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When you have to give in and call a plumber

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  • When you have to give in and call a plumber

    Rather than pay $7000 each to get my two bathrooms upgraded before putting my house on the market, I decided that I could replace the cabinets in each, use the same sink on top, repaint and put in upgraded fixtures and stuff. Total cost closer to $1500.

    The plumbing part of it turned into a nightmare.

    It seemed easy enough to just disconnect everything, put in new shutoff valves for water coming in and use the old drain pieces. And it almost worked. It was only leaking maybe one or two drops a minute, but that was continuous until it dripped down below the lowest joint in the pipe. Taking it back apart and putting in new plastic drain pieces did not improve things. In fact, every time I tried something it seemed to get worse. That was for the first bathroom that I did it to. The second one is an exact mirror image of the first bathroom and I had higher hopes but ran into bigger problems there. Having a three-day deadline to be totally done didn't help the stress factor.

    So I finally realized that I needed to blow some of my cost savings and get a professional in to fix things right. A quick Google search for local plumbers and a call to the first one that popped up (a rooter company) had them promising to send someone out right away. "They'll be there between 10:00 and noon." At about 12:30 I call them and apparently their guy got a bit busy and now they'll be there between 1:00 and 3:00. At 3:30 I gave up on them and searched for a local business, which happens to be called Savior Plumbing. (Their logo is a Jesus Fish made of pipes.) They said they would be out the next morning (today), between 8:30 and 9:00 and the name of their guy was Eric. I called the other people and told them to just forget it.

    This morning Eric showed up, went through everything, including pointing out a crack in one of the plastic pipes, used the proper products to properly seal every joint and totally fixed my problem in one hour. Total cost of $150.

    I couldn't thank him enough for rescuing me. Sometimes you just have to give in and get an expert to do things right.

  • #2
    We had a leak in the shower valve in the kids bathroom. Valve was over 40 years old and could not be repaired by pulling the core. So I went into the hall closet, cut a 2 ft by 2ft hole in the wall and removed the old valve.

    All of this was done while I was coming down influenza this year. So I was not at my best. I put the new valve in but could not for the life of me get some of the joints to stop leaking. I was catching the wall on fire, just could not get the solder to fill it all. There was just too much water remaining the pipe. It would be good for a few minutes and then start dripping.

    Had to leave the water off in the house for over 24 hours. We could turn it back on for quick showers and bathroom needs, but it was not fun.

    I was simply too sick to do anything. Called many plumbers, one finally came at 5:30 the following evening. Everyone in the house was gone for different things so I crawled out of bed for the first time that day to open the door for the plumber and help him to do what was needed.

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    • #3
      Originally posted by BigPiney View Post
      We had a leak in the shower valve in the kids bathroom. Valve was over 40 years old and could not be repaired by pulling the core. So I went into the hall closet, cut a 2 ft by 2ft hole in the wall and removed the old valve.

      All of this was done while I was coming down influenza this year. So I was not at my best. I put the new valve in but could not for the life of me get some of the joints to stop leaking. I was catching the wall on fire, just could not get the solder to fill it all. There was just too much water remaining the pipe. It would be good for a few minutes and then start dripping.

      Had to leave the water off in the house for over 24 hours. We could turn it back on for quick showers and bathroom needs, but it was not fun.

      I was simply too sick to do anything. Called many plumbers, one finally came at 5:30 the following evening. Everyone in the house was gone for different things so I crawled out of bed for the first time that day to open the door for the plumber and help him to do what was needed.
      I like to work on my own home repairs and renovations but long ago set a bright line rule that I would never do any supply side (i.e. pressurized) plumbing work that was going to be behind walls or under floors.
      PLesa excuse the tpyos.

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      • #4
        Originally posted by creekster View Post
        I like to work on my own home repairs and renovations but long ago set a bright line rule that I would never do any supply side (i.e. pressurized) plumbing work that was going to be behind walls or under floors.
        That’s pretty much my rule, too. Sinks, drains, and fixtures are the only plumbing I’ll touch.

        Electrical is different. I’ll change out breakers or hop in the attic and run electrical wires for new outlets, ceiling fans, etc. No problemo. But I don’t do plumbing.

        Prepare to put mustard on those words, for you will soon be consuming them, along with this slice of humble pie that comes direct from the oven of shame set at gas mark “egg on your face”! -- Moss

        There are three rules that I live by: never get less than twelve hours sleep; never play cards with a guy who has the same first name as a city; and never get involved with a woman with a tattoo of a dagger on her body. Now you stick to that, and everything else is cream cheese. --Coach Finstock

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