Black Decker Complete Guide to Home Plumbing is another coffee table book from their howto series.
It seems that more and more of the howto books that large manufacturers provide are not really for the professional but for people that like to watch professionals.
The information in this Guide is not Complete as the title says but it does give you a decent overview of plumbing and provides excellent cross sections of wall and fixtures to describe how things are installed in your home.
If you use this guide along with another reference resource you will definetly benefit from seeing what is inside your walls before you attempt to do the job yourself.
Whats good about this book
The illustrations and Cross sections. You can really tell a lot of money went into the production of the book. There is also some good and bad information in the illustrations. Lots of attention is made on rough in plumbing.
Whats bad about this book
Too much attention is made on the rough in sections of the book. Although plumbing rough in where the main supply and waste pipes are installed is important the layout of these systems really has to be done by a licensed plumber at the time the home plans are made. So, any alteration to the design that a home owner might make is just that an alteration not a design.
There are also some glaring mistakes in the illustrations that could lead to a very dangerous situation. In one illustration there is a water heater that appears to be vented through the vent for the sewer waste line. The worst part about this is if any water was used in the home it would run directly into the water heater stack. This was something that should have been fixed by review before publication.
Also when they are explaining the steps it seems that the writer is choosing to explain the illustrations and pictures instead of letting the illustrations act as a refference to their text.
Overall Recommendation
This is a decent book for people that want to learn a little about plumbing. It can not be used alone to accomplish either a full install nor is it detailed enough to explain specific steps. But when used with other refference materials it makes a great addition to your howto library.
This book is available in our Book Store
For Less then $20 it is well worth the investment.
This review was made after a short 10 minute browse of the materials at our local Supply Center and should not be thought of as a detailed description only as a guide. Because this book is probably one of the better guides available we recommend it as an introduction but it should not be thought of as an only resource.