2 posts tagged “diy”

Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
Well, for the past long long while we've had a drip in the faucet in the tub.  I'd finally had enough of it keeping me up at night, so last Monday, on my day off, I tried to tackle the leak. I know enough DIY plumbing that I knew I needed to remove the stem of each knob and replace the washer at the back of the stem.  Thing was, when I took the knobs off, and removed a few more bits, I didn't see the sort of stem I expected to see. Simply, there wasn't a nut in the middle of the stem to turn the stem out.  So I put it all back together and went to see Coraline in 3D.

Today, I thought I'd tackle it again since I had half a day of good daylight to see in the bathroom.  After we all went to the bathroom for the last time and I turned off the water, I pulled the knobs off again and got to where I was on Monday.  I got a little braver and scraped some stuff off around the pipe of one knob, and even got in from behind through the wall behind the fridge in the kitchen (there was already a hatch cut into the wall to see the plumbing).  Still stumped, I took some pictures and printed them off and took them to my Ace Hardware around the corner.

Joe, the old guy at Ace took a look at the pictures, listened to what I thought I was seeing, then had a pretty good idea of what was going on.  Funny thing was he'd never seen a faucet/knob quite like I was describing, and what the pictures were showing.  He said, "You know what I'd do if I was you?" To which I replied, "Call a plumber?" He laughed, said no, I didn't need a plumber and he was confident I could tackle this.  He explained to me why he thought I wasn't seeing the sort of thing I expected, and told me exactly what to do to get it off.  I ran back home, did exactly as he said, and there it was, suddenly I had a knob stem in my hand.  It looked and operated exactly as he said it would, and I ran back to Ace (thankfully it's only 2 minutes away) and showed him what I had.  He got me set up with some washers and plumber's grease (to make taking out the 54-year old stems easier the next time I have to), and I was back home in 10 minutes and taking care of the second knob.  In they went, on went the water, and voila! no drip!

Hmm, no, I don't have a picture of the finished product, and I'm too lazy right now to run up and take one.  It just looks like a tub now, but with no drip.

Just a quickie to say that I had a rather productive weekend in the DIY part of the to-do list.  I installed one of those curved shower rods that give you more room in your shower, and I installed a new vent fan for the bathroom.  Of course no DIY project can happen without a trip (or three) to the local hardware store. 

Trip #1 was a bit of pre-shopping to round up some of the supplies I thought I would need for the projects and possibly eliminate the need for additional trips over the weekend - plywood board to sit/lay on in the attic, a vent kit because my current vent wasn't vented out of the attic, an electric lantern to light up the attic, and some other odds and ends .  Silly me for thinking that I could possibly get away with only that one trip.

Trip #2 was Saturday night, after I broke the tile drill bit in the next to last hole for the shower curtain installation.  It broke at 9:30.  Lowes closed at 10.  I made it with 10 minutes to spare.  Of course when I got home, finished drilling the last two holes, and went to put in the wall anchors, they didn't want to cooperate (cheap things) so I still didn't get the shower rod hung Saturday night.

Trip #3 was Sunday after church, where I got a box of better wall anchors, some duct tape and some roofing cement to seal up the vent (luckily I had opened up the vent kit to know I needed the cement).  This, indeed, was the last trip, and I was able to finish both projects.  The vent fan took about 4.5 hours of up and down the ladder to the attic, then up and down the ladder to the roof, and a final trip to the attic to connect the vent to the fan.

The shower curtain is great, and I highly recommend getting one.  It just makes taking a shower that much nicer, especially if you have an older, smaller tub.  The vent fan is amazing.  I never really thought that vent fans were really supposed to work, that it was just accepted that you always needed to crack the door to really get rid of the steam; but I'll be damned if it doesn't work like a charm and keep the steam down and the mirrors fog-free.  I'm rather quite proud of that particular project, and to actually have it work like it's supposed to **beams**.