Oh Come Come… So what is wrong with your Oakum?
If you live in an older home you may likely have some cast iron for the drain, vent and waste system (DWV) of your plumbing.
One of the common items with these systems was what is called oakum which was used to seal the joints between the pipes. The oakum was packed into the joint then sealed with lead. A fun job I got to do when I was a youngster for an old boss of mine who hired me to crawl into his crawlspace and fix a leaking joint in his plumbing system.
In the photo you can see the Oakum was not properly packed and sealed and now needs to be repaired.
Oakum dates back to the olden days of sealing ships. It consisted of a fiber that was soaked in grease or tar and was used for sealing joints.
There was a time in Victorian prisons that the inmates had to do “Oakum Picking” as part of their punishment. This entailed reusing old ropes “Junk”, cutting them into smaller sections and then mashed with mallets to remove any encrusted tar.
The amount they had to process varied by sex and age.
Girls under 16 yrs of Age (& boys under 9 yrs) where to pick 1lb (450g) of oakum per day, Boys under 16 yrs of Age needed to pick 1½lb (680g) of oakum per day, Girls over 16 yrs of Age had to pick 1½lb (680g) of oakum per day, and Boys over 16 yrs of Age had to pick 2lb (910g) of oakum per day.
So the next time, if you are lucky, to get to see this type of joint sealing just think back and be grateful that you were not in Old Victorian England and had to pick the Oakum.
If you find any errors or have additional information that would expand on any code, building standards or manufacturer requirements please let me know.
NCW Home Inspections, LLC is a Licensed Washington State Home Inspection service located in Wenatchee Washington serving Chelan County, Douglas County, Kittitas County, Okanogan County and Grant County Washington and the cities of Wenatchee, Leavenworth, Cashmere, Oroville, Cle Elum, East Wenatchee, Quincy and many more…
Your Wenatchee and Chelan Professional Real Estate, Home and Structural Pest Inspection Service
Coordinator & Instructor- Fundamentals of Home Inspection- Bellingham Technical College
Former WA Home Inspector Advisory Licensing Board
www.ncwhomeinspections.com 509-670-9572
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