Our bathroom faucet, original to the house, so twenty years old, had become very hard to turn on. I tried lubricating it, but somehow made it worse. So went to Menards and bought a replacement. Bought two different lengths of supply lines after looking under there, didn't really bother measuring. Took out the old faucet and drain pipe. Install the faucet to discover both supply were too long to the point they would be severely crimped. Decided maybe I better measure, 9 inches looked to be what I needed, back to Mennards to return the supply lines and buy the 9 inch ones. Got home installed a 9 inch one, perfect fit. The other side, an inch too short, a few cuss words later and back Mennards to get an extra long one that would allow a loop to alleviate any stress or crimping. This time it worked, so a 1/2 job took 3 hours. At least it's fixed and no leaks.
Why Does This Always Happen
- Thread starter KenB259
- Start date
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egnald
Member
It sounds like a birthday card my wife gave me a few years ago. Measure twice, cut once, curse three times on the way back to Menards. - Dave PS This kind of thing seems to always happen to me at 8:45pm just as they are closing!
Kenny Durrant
Member
It's Murphys Law. Blame him.
mark james
IAP Collection, Curator
My wife tackled a plumbing job (very successfully) a few years back on our water filtration system and said "now I know why you make so many trips back and forth to Lowes and Home Depot." She made 4 trips.
howsitwork
Member
But you learn entirely new swear words during the process…..
Just fitted replacement wing mirror to wife's car. Refitted door innards and just about to test when I spy the tie wrap I wanted to use to secure the wiring properly on the seat next to me
all off again and refit having installed tie wrap ! It ain't just plumbing ! But she's very happy it's sorted so
Just fitted replacement wing mirror to wife's car. Refitted door innards and just about to test when I spy the tie wrap I wanted to use to secure the wiring properly on the seat next to me
all off again and refit having installed tie wrap ! It ain't just plumbing ! But she's very happy it's sorted so
That was my plan too
Monty
Group Buy Coordinator
Anyone that has done plumbing before knows every plumbing job requires at least 3 trips to the hardware store.
jttheclockman
Member
Now these days I always loop any supply line. Does no damage and you do not see them anyway.
Will be my go to method from now on. Worked really well.
jttheclockman
Member
Yea I had my Kitchen and bath remodeled last year and the plumber did this and to me it looked great. He did under kitchen sink as well as toilet and bath sink. Even the toilet looked good. I use to to get ones that were as close as possible and then put 45 degree bends to make look neat but no more.
keithlong
Member
The school system that I worked in had a plumber in the maintenance dept and he had everything you could think of on his work truck and he always had to make several trips to the plumbing supply store.
Woodchipper
Member
My water lines are an odd distance from the shut-off valve to the bottom of the tank. So...I bought the longer one and just made a cute curl. No kink. BTW, I got the sheathed lines in case of a ruptured line.
KMCloonan
Member
I had my own plumbing struggle over Christmas... We have a Moen kitchen faucet that we installed in 2009 - the escutcheon (the plate at the bottom) had some peeling of the chrome, so my wife called Moen, and they sent a replacement escutcheon free of charge. So far, so good.
Little did I know that to replace the escutcheon, I would have to completely disassemble the faucet - Which I did. The hardware that clamped the faucet to the sink was very rusted - I must have had a small leak that over time rusted the bolts - a little cursing and contorting (there is no room to move around under the sink) I finally got the mounting hardware off. I disconnected the two supply lines and pulled the faucet up and out.
Then I found that the escutcheon was attached to the brass valve body by 2 tiny completely corroded screws - I thought they were Phillips screws, but I could not loosen them. I ended up using a hack saw to cut away the old escutcheon, piece by piece (some more swearing was appropriate) until finally I could get at those screws. I used a brass wire brush to remove the mineral deposits, and found that the screws required an Allen wrench, but I could not find any of my Allen wrenches, standard or metric that would fit. I finally tried vice grips on the screw head, and was able to remove one screw, but the other sheared off. (Insert swearing here).
Rather than trying to tap or drill out the tiny screw, I ended up using epoxy to glue the escutcheon to the valve body (Basically doing what the screws were intended for).
I then installed the faucet, then realized I forgot the escutcheon gasket. More swearing. When I finally got everything assembled, and turned on the water, I had hot water, but no cold water (and yes, the supply was turned on). Colorful language ensued. I then disassembled everything again and learned that the valve body had collected some debris from my pipes (mostly rust particles) which occluded the cold supply on the faucet, so I blew out the supply lines on the faucet and a tablespoon of crud came out. This resolved the blocked cold water. Finally installed everything at 10:30 Saturday night (I started at noon), and it all works well now. No extra trips to Menards this time (I had what I needed from all my other trips there.).
So my story lacked the multiple trips to Menards, replaced by multiple installations and uninstallations. Sigh.
I'm surprised Santa even made a stop at my house, given how naughty my language was.
Little did I know that to replace the escutcheon, I would have to completely disassemble the faucet - Which I did. The hardware that clamped the faucet to the sink was very rusted - I must have had a small leak that over time rusted the bolts - a little cursing and contorting (there is no room to move around under the sink) I finally got the mounting hardware off. I disconnected the two supply lines and pulled the faucet up and out.
Then I found that the escutcheon was attached to the brass valve body by 2 tiny completely corroded screws - I thought they were Phillips screws, but I could not loosen them. I ended up using a hack saw to cut away the old escutcheon, piece by piece (some more swearing was appropriate) until finally I could get at those screws. I used a brass wire brush to remove the mineral deposits, and found that the screws required an Allen wrench, but I could not find any of my Allen wrenches, standard or metric that would fit. I finally tried vice grips on the screw head, and was able to remove one screw, but the other sheared off. (Insert swearing here).
Rather than trying to tap or drill out the tiny screw, I ended up using epoxy to glue the escutcheon to the valve body (Basically doing what the screws were intended for).
I then installed the faucet, then realized I forgot the escutcheon gasket. More swearing. When I finally got everything assembled, and turned on the water, I had hot water, but no cold water (and yes, the supply was turned on). Colorful language ensued. I then disassembled everything again and learned that the valve body had collected some debris from my pipes (mostly rust particles) which occluded the cold supply on the faucet, so I blew out the supply lines on the faucet and a tablespoon of crud came out. This resolved the blocked cold water. Finally installed everything at 10:30 Saturday night (I started at noon), and it all works well now. No extra trips to Menards this time (I had what I needed from all my other trips there.).
So my story lacked the multiple trips to Menards, replaced by multiple installations and uninstallations. Sigh.
I'm surprised Santa even made a stop at my house, given how naughty my language was.
Yup!! Saves a lot of time, for sure.
Sadly, I've slacked off on this lately, and my last couple home repair projects resulted in half a dozen trips back to the hardware store each time.
It is a pain...but, I've taken to doing all of these kinds of projects myself now, as its VASTLY cheaper. If I hire someone, I've learned that I'm paying 5-10x as much as I do if I just do it myself. More towards the 10x side of the scale these days. I do plumbing, electrical, general house repairs (i.e. siding, fixing the trim around my windows, painting, etc.) all myself now, and in the long run, I've found I've saved tens of thousands of dollars doing so. I even built myself my own deck, and saved I'd say at least $40,000 there (I also did a lot of electrical/lighting work as well as designed my own awning system that can be opened and closed that wasn't even included in the original bids, and if that had been included, I'm sure its thousands more.)
Maybe other areas are different, but around here in Colorado, we have had so much wealth move in from out of state, general contracting costs have blown through the roof and are becoming out of reach for the average middle class family. If prices were more reasonable, I guess I'd probably hire people to do the work for me more often...
