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Here’s Why I Don’t Like Doing Stuff Around the House
By JLP | August 26, 2006
Our house was built in the early 60s. With an old house, comes repairs. Lately I noticed the toilet in the master bathroom runs constantly. I could pull off the lid and lift up on the float arm and the water flow would shut off. But, when I let go of the arm the water would start flowing again. From the looks of the ballcock (the part of the toilet that is responsible for water flow), it didn’t look like it had been changed in over 40 years. It’s a shame that I had to replace it because it is copper (I think) and the only replacements I could find at the hardware store were made of cheap plastic.
Today I decided to fix it. So, I went to the hardware store and bought a plastic ballcock. I shut the water off and flushed the toilet to empty the tank. I then unscrewed the supply tube, the mounting nut, and removed the old ballcock. I then put in the new cheap plastic ballcock and tightened both the supply tube and the mounting nut. I turned the water back on, ran back into the house and back to the master bath and immediately heard water dripping (not a good sign). I looked under the tank and noticed that water was streaming out where I had just installed the new ballcock!
I grabbed my crescent wrench and reached back to tighten the nut a little more. The instructions said not to tighten it too much. Well, you guessed it, I tightened it too much! I stripped the threads, making it looser than it was before! I was not very happy at this point because I realized that my “easy project” was going to turn into a half-a-day event! I also noticed upon closer inspection that the connection from the supply tube to the ballcock was also loose. No matter how hard I tried, I could NOT get it to line up properly.
My wife was out shopping so I called her and asked her to pick up a new supply tube. I explained what I needed, hung up the phone and waited for her to come home. She came home with the new supply tube and I ran back to the bathroom to try it out. IT WOULDN’T WORK. One end was too small. It wasn’t my wife’s fault. She bought what I told her to buy. So, I had to go to Lowe’s myself! While I was at Lowe’s I picked up a new cheap plastic ballcock and another supply tube.
I got home, ran back to the bathroom and started hooking up the new stuff. The second supply tube didn’t work either. The connector was too short and I couldn’t get it to connect to the valve that comes out from the wall. By now, I’m cussing and muttering jibberish because I’m SO CONFOUNDED MAD!!!!!! I was thinking to myself about what an idiot I was and how manufacturers were idiots to make PLASTIC parts to replace metal parts.
I didn’t quit yet. I decided to go back to the old supply tube and make it work. I carefully aligned it with the ballcock and began tightening the PLASTIC nut. I couldn’t get it tight enough by hand so I used by crescent wrench. I was tightening it up just a teeeensy bit more when the nut cracked in half! I shook my head, admitted defeat, shut the valve off at the wall, and went back outside and turned the water on. I was beaten by a toilet!
Now I don’t know what I’m going to do. I do know one thing: my wife and I won’t be using the master bath toilet tonight!
A “perfect” end to a “perfect” week!
Topics: Miscellaneous | 5 Comments »
August 26th, 2006 at 10:51 pm
JLP, you’re hilarious! Sounds like we share the same kind of luck with house projects — if something can go wrong it will, no matter how remote the odds. What’s amazing is that we keep going back for more punishment and thinking the result will be different the next time around. Kind of like Charlie Brown playing football with Lucy. My guess is that you’ll end up with a brand new toilet before you’re done. But why stop there? Go ahead and just remodel the entire master bath while you’re at it!
August 26th, 2006 at 11:05 pm
Steve,
Believe it or not, I actually went online to price new toilets! LOL!
August 27th, 2006 at 3:17 am
My toilet repair adventure featured a fountain that hit the ceiling in the bathroom, after “following the instructions” and not tightening the thing hard enough. We finally got it working, but it was quite an adventure.
My “home improvement” skills strictly lie with fixing our PCs and dealing with our home computer network. Anything beyond that and I call the pros. Fortunately, my wife is actually quite handy and does a fair bit of home repair herself – and has learned to shoo me off since I’ll get impatient…
August 27th, 2006 at 6:00 pm
Doh. I have to tell you though that so far you’re right on the money though — usually every home improvement requires at least 3 trips to the hardware store before you can even START to get things resolved. Try Ace, they may have some suggestions for you.
August 27th, 2006 at 7:09 pm
Of all the home repair projects I do, plumbing is the one I hate the most. Your experience is just like several of mine over the years.
If you toilet is 40 years old, you may want to consider replacing it anyway. The new ones use a lot less water – which is an important consideration here in the arid West. Maybe not so much in southeastern Texas though.