Following the turn of the 20th century; just after the time that North Port Charlotte had even become a spot on the map, a time when most of the roads and railroads bypassed North Port Charlotte altogether. In the 1950’s, following the post World War II Boom, a family known as the Mackle brothers formed a company that they coined General Development Corporation, GDC. During that time Florida had been experiencing a building boom, and the Mackle brothers had decided that they were going to take part in that boom. The Mackle brothers, GDC, had decided that they were going to develop both coastlines of Florida, which included North Port Charlotte. That decision created opportunity for many tradesmen and plumbers in North Port.
During that time in North Port Charlotte’s history, the Mackle brothers became the largest employer of plumbers in North Port.
The Plumbers in North Port had to price their jobs so that they fell within the builder’s budget.
To do this; they used the materials and products that were commonly used and readily available at the time.
Waterlines:
For potable drinking water, plumbers in North Port used copper pipe. The copper pipe water lines were used for routing potable drinking water to the various fixtures throughout a new home. Those copper water lines were joined together using a lead solder. Copper water lines are still used today, however; the solder used to join the pipes no longer contains lead.
Today there are a great number of different brands and types of water line that plumbers in North Port use, CPVC; being one of them. It has been widely used in residential homes for more than 30 years and when installed correctly holds up very well; surpassing copper in its ability to resist corrosion and in its ability to resist internal scale build-up as well. CPVC has earned its place in becoming a well established and respected waterline used in both residential commercial applications.
Pex is another brand that customers, including plumbers in North Port, are becoming really attracted to. Introduced in the US around 1980, it has been growing in preference every since. What attracts people to Pex is that is has fewer fittings and less connections than other systems. A Manabloc system is generally installed, which is a central control center that controls the flow of the water to every fixture. This is similar to the electrical shut-off box in your home, where instead of turning the electric to your stove or your dining room lights on or off; you’re turning the hot or cold water to your bathroom sink, or you master baths shower on or off.
Please do a search for Zurn fitting failure, and contact Pex to satisfy yourself that they resolved this.
Waste lines:
In the 1950’s, plumbers in North Port used clay pipe sections about 18 inches long to construct their waste lines. Unlike today where the pipes slip inside of one another or are connected using couplings; at that time the sections were installed end to end, so that the end of one pipe abutted the end of the next pipe. Cement was smeared around the outside of the joints to about ½” thick. The reason the cement was not put on the end of one pipe with the next pipe being pushed together like in a brick joint was to prevent the mounding that would occur, which would obstruct the flow of waste, if it were done in that manner.
The correct procedure for installing a waste line would be to dig a trench to its proper depth and grade. Next, sling a ¾” bed of cement onto the earth, inside the trench, and smear it out flat with a trowel before laying the tile. Then install the tile end to end as specified above.
While installing the straight waste line, the section between the house and the sewer, was relatively easy; installing the waste line inside of the footprint of the home was tedious and time consuming. This was because of all the different angles and joints that had to be formed out of a pipe that wasn’t really designed for that particular application. As soon as pipe designed for ease of installation did, however, become available; plumbers in North Port came running to find out how it could benefit them.
Very simplistic salesperson statements like “5 foot length of pipe”, ”8 foot length of pipe”, “designed to easily fit together”, “Fittings designed to easily”; had insightful and profound meaning to a plumber at that time. When a plumber questioned the additional cost of the iron pipe as compared to the 18” clay pipe lengths; the salesperson would clarify his product to the plumber by speaking of the ease of installation, the simplicity of connecting a smaller pipe to a larger one, the convincing statement; a plumber using my pipe can install ten homes in the same amount of time a plumber working with the clay could install one home, the icing on the cake because my piping has been designed specifically for what your doing, it goes together so smoothly and it creates a water tight sealed system; you can feel confident that you have installed a genuine quality product to your customer.
The cast iron pipe, really sold itself to the plumbers in North Port. Because it was at that time a tremendous product. It initially replaced the clay pipe inside the footprint of the home; while the outside straight length continued being installed using clay. In short time, however; the iron pipe came to replace the outside waste line as well. So, cast iron installation replaced clay tile installation altogether, and as more time passed; copper went on to replace some of the smaller waste lines segments as well; the ones measuring 1” to 2” in diameter.
((A new two bedroom one bath home cost $8,970.00, which sold for $270 down and $58.00 per month. A new three bedroom two bath home cost $16,260.00, which sold for $860 down and $110 per month.))
Cast iron was faster and easier to install than clay tile at the time, but it was very heavy. Also, if a pipe was not threaded together; it was leaded together. This lead was installed by first being melted in a lead pot and then by being poured into the joints of the cast iron pipe, aided by an asbestos rope tied around the joint to form a channel for the lead to follow.
Fumes released from the molten lead, and just being in contact and working with lead were dangerous to ones health, much less working with asbestos.
Today the product of choice has grown to become Polyvinyl Chloride, more commonly known as PVC. This is because PVC is safer to work with, less expensive; it is lighter in weight, and much easier to join together than cast iron or copper pipe. Plus, it lasts forever. That is as long as it is protected from the suns ultraviolent rays. Buried PVC is protected from the sun by the earth. PVC pipe above the ground should be painted to protect it from the sun light, or it will quickly become brittle and crack.
Links:
http://www.sewerhistory.org/articles/compon/pdfs/pvc_history.pdf
http://www.mesothelioma.com/asbestos-exposure/products/asbestos-rope/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Charlotte,_Florida
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackle_Brothers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Development_Corporation
http://www.nibco.com/assets/CPVCMAN2.pdf
https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=ie7&q=zurn+fitting+failure&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-Address&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&rlz=1I7TSNF_en
http://scg.co.sarasota.fl.us/Historical_Resources/Dreamers/dreamer_gdc.asp
Purdy plumbing; a service provided by Glen Purdy Contractors has been fulfilling the needs of their customers for more than a decade now. They have been in business since 1999, are located in Port Charlotte, and are licensed and insured.
As a plumber providing their service in North Port, they are well known for being friendly and reliable, organized and knowledgeable, and they promptly show up when they say they will.
If you live in Port Charlotte and you need a plumber, call
Purdy Plumbing 941-628-3213
You’ll be glad you did
Purdy Plumbing
Glen Purdy Contractors Inc.
941-628-3213
License: CFC1427396
