Apparently I suck at compression fittings.

The first thing I did today was the pressure test on the gas line.  While on my way up to get the compressor, I moved the tree that had fallen down out of the way, and found one of my missing mouse traps.  Even though you can't see it on the picture, the mouse's legs were still in the trap, and the rest of him was gone, so something got hungry.  I would rather it eat the living ones though. 


The first attempt I couldn't even get the gauge off of zero, it was that bad. 


So I went inside and did a blow test and quickly identified it was the T that was the problem.  Which of course is the largest concentration of joints and in the most inconvenient spot. 


Even just blowing into the line I could feel the air coming out the side under the joist (of course), and when I took the fitting apart, it was pretty clear what the issue was.


Because my pipe cutter works poorly on the CSST, you have to cut it slightly differently and a lot more patiently, which I figured out towards the end of the rough in.  In the earlier joints, I had tried to just take the pliers and curl the lips back inside so they wouldn't interfere, similar to deburring a pipe.  It obviously didn't work.


Now that I know how to get a nicer cut on it, I cut a couple of loops out of it, which came out much nicer.


That helped, but didn't fix all the leaks.  I could at least put pressure in it, but it ran out after seconds.  So I pulled the rest of the T apart, and the offshoot for the water heater was beautiful, perfect cut, gasket was clean, so I just retaped it.  The other one was similar to the photos above, but not as bad, so I replaced that joint. too.  What a pain.  An expensive one too, each of those fittings are 8 dollars, but the T is good now at least.


I then ran a quick pressure test.  It held.


I got everything reassembled, including the water lines, and got everything hung back up.


I also put down the XPS part of the insulation.  I fit it in a little tighter on this side than I did the other side.


Even though it technically would have passed an inspection, I left it pressurized.  An hour and a half later, it had lost about a PSI.  This could partially (but probably not completely) be because the air that was put in was heated.  The air compressor was left outside in the sun, and most of the line is shaded, so it could potentially have cooled, lowering the pressure.  Also, the gas tape dope (looks like yellow teflon tape in the pictures) is supposed to set in, which I didn't allow it to do, which could explain part of it.  An inspector's test is 12-20PSI for 10 minutes with no notable drop.


I then finished cleaning the main part of the floor and vacuumed the underbelly.  It was a bigger task than it sounds like, there were wood shavings and little pieces of PEX everywhere.


It was getting hot and I didn't feel like doing much at that point so I decided to go finish the mowing.  It was of course at the hottest part of the day.  Good thing I don't burn easily.


As I was checking the gas in the mower, I noticed that it didn't take the mice long to nest up in the mower.  I didn't spray it down with pepper spray after parking it when I hit the strap.  Grrrrr.


The back yard is complete though.


I also went and sprayed a more heavy concentrate of weed killer on the knotweed out by the road.  Dad said it takes about a week for it to kill everything, but in a week these will be almost as tall as I am.  These are the smae plants that had just barely sprouted in the pictures two days ago.  The taller pieces are up to my shins.


I then started to install the XPS in the main part of the floor, but got tired and overheated, so I didn't get very far.  I can finish this when it is raining and cooler tomorrow, though they pushed the storms out to tomorrow night. 


I ran one more quick check on the pressure before leaving (another hour and a half from the last pic).  It had dropped another PSI.  This likely means that something isn't quite tight enough, which I would believe since all I had were two pairs of slip joint pliers.  None of my crescent wrenches went large enough.  I might borrow a wrench from work and give everything another half turn or whatever I can get on it.  I left it pressurized since I do want to see if it stabilizes.  Technically propane will be less than 4 psi, so if it balances out at anything above that it isn't an issue.  If I come in tomorrow and it is 0, well then I have wrench everything down and test it again.  I would also replace the white teflon tape with proper tape, the yellow stuff on the other side of the nipple. 


I did put it in a baggie to help protect it from rain.  I had noticed that the cap that was on it previously had a little bit of rust on it.  I thought the black coating was waterproof, but evidently not.


Even though it was starting to cool down (down to 90!) I was pretty beat at this point and went home, made up some burgers and found out that both my grills are out of propane, so my "cookout" was inside the air conditioning on my George Foreman grill.


Even though technically the gas lines would have passed an inspector's test, I think I would like them to be a bit more airtight.  I don't like the thought of a slow propane leak under the floor in my house.