After work I went straight to Home Depot. The plumbing assistant there was sure that I needed a 1/2″ inlet for both valves. I kept protesting “but, but, but, all these guys online say I need 5/8″” After he left I thought “well, I’ll just buy both sizes, just in case.” I quickly discovered that I couldn’t find 5/8″ inlets at Home Depot. (this will be explained later)
Next up was shutting off the water supply and notifying my downstairs neighbors. When I notified the neighbors I asked to see their sink. Sure enough – the same “Noah’s Flood” valves were installed there too. However, the copper piping on theirs obviously had a 3/8″ thread on the end as it was hooked up to a modern faucet exactly like mine SHOULD have been. I had a terrible time finding out where to turn off the water. The woman from the HOA had told me this morning that the water valves would be directly underneath my condo. She also said they’d be labelled with numbers (and she gave me the numbers). Well… as I walked around the garage, OTHER people’s stuff was labelled, but there was no labelling on anything in the northeast corner (my corner). Actually – I take that back, I did find one of the numbers. #200 had been misplaced and stuck on a drainage pipe! From tracing the water lines backwards from my condo I was able to find the main shutoff levers for the unit/s.
From there it was time to install the new valves. As I turned the nut on the old hot water valve a curious thing started happening. The nut (and whole valve) just kept turning and turning. Forever it was turning and not getting any farther off the pipe. Eventually I decided to call my father, who is knowledgeable about such matters. He explained that it is a compression fitting, and the nut and valve have to be twisted in opposite directions – then the valve will come off and the nut will slide back behind the compression ring. Now I knew what I had to do; there was just one problem: the nut had become very close to the valve all these years, although they didn’t have any offspring it wasn’t for lack of trying – and it was going to be one helluva job separating those two. It became obvious rather quickly I was going to need another set of vice grips. So, off to Home Depot I went for the sixth time in under a week. 45 minutes later I was back in that tiny space (I think if I was any taller I wouldn’t have been able to do any of this) under the sink and one mighty manly “this is what I go to the gym for” grunt and the nut and valve started separating. It took me two or three times of tightening and untightening the valves to get them on there right (the first time I forgot to put plumbers putty on the hot water valve – that didn’t go over so well). After all that, when I turned on the faucet… water started streaming down from the faucet. I let out some cursing (I didn’t come this far just to have a faulty faucet!) and then started investigating. Turned out the seal on the removable handle was loose. A few good jerks with the wrench later and there was no more water unaccounted for.
I wasn’t done yet though. I still had to apply some kind of sealant cement black “icky” stuff to the other pipe that was loose. I applied it and then assembled the connector pieces I’d bought on Saturday and the new vice grips. I took them all and returned them to Home Depot.
While on the phone earlier my father had explained (as he did in yesterday’s blog comments – but I was busy wrangling with the valves by the time he posted it) that 5/8″ and 1/2″ inlets are the same thing. 1/2″ is the inner dimension and 5/8″ is the outer, thus why the guys on that message board often put “o.d.” after the 5/8″ for “outer dimension.”
So, my DIY replacing a leaky faucet operation turned into:
2 trips to Lowes
7 trips to Home Depot
$18.51 for new hot and cold water valves
$121.21 for new faucet (and sealant)
becoming intimately involved with the piping in the building
14 hours of my time (and a few of my dad’s)
If I’d have known everything up front this would have taken one trip to the store, and a total installation time of no more than an hour.
But at least it is over… for now….
All that trouble! lol. But sometimes there’s just no other way to learn.
In the end, if you can solve it yourself you are much better off. The last time I hired a plumber it cost me over $800 FOR NOTHING. My husband and I were out on a date and the sitter called us telling us that the celing had a leak. Of course we were very conerned and rushed right home. The leak seemed odd because our house was built in 2004, but sure enough the celing was dripping near the opening for the celing fan downstairs. We turned off the water immediately. Not wanting to be without water for the entire weekend (it happened Saturday night) we called a plumber to come out Sunday. The plumber came, did some exploratory work, cut into the wall behind the shower and determined there was no leak. The babysitter had allowed the kids to splash too much in the tub. The water seeped underneath the cabinets in the bathroom and flowed along the floor until it found an opening to drip from–the celing fan downtstairs. He charged us around $880 for the call (on Sunday), the exploratory work and cutting the hole. We didn’t even get a cover for the hole out of the deal. Then, when my husband went to try to find a cover for the hole, it was cut at such an odd length that we’ll have to make one instead.
Yikes! Yeah, I was trying to avoid the plumber at all costs. I had to pay 10% of what you did for nothing about a year ago. I needed to hook up my gas dryer in my place and the gas company told me they couldn’t come out for more than a month. I called “mike diamond” and the guy charged $80 to come through the door and then told me he could “hook up the gas today” for $500.
I said no thanks (which he didn’t take too well – I think they must get a commission).
When the dryer was delivered the delivery man hooked it up for a 20 dollar bill. It took ten seconds.
As I used to tell my married friends( before I got married and had a home of my own) when they had a tale of woe like yours—-“another happy home owner heard from!”. Every time I tackle one of those types of jobs I learn something new. get-er-done. 3 more jobs and you can join the secret order of the golden butt-crack.
At least Mike Diamond promises that his plumbers will show up on time, smell good, and have no sun rises exposed.