This month’s topic is rowhouse plumbing. Many of Philadelphia’s homes were built when indoor plumbing was not a part of a house, but most old rowhouses had plumbing added in the early twentieth century. The challenges that come up related to plumbing a rowhouse have to do primarily with these facts, so let’s start at the beginning: How did they live without indoor plumbing?

Outhouse toilet uncovered during kitchen renovation

Many rowhouses had outhouses in the backyard. There would be a pit below where the waste went. And not just waste. Privy diggers are amateur archeologists who dig up old outhouse pits when they are exposed during construction, and find lots of other things that people threw in there. Bottles, china, etc. Above is a picture of an outhouse we uncovered during a kitchen renovation. There was a mystery space in the middle of the old kitchen, and during demolition we found the remains of an old outhouse that had been incorporated into the house as additions were tacked on the back. This outhouse was fancy, and was actually tied into the plumbing at some point. Another thing you’ll sometimes find remains of are dry sinks. Front bedrooms often have elaborate built-in closets, and a part of these was a spot for a bowl and a pitcher for washing up. Just like the photo above, some of these were tied into the plumbing when the house was updated. We have seen drains going from the old dry sink so you could use your pitcher for fresh water, but you didn’t have the dump the waste water out the window.

So how did they add plumbing to houses that weren’t built with bathrooms inside? Well, first rooms used for other purposes were commandeered, and then they had to figure out where to put the pipes. The main pipe that takes wastewater out of your upper floors and brings air into the system so pipes don’t gurgle is called the stack. Above is a photo of a stack we found on a recent project. There are a lot of issues that need correcting in this photo, but we’ll save that for another time. For now, look at where the pipe is: in the brick wall. As you learned in Rowhouse Walls, exterior walls in rowhouses don’t have much space in them. So plumbers had two choices: chip out the brick to embed the pipe in the wall, or put it on the outside of the building. Even though it’s not allowed by building code, you’ll still see a lot of exterior stack pipes in Philadelphia. While drain lines don’t freeze as easily as a supply line (the pipes that bring the water to you at the sink), it can still happen. And when they do, these pipes, which have traditionally been made of cast iron, will crack.

Above you’ll see a PVC stack pipe. What are the advantages of PVC? It’s lighter, cheaper, and easier to work with. We still use cast iron in some places for sound, and it is required for commercial work and in four story buildings and above in Philadelphia, but when we can use PVC, we do. The other plastic pipe you’ll see in new work is called pex. These are the red and blue supply lines in the photo below. Remember I said that the challenges of plumbing a rowhouse come from plumbing being added to these homes after the fact in the early twentieth century? Well,cast iron pipes have a lifetime of about 80 years. So if you still have the original pipes anywhere in your house you are probably living on borrowed time. And when you do have to replace pipes, this may mean digging up the concrete slab in your basement, and it will certainly mean opening up walls and ceilings. It’s a messy process, so make sure that nay time you are already doing renovations, you update any old pipes exposed during the process.

Now rowhouses don’t just have indoor plumbing, they have a lot of it. The photo above shows the rough-in work for a shower. The hot and cold pipes (red and blue) go into a mixer that will control temperature. From there, they go to a diverter valve that will supply water to a handheld shower, a rain-shower, a standard shower head, or any combination of the above. Plumbing should always be performed by a licensed professional. It’s complicated, and your health and the longevity of your home depend on getting it right.

Thanks for reading. If you have a question about your plumbing, or anything else in your house, use our contact form to reach out and I’ll be happy to see if we can be of assistance.

Rowhouse Plumbing