I Don't Like Plumbing!

[wood714]

I'm glad I can do it thou. Always said if you owned a house, you need to either be handy or rich.

My August water bill was $145.44. It's usually $70 to $75 even if you don't use a drop of water.

Found out my tank to bowl rubber gasket was bad. Had a few on hand and replaced it and added some blue food coloring to the tank which within minutes leaked back to the toilet bowl.

Then I noticed my flush valve was filling up the tank past the overflow tube, or what ever it's called. I'd just replaced the valve a few weeks ago. It was late at night, so I turned the water off to the toilet, but could still see and hear water slowly running. Found a metal coat hanger and rigged up the valve to stay in the off position till today.

Went to Home Depot and bought a water valve rebuild kit, and a new supply line to start with. The old valve stem washer was gone. Had to dig pieces of it out of the valve with a dental pick.

Put everything back together and turned on the water. The float topped out and the water shut off. I put my ear by the flush valve and could still hear water running super slow.

Tuned the water back off, took the top of the flush valve off and put a clear plastic cup over it and turned the water back on. Lots of washer pieces shot out of it.

Put it all back together and filled the tank and added more blue food coloring. Been a couple hours and all is well.

This was one of those plumbing one thing leads to another like I use to deal with in my first house which was built in 1890.

 

[fiasconva]

Good job! I've always found that plumbing jobs require more back and forth trips to the hardware than most of the other home repair jobs combined.

 

[mckenney99]

Buddy & I were just discussing this and came to agreement that any plumbing job requires at a minimum 3 trips to the hardware store.

 

[Chukar60]

Buddy & I were just discussing this and came to agreement that any plumbing job requires at a minimum 3 trips to the hardware store.

Do not care if i was replacing the wax ring or just the toilet seat. Three trips minimum to get it done. Have no idea why that is, but it always works that way. Home Dippo loves me

 

[Dougaz]

Along those lines, but a bit off, I drained and flushed my water heater tank today. This should be done once a year but I've not been good about it. The crud that came out was amazing and I'm sure glad I finally got on the stick and took care of it.

An easy job and cheap vs. replaceing the tank when the bottom rots out!

 

[wood714]

Do not care if i was replacing the wax ring or just the toilet seat. Three trips minimum to get it done. Have no idea why that is, but it always works that way. Home Dippo loves me

My Home Depot has about 10 parking spaces close to the door that has Pro Customer Parking signs in front of them. When I had my Jeep I parked in one of the spots.

Some kid was out gathering the carts from the parking lot and asked me if I was a Pro Customer. I told him as much money as I've spent here they should have valet parking for me.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

That's one of the pluses of being a renter. Last Decmber 24 I found my tub wasn't draining, went to the maintenance office to schedule a repair session, figured I could live without it for a couple of days-they showed up 2 hours later. I was home that day fortunately.
My one plumbing repair, the flush valve on my toilet wasn't shutting off, realized the tab on the end of the float had broken off. The replacement has a brass screw, more durable, finer adjustments. 1 trip to the hardware store-only 1.5 miles for me. 1 hour's work and VOILA !

 

[JSR III]

Just a little plumbing tip for youze guys. Never put bowl cleaners in the tank. These products tend to eat the rubber gaskets between tank and bowl and the one that the flapper seats in, eventually you will have a leak.

Always put your cleaning products in the bowl where there are no gaskets.

Another tip is if you want to check for leaks between tank and bowl, don't buy the dye caps as they can be pricey. Some towns will supply them for free but if not, buy a bottle of red Gatorade. For .99 cents it is a cheap alternative.

 

[jeffrefrig]

Water heaters, if electric, really should be flushed out about once every couple months; about a 5 gallon bucket. Total drainage annually. It's good that someone else does this besides me, although mine's gas. Electric ones need to be flushed out because of the bottom heating element, also. On toilet jobs, buy everything you can change the first trip. Even though something doesn't need changed, it does! Don't open anything until you need to use it. Save the receipts. besides the toilet parts, any valve you need to touch on the water line leading to the toilet is gonna (mess) up; you can count on it! Drain lines, too. Also, get a cold case of beer, pop, water, moonshine, whatever, as you will need a cold one!
wood714, uh, your title to this thread is the same sentiments as roughly everybody, besides plumbers, on this planet! (nice handle, too. wood is good. Campfires, marshmallows, burgers...)

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

A friend ask about replacing the shut off valve under his kitchen sink, I said I could come by and fix it Saturday (this was at church on Sunday) He said, no he just wanted a few pointers, So I told him the most important rule on old plumbing is to use a back up wrench on the far side of every fitting or valve you work on! Or you will be chasing a leak for 40 feet!

The next Sunday he told my how wrong I had been! He had not backed up the valve, and chased the broken pipe for 62 feet! and ran the local farm store hardware out of what he needed and had to run an hour each way twice to a Home Depot!

Now days, if it is old lines and stuff, I cut the entire area out and install PEX. My condo is only 15 years old, but has CPVC (white plastic) water lines, I have already started the replacement process!

Ivan

 

[Welshman]

Do not care if i was replacing the wax ring or just the toilet seat. Three trips minimum to get it done. Have no idea why that is, but it always works that way. Home Dippo loves me

A friend of mine once gave me this advice: When starting a plumbing project, make an assessment then go to Home Depot and buy two of everything in the plumbing aisles - even if you don't know what they're for.
When the job is complete, take back everything you didn't use - two trips!

 

[OLDSTER]

Why do kitchen sinks need that 3"-4" ledge to raise the "floor" under it where all the plumbing is. I'm 73 with a bad back, and have installed a new garbage disposal and faucet in the last few months. I swear, NEVER again. I'm a tight-wad, and figure if I can do a project and save the price a a new handgun, I'll tackle it. I'm losing my ability to think rationally !!

 

[Ole Joe Clark]

I replaced the tank stopper recently, didn't want my $13.55 water bill to go up. I have a 1/2 gallon milk jug full of water in each of the toilet refill tanks. They flush just as efficiently and save 1/2 gallon of water with each flush. Been doing that for more than 25 years.

Have a blessed day,

Leon

 

[misswired]

Along those lines, but a bit off, I drained and flushed my water heater tank today. This should be done once a year but I've not been good about it. The crud that came out was amazing and I'm sure glad I finally got on the stick and took care of it.

An easy job and cheap vs. replaceing the tank when the bottom rots out!

Neglecting draining the tank for years, thought now while I'm home would be a good time to drain the tank and use the hot water to flush the hvac coils. Never got around to it and two weeks later the heater is leaking from the top(new one on me). Anyhow the replacement went very smooth as the new tank was very similar to the old. Being a plumbing hater myself, the biggest problem was the sticker shock! Instantly turned $400 worth of fall fishing gas into hot water.

Now about cleaning those hvac coils?

 

[Sistema1927]

This was one of those plumbing one thing leads to another like I use to deal with in my first house which was built in 1890.

A friend once told me that the only thing that works in a 100 year old house are the people who live there.

 

[dockmurgw]

A friend once told me that the only thing that works in a 100 year old house are the people who live there.

Mines 210...I gutted it to the post and beams, started over and still wish I had a new house.

 

[quikdraw67]

I worked a plumbing & heating wholesale counter for years. Some people are mechanically inclined and can do a competent job. Others have trouble opening a can of beer and should leave the plumbing to the pros. JMHO

 

[Turq]

I have a crawl space. And for many years now, a couple of times a year I would be down there "trying" to clean out my drain lines. They would slow up to the point that when the washing machine was draining it would back up if anything downstream was also being used. I hated that job!. Well I stumbled across a water jetter set up, and since I have a pressure washer I tried it. WOW what a difference. The pipes are completely cleaned out for as far as I can see.

I really like the water jetter hose I bought as well, there's a bunch of china junk out there on AMazon, but I went with quality over cheap.I got it from a company in TX, who really know what they are doing. To the point where the guy called me and asked me about the job to make sure I wasn't wasting my time or money. If you have slow pipes, and are having to clean them up frequently check out a water jetter.

 

[cballman]

In the past few years the drain line backups have occurred because the newer low flow toilets are not putting enough water to darin the lines properly. I have had to clean my mother-in-laws drain line out to the septic tank quite a few times. other than that I am not a plumber but can do small jobs. But I have the number for a plumber I can trust. Might take me about a week to get something done but at least I dont have to do it.

 

[NYlakesider]

"I Don't Like Plumbing" Quote OP

To be truthful neither do I. I retired at age 55 after being a 30 year working member of the Plumbers & Steamfitters union.

I definitely preferred to be working on a heat job or maintenance at a chemical plant than do "plumbing" Yes the pay was the same but I did my best to get to a steamfitter job VS. a plumbing job.

Now at 75 and unable to comfortably kneel due to a artificial knee any kneeling type house jobs I coach my son threw or hire it out.