How a softener installation goes in Cedarburg
Cedarburg's water reaches your house at 21 to 24 grains, unsoftened, so the softener in your house is the only softening it gets. Here is what the plumbing contractor does to put one in, and why it takes a licensed plumber.
Call (262) 829-5961Mon to Fri, 7am to 5pmPlacement in an older Cedarburg basement
The softener sits where the main line comes in. If the house has a basement, that is usually where; failing that, the garage or a utility room will do, as long as the spot has a drain and power nearby.
In an older house, tell us where the main shutoff and the water heater are. Between them, they show where the line enters and how much room there is around it, which is most of what the plumber needs to know in advance.
Installation day, in the order it happens
First any softener already in place is disconnected and taken off the line. Its successor, a resin tank with a brine tank beside it, is set down in the same place, the bypass goes in, and the drain line ends with an air gap above the drain.
The plumber ends upstairs at the kitchen sink, mounting the faucet for reverse-osmosis drinking water that every softener here includes.
The law that makes it a plumber's job
Wisconsin's plumbing law, chapter 145 of the statutes, counts a softener's drain connection as plumbing. For that reason the installation goes to a plumbing contractor carrying a Wisconsin license, and our role stops at the sizing, the equipment and the booking.
That split is deliberate. The person cutting into your main line and making the drain connection is licensed to do exactly that work.
Proving it at your tap
Before the work, your water is tested. For a city house, that reading is a check against the utility's own published 21 to 24 grains.
After the softener is running, the tap is retested, and the retest repeats until it reads zero hardness. You watch the number fall.
Common questions
How do I find where my main line comes in?
Find the main shutoff valve. The pipe it sits on is the main line, and the softener is set close to where that pipe enters the house.
What happens to the softener I have now?
It is the plumber's first task on installation day: disconnected and moved out before the new one is set.
Does the drinking-water faucet need its own visit?
No. It goes on at the kitchen sink the same day as the softener, since every whole-home system includes one.
Does the softener need power?
Yes. It sits near an outlet as well as a drain, so mention on the call if the spot by your main line lacks either one.