shower: Creative design ideas for backyard living, from the functional to the fantastic.

1. Terrific Book. Full of great ideas and excellant pictures. Made me want to take pictures of my backyard shower. Buy the book and build one, you won't be sorry.



2. This book was clearly written and the author did a fine job of researching the topic of outdoor showers. the drawings and the sidebar tips were well done. the multitude of options for individual tastes of showers were well explained. the author obviously not only enjoys the art of designing the shower, but has the knowledge and talent to construct one also, which in turn helps the readers confindence in building his or her own. i would recomend this book to anyone who enjoys the outdoor experience of showering.



3. The Outdoor Shower book had such beautiful pictures and so many creative designs that I can't decide what I want to build! We are gleaning from many of the ideas to come up with the perfect outdoor shower. I can't wait for it to be finished!



4. Just getting ready for another project and this book sheds great light on outdoor showers



5. Terrific ideas and with great pictures to go along with....great book to day dream with. Also very practical information and instructions for doing your own project.

5 comments about The New Create an Oasis With Greywater: Choosing, Building and Using Greywater Systms - Includes Branched Drains.

1. A very detailed book, but specificly aimed at very dry area's.
   There is info of use to wetter areas, but maybe not enough to justify buying the book.



2. I found this book more for someone looking to convert their existing house and plumbing to run on a grewater system, as opposed to for someone looking to build a house around/incorporating a greywater system (which is my situation).
   Still, an extremely specific and informative book for those who are interested in knowing every nuance of making a greywater system out of any situation.



3. I liked this book. It is short, fast reading and worth the time. I want to start my own catchment system because of this book. I have a need for understanding with some other environmental issues that were not addressed in the book, but overall, I am excited about the possible options for recycling water regardless of it's state (rain, grey, black) on my homesite. This book addresses my needs.



4. After reading the numerous reviews on this site prior to purchasing this book, I thought I was getting a very thorough book that would assist with "legal" system design and reclaimation strategies. While this book does gloss over them, it refers you to a sister publication for all "legal" builing issues and concentrates on illegal or 'radical' methods as they call it. Take this in mind of you are looking to design a 'legal' system for your home.



5. If you are a revolutionary and innovative thinker that respects the preciousness of water and its integral relationship to the planet earth; and if sustainability and conservation are forces that impel you in your daily life...
   Then this is a must have.

5 comments about Water Storage: Tanks, Cisterns, Aquifers, and Ponds for Domestic Supply, Fire and Emergency Use--Includes How to Make Ferrocement Water Tanks.

1. Wow! This book has a ton of usefull, usable information packed into such a thin booklet! No wasted space, which makes me feel that I've not wasted my money on this book! If you are serious about helping to save this planet, or even just surviving the next tragedy that may befall upon us: Get. This. Book.
   Can I just say again: WOW!



2. This book is well written and complete. I feel that after reading this book I can safely capture rainwater and I know all the details to think about when designing our system, specific reasons to place pipes etc in specific places ... an excellent detailed referrence book and enjoyable read; I read the entire book and enjoyed it. If you are seriously considering to have a rainwater catchment system this is a must read.



3. I Built a 10,000 Gal tank straight out of this book for US$ 1,500.
   It looks good & it doesn't leak.
   What more can you ask for ?



4. This book can help you for how to planning the different water systems in rural and urban areas, the best is how to make ferrocement water tanks.



5. I love all those oasis manuals. Once again Art Ludwig surprises us with a manual full of info reagarding water catchment and storage. Although I'm working in this field for more than 10 years, I always find something new and interesting in Oasis manuals and ther are a fundamental part of my permaculture-libary