Week of October12, 2016 - Plumbing 101

By Joan Whetzel

Life has thrown us a lot of curve balls in the last year and a half. A huge chunk of those curveballs occurred during the summer of 2013. But the curve balls haven’t stopped coming at us. My daughter and I have solved many of the problems ourselves. Others we called for help to make the repairs. Some of our recent repairs have required crash courses in basic plumbing to:

1.      Replace the kitchen faucet and repaired leaky drain pipes under the kitchen counter.

2.      Replace a leaky bathroom faucet.

3.      Replace a leaky shower head and repaired the shower faucet – it no longer leaks.

The leaking shower head was the last thing we fixed. We started out replacing the shower head, which worked for about 2 weeks before the drip returned. The drip slowly increased until it was running steadily – and running up the water bill.

So we took the next step – figuring out which shower faucet we would need. We turned off the water at the meter, and replaced the faucet. Then turned the water back on. And the leak continued. Luckily, we were talking to my niece Catherine and her husband Tyler the next day. They were on their way to the hardware store and volunteered to inquire what else we could try – short of calling a plumber. Tyler came back with the information about a small piece of plumbing hardware inside the faucet sleeve that needed to be replaced.

I grasped the concept of what he was saying, but I needed a visual. So, I went online for a video on “shower faucet leak repairs.” Right there on YouTube was a short (10 minute) video showing exactly what we needed to do. I showed Emily and she agreed this was something we could do ourselves.

So we turned off the water again, removed the newly installed faucet, and pulled out the little piece that needed to be replaced. We took the part to the hardware store and found exactly what we needed. After replacing the piece and re-installing the faucet, we turned the water back on. Guess what? No more leak!!! Yea, us!

 

There are still home repairs to be made. It seems like every time we fix one thing, 2 or 3 more things suddenly need repairs. I’m now looking for a magic prayer that’ll slow them down or bring them to a halt.