The weekend began with what felt like our biggest plumbing job yet — mainly because it required shutting off water to the whole house. That meant I spent a few uncomfortable minutes reaching into a muddy, bug-filled hole in the front yard with a tiny wrench as my only tool.
We were repairing a small leak that the floor contractors had created when they reinstalled our pedestal sink. The leak couldn’t be fixed by turning off the under-sink shut-off valve because that valve was the source of the problem. The last thing we wanted was a steady drip onto our new floor. Thankfully, we had temporarily contained the leak by shutting off the sink’s cold water, which left us doing some brisk, hot-handed hand-washing for a few days.
Who’s the better plumber?
Despite bracing for difficulty and disaster, the repair turned out to be fairly straightforward. Shutting off the main water supply was unpleasant but manageable. Removing the faulty valve took some elbow grease, but we got it free. Installing the new valve was easy once we determined which replacement piece fit.
We were lucky to have already made a run to Home Depot and come home with a collection of valves. We’d grabbed anything that even remotely matched our vague mental image of the part. One of them fit perfectly, and the rest — six extras — went back to the store today.
With the new valve in place, the leak is gone and the bathroom is back to normal. The only plumber’s cracks left are ours — well, all of ours except Burger’s.