Sunday night I laid awake listening to the only sound in my house... drip, drip, drip. Yep we have a leaky bathtub faucet in the girls bathroom upstairs. Mike's out of town until Tuesday night so I thought lets google it and see how hard it might be to fix it. After watching a youtube video it looked really simple so I went to Lowe's got what I needed an attempted my first home repair project.
However I for one didn't have enough upper body strength to get anywhere near this. I went to the street to shut off the water (the only place to turn off the shower water is to cut off all water to your house) and couldn't turn the knob, so the guys brother across the street came and did it for me. So next step is to remove the handle with an allen wrench not a problem I know what an allen wrench is and Mike has a set with all the different sizes and marked so I knew exactly which one is needed. I took my dad's advice and used a toothpick to clean out any residue in the bolt so I could get the wrench in and then I pulled and pulled and couldn't get it to do anything. So I called a friend and borrowed her husband who happens to live just across the street and 2 doors down.
He gladly came over and after half an hour, and trying many different things he was finally able to muscle it off. So I'm back on track. Next part remove the silver sleeve. Bingo got it off. Next comes the nut that holds in the cartridge. Yeah that wasn't budging by hand and so I was headed back to Lowe's for a pipe wrench because after trying it with what I had at home they were not working. I did google pipe wrench so I would know what I was looking for. So gather the girls up and head to the car and I see the guy across the street, who happens to work on cars, so I take a gamble and ask if he has one and he does, but can't find it. He does however have this pole looking thing with a chain that he said I could use, my reply was that I wouldn't have a clue where to even begin with that thing. So he came and did it for me. Thus far I've done very little on my home repair project and it's been 2 to 3 hours.
But we're there at the cartridge all I have to do is use a screwdriver and pop it off. I get it off but only half of it comes out. I can see the part I need to change so I do so and then try to put everything back together. I can't get the top part of the cartridge back on it won't go. I try taking the bottom half out of the pipe but it's in there really tight and don't want to break it. So I lube up the top to see if that will help and it's a no go. So after talking to my dad and him watching what I watched I used pliers and pulled and wiggled and slowly got the bottom out. Put the pieces together and push it back in and it fit! But then I realize I've got it in backwards so our hot and cold water would be backwards. So pop the cartridge out and only half comes out again. Repeat the pulling and wiggling to get it out. Put it all together correctly this time and start putting the handle all back together. Oh wait of course the pipe moved and is now sitting on the faceplate so I can't slip the sleeve back in place.
Call dad to see how much pressure I can put on a pipe without breaking it. Apparently I would need more muscle strength then what I have. So I pull and push until I finally get it back. At this point it's been 4 hours working with this and I'm determined to get the water back on before my girls go to bed. Put the handle on, go to the street and try to turn it with no luck. Go back to my friends house and borrow her husband again. Water is on. Go and test it.
The handle is leaking now! Give it a minute to see if the seals need a second or what and no luck. I'm sitting on the tub trying to decide what I want to do now, when I hear what sounds like water running. The bathtub water was turned off. So I listen to the tile and it sounds like it's in the wall! I go to the other side of the wall in my craft room and I can hear it. But the AC is on so I listen to a different wall and nope it's not the AC so quickly I call my friend and no answer so I go to the street and try to turn it and I'm not having luck. I look and my friends car is gone so they must have left and the guys across the streets cars are gone. So I'm alone with water running down the inside of my wall. I give a quick prayer for extra strength to get that knob turned and it turned.
So now the waters off. I call my dad again and tell him and get advice. He said to look in there and see where it's leaking from and probably it coming from where I had to pull the bottom half out of the pipe. One of those bottom o rings probably needs to be replaced which means the whole cartridge needs to be replaced. It's $40 bucks and still cheaper than a plumber. But at this point my girls are falling apart they didn't get a nap or much attention and they need to go to bed. So decision time do I run them to Lowes anyway, then put them to bed and hope to solve the problem when they are asleep or go to Albertsons and pick up some water so we have it for the next 24 hours until Mike gets home and let him deal with it.
I call Mike... he's getting ready to go get dinner I hope I don't ruin his evening or make him mad at me. I tell me my story and he laughs and tells me to call a guy in a ward. So I do and he and another guy come over and take a look. Yes it's definitely leaking in the wall and they cut a whole in the craft room so they can see exactly where it's coming from. The problem turns out to not exactly be my fault. The sodding jobs are all corroded and one of the joints has a hole where water is spraying from. Wonderful.
So the guy talked to one of his co-workers who is a master plumper this morning and he will be here late afternoon. So my simple fix turned out to need a plumber anyway. The guys from church said that from looking at it, it was going to happen anyway from how bad it is. That it's probably a good thing I tried to fix it and had it go while I was looking for problems because if not it could have gone in the middle of the night or while we weren't home and then had bigger problems but as it is I do have a bulge in the playroom ceiling where water leaked downstairs.
On a happy note my goal of not listening to it drip worked (since I have no water at all) and to have it fixed before Mike gets home was met too (just not by me and a little bit more expensive). Do not call me Mrs. Fix It.
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