Tag: repairs

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Drip, Drip, Drip – How Hard Could it Be?

Ominous last words, but in this case, not so bad.

The difficulty in plumbing repairs is often not in the repair itself (indeed, now plumbers all too often use push and crimp connectors in lieu of sweating pipe, which I think is a giant cheating ripoff), but in how to access the space in which to conduct the repair. This is typically why fathers shove their sons into tiny places, all while yelling directions and making general commentary on the kid’s lack of basic competence and general intelligence. I got pushed under the family car a few times too, as memory serves.

Alas, I lack a son. And repeated attempts to teach my daughter basic handyman skills, starting with tool identification, have had limited success. To make a broad sweeping generalization, girls simply don’t want or care to learn certain skillsets. You can’t make someone care. And if you don’t care, you won’t learn. Plain and simple. Which is fine, but then don’t bemoan a nonexistent sexist agenda to keep women in their place by denying them information, years later as an adult, because you didn’t want to learn what dad was trying to teach you as a kid. My sisters made these accusations for years, who then proceeded to complain about being treated as ignoramuses when handymen arrive. It might not be a fair assumption, nor universally accurate, but I’d bet that these professionals have seen it all and have therefore made some gender-based correlations as a result.

Fortunately, this time my daughter brought me tools at a >50% efficiency! There’s hope!

The particular project of this post is the kitchen faucet. The offending faucet, a Delta, had begun dripping. I debated attempting a valve swap fix, but that quickly encroached upon cost-inefficient territory. If I were replacing one valve, then I might as well replace both because they’re probably both leaking, which would them be half the cost of a full replacement, if that even fixed the problem at all. Too many unknowns.

Impatiently, Liz solved the dilemma by just buying a new faucet, which then sat in the basement awaiting prioritization. I finally installed it.

I don’t know who engineered those plastic nuts that connect the faucet threading to the underside of the sink, but why can’t they accommodate a simple wrench? Instead, they require gripping sharp protrusions. I imagine there’s a special tool for this, but why should I have to buy a single-use tool? Just make them a hex nut already!

In the end, the generic non-branded Chinese model appears to be equally as robust, if not more so, than the Delta. It cleverly utilizes water pressure to slam shut the individual valves, eliminating those accidental half-closed scenarios. The spray arm feels cheaper, but at least it doesn’t have a proprietary connector like the Delta, so I might swap it out later.

Yay! A non-leaky faucet. DIY at its most basic. And there’s hope that my daughter might enter adulthood with life skills and not blame me for not teaching her anything. Double win.

–Simon

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Idiot Homeowners Pt. 3

A weeknight wound down. I was drifting into pleasant unconsciousness, in an uncharacteristic moment of mental serenity. The mind was not stressing over the next day’s hellscape, nor the kid’s academic performance, nor whatever unfortunate event would drain my finances next before I had sufficient time to replenish them. Liz sensed this, and mentioned, in such a casual tone, that oh yeah! – something’s leaking in the basement.

To date, here’s what’s leaked in the basement:

  • The aquarium, x3: powerhead wiggled off its mount and sprayed water out of the tank; gasket on the filter cracked; gasket on the CO2 diffuser wore out.
  • Crappy former homeowner repair on the kitchen sink drain.
  • Wash machine drain backing up.
  • I overflowed the coffee pot.

Each of these resulted in varying degrees of water damage. Ergo, to determine the level of severity and therefore the immediacy of action required, I asked some pointed questions, such as: “Where?” and “What?”. To which I received vague and somewhat unconcerned answers.

All right then, everyone out of bed! Trifle not with leaks.

Of course, nothing at that moment was leaking, so I performed a cursory inspection of the usual suspects. The aquarium was being good, and I’m happy to say that my kitchen sink plumbing repair was still in working order. So, I started turning on faucets.

Eventually, a small drip appeared in the laundry room. Following the path of gravity, which is generally straightforward, I was led here:

This was the copper drain line from the kitchen sink. At least it was unpressurized gray-water. But why would it start leaking now? The answer, as you might guess, was once again attributed to some dumbass thing a prior homeowner must have done.

This cross-beam joist support had apparently become detached, and someone partially hammered in extra nails to keep it from falling – not that it was doing anything at that point anyway. If there’s no lateral pressure from the joists, then it serves no function and should have just been pulled down when it separated. Instead, a barbarian with a hammer decided upon a more violent approach. Which led to…

…a punctured pipe.

I’m guessing that the only reason we’re seeing the leak now is that the nails had previously corroded to form a seal, but have now eventually corroded to the point where that seal is broken. I think I’ll pull the nails out and attach a rubber seal with a hose clamp, since there’s really no way to access the pipe for soldering without total disassembly. Then maybe someone else will complain about my own haphazard repair, but that will be minor in comparison to this boneheaded lack of attention to detail.

And maybe, this type of matter might be brought to my attention during waking hours in the future. Hmmmm……?

–Simon