Water softener plumbing question

10 years ago

So I put in a water softener recently right next to my water heater. I tapped into the cold water pipe before it goes into the water heater, assuming that the cold water for the rest of the house branches off at that point. Once I got the water softener running, it appears that I have soft hot water everywhere, but downstairs the cold water is still hard. Even more bizzare is the fact that only one bathroom upstairs has soft cold water. So I opened up the wall behind the water heater all the way to the floor to investigate. (I was told and had assumed that the cold water line for downstairs should be dropping down from the line that goes upstairs). It looks like both the hot and cold water lines also go down into the floor. Everything is 3/4" copper pipe, but the lines that branch off the main pipes that go into the floor (labeled with ???) those are half inch. Please see attached image.
I also tapped into that cold water line a while ago and put a hose bib outside on the other side of the wall, so that part wasn't there before either.
Any ideas of what I can do, how I can figure out where all these pipes go?
I apologize the text on the image looks a bit hard to read, you can zoom in and out with ctrl+ and - to see it better.

Comments (7)

greendesert
Original Author
10 years ago
attached a different image, hoping it is more readable.
User
10 years ago
Your image is too small for my old eyes and you might consider using JPG file format as it's easier to manipulate.

Sometimes it's a real puzzler on how a house is plumbed. In my experience 3/4" is usually a supply size and 1/2" are branches to specific appliances or fixtures.

You only need to find where the main water service enters the house. If you're on a water system locate your water meter. The water service should enter the house proximate to the meter and that's where you look to find the main. You might have a pressure reducing valve installed and that's a give away that it is the main water service. In my area the water service is rarely anywhere near the water heater.

You're smart to want to soften the whole house cause if you're paying for soft water then you ought to get it.
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User
10 years ago
I can see what you did and if that line coming up from the floor was the main water service it would have been correct. The fact that the entire house isn't softened proves that the line you intercepted is not the main water service.

In order to treat the entire house you have to intercept the main water service and the easiest place to find it is where it enters the house.

If you can't find it you may need to call a plumber.
greendesert
Original Author
10 years ago
thanks for the response. I couldn't reply earlier.

About "where the water service enters the house". that is just weird at my house. There is the meter by the street, and then there's valve right by the front door that shuts controls the water to the entire house. There is a pipe that enters the wall there. I sure hope that it doesn't branch out to everywhere else from there, before it gets to the water softener. Obviously, if I put the water softener there by the front door, the entire house supply would be softened, but my water heater is in the back of the house on one side.

You say "if that line coming up from the floor was the main water service... " - Well, I don't know if you can see, I will post some more photos, but right there where that 3/4 inch pipe goes into the floor there's a T on it, and that 1/2 inch pipe goes back into the floor also. I thought of disconnecting that pipe, and hooking it as a T off the output of the water softener. If that isn't a supply line, and actually goes to someplace in the house, that would help too.

I'm tempted to rent a FLIR infrared camera from Home Depot (I hear they offer them now) and to try to trace that pipe that comes through the wall at the front of the house, or trace backwards from each fosset

Attached is a photo of those pipes that go into the wall behind the water heater. I couldn't get a good photo because the water heater is pretty close to the wall.
User
10 years ago
In order to softened the entire house you need to interrupt the main water service before it branches out.

I've seen some really confusing plumbing layouts that made it very difficult to find the water service in the house so sometimes common sense doesn't help. Either you find the water service or you need a plumber to find it.
Bruce in Northern Virginia
10 years ago
First question - where is your main shutoff in the house? You don't show it in your diagram. It is not near the water heater area?

When my house was plumbed they split the incoming water line so that the hose bibs bypassed the inside main shutoff and the softener connection. There is a separate cutoff outside that shuts off the entire house. This makes sense because you don't want to put softened water on the lawn or flower beds. Its also convenient because I can shut off water in the house to do repairs, but still run water from the hose bibs.

I think they may have tried a similar setup in your house, but when they installed the bathrooms in the basement they tapped the wrong cold water line. They got the hose bib line instead of the inside-house line. It sounds like you just got lucky when you installed the extra hose bib, since you picked the hard water line.

Bruce
jcalhoun
10 years ago
There should be a 3/4 line coming from the meter to the front of the house. From there it should remain a 3/4 feeding the water heater and washing machine but reduce anywhere along the way to 1/2 feeding the kitchen, bathrooms, and outside faucets.