[wthdideyedo]

This is the last thing left for me to solve to get the water softener finished. I had the water loop installed by a plumber. There was no easy access to any drain, and they rain the water softener drain line in the attic. Its 1/2" pvc pipe about 55' in length to run to the back of the house and use the clothes washer drain in the utility room. The attic has blow in insulation and it looks like some of the joists near the drain end are taller than some of the other joists where the drain feed end would be. The drain line is not supported, and currently just laying on top of the insulation and perpendicular to the joists.

1. Is it safe to even run the drain line in the attic?
2. Do I need to support the line? I have read that 10ft only need a 1/4" drop for water to flow down.

Not too sure how flexible it would be if I tried, but the line is a few feet from any vertical joist that I could attach it too. Its also near the overhang of the roof, and my out of shape azz is having some real trouble working in this little area.

I have clamps to use on the joists and then also considered making a little wooden piece that would sit over a single joist, or two joists so that I could have a bracket that was movable (if it for some reason needed to), and could be made to a custom height so that the drain line pressure was enough. I had also considered using a split ring hangar vertically off and above the joist, (still not sure what the best way to mount that would be though).

Any thoughts that might help me FINALLLLLY just get this done??? Thank you.

 

[Ghostmaker]

If you are on a septic they are usually not a good place to dump your salty water.

How cold is your winter?

 

[wthdideyedo]

City sewer. One or two days of a low at low 30s or less a year. (South Texas).

I just went and picked up (7) 1/2" split ring hangars, (7) ceiling flanges, (3) 12" rods and (7) nuts.
I will do a lot of crawling back and forth, but the plan is to mount the flanges about every 6-8 feet on top of the joist, (I think I can get one or two mounts, vertically mounted on the rafter. Going to try for about 10 mounts, and see how stable it is). I am going to mount the ceiling flange going along the top of the joist, and then measure the height I want to mount the drain pipe. I will then Dremel cut the size I need from the rod. I will dremel in a grove for a flathead after I have my lengths at the top end. I think I can use a nut below the split ring to get the lower half of the split ring to lock on the rod. I should be able to measure several at once so I only have to climb up and down a few times.

 

[Ghostmaker]

Salty water doesn't freeze at 32 degrees so make sure you pitch your drain so all the water drains and leaves nothing in the pipe.

 

[wthdideyedo]

Salty water doesn't freeze at 32 degrees so make sure you pitch your drain so all the water drains and leaves nothing in the pipe.

good point. It doesn't get nearly cold enough here to freeze excessively salty drain waste water.

I started today. I got two of the mounts in and realize I need more. I had a respirator on, and between all the odd crawling, I pointed out how horrible I've let myself physically get. I am definitely going to need more supports than I thought. They are going to need to be about every 5 feet or this line is going to bend and create pockets I want to try to avoid.

 

[Ghostmaker]

The more you support it the better you will be.