Good morning to all, and welcome again to Saturday Morning Home Repair - LIVE! A weekly gathering of professionals, DIY'ers, hopeless attempters....and the occasional redneck or two. Any questions asked can often be answered, or at least we can try to point someone in the right direction. At the very worst, always make sure to have the duct tape handy.
The subject of leaking faucets has arisen here in the past few weeks, and as luck would have it, my bathroom faucet also started to leak. I could have just as easily (and far more cheaply) just replaced the internal washers, but decided to replace the unit for a few reasons: it was the last faucet original to the house, so it didn't match anything else; and it's a complete pain to clean. So, off to the big-box store, where a decent looking clearance faucet for $35 came home with me.
So far, so good....
First, the original faucet; an old Delta that came with the house, which I re-installed 4 years ago onto the basin/cabinet I put in. With no bathroom closet, storage is always an issue, and having just bought the house, money was of course tight; that's why I re-used the faucet.
You've probably seen this type a number of times over the years, and it probably lasted for many years. One of my biggest issues with it has been keeping it clean; with so many small, angular nooks and crannies it was nothing less that a full half hour job to really get it to look nice. Ridiculous, and with a new baby due in January, time for household upkeep is an issue.
Removal is not all that hard. Shut off the water, reach up behind the basin to find the top of the supply lines, and unscrew. Since I replaced the lines when I put in the cabinet, I knew the nuts were plastic and took some care not to destroy them while wrangling them free. I put them on, I knew they were tight. Then just unscrew the holey extension bar from the drain-stop pull, and the two plastic nuts that hold the faucet to the basin. In case you've never done a faucet, here's what it looks like pulled off - partially reassembled.
The white plastic nuts hold the faucet on the basin (if you can't get them unscrewed, you can chisel them off easily - if you can get to them), while you can see the thumb-screw that holds the holey extension onto the drain stop pull in the middle. On the backside of the drain, there is another rod that comes out and controls the drain stop; that rod goes through one of the holes on the bar, and is held in place with a metal spring clip.
Now for the drain. When I installed the basin, it no longer perfectly aligned with the waste pipe coming from the wall. As such, I had to use a boatload of caulking to get everything to not leak - and it never did after I got done. Just don't ask how much caulking that took to do.
Ok, so now you know how much caulking it took. On the left is the drain before removal, and you can clearly see the tilt to the drain pipe. On the right is after I removed it, but before cleaning off the old caulking. I took a small chunk from the front pre-picture to give reference to the sheer amount I had to use. Because the caulking is silicone, it never actually hardens; not altogether hard to remove with a putty knife, but very tedious to get all of it off without chipping the ceramic. And yes, that is Teflon (or plumber's) tape between the metal threads of the drain pipe.
On the left, the basin drain hole before cleaning. Over time, most caulking will collect bacteria and turn reddish. This in turn allows growth between the basin hole and actual drain pipe. YEEECCCCHHHH. On the right, you can plainly see where the faucet was. The outline is where the plastic gasket of the faucet sits on the basin; leaking water was collecting under it, but the gasket kept it from spreading out from underneath. Break out the bleach.
The next step was installing the new drain. To be honest, if I hadn't had to caulk the hell out of the old one, I probably would have left it there and just put the faucet in. Knowing the bacteria was growing was the primary reason to replace the entire drain. A bit of plumber's putty under the drain piece that goes in the basin (the silver circle around the stopper that sits on the ceramic), screw the plastic drain pieces together, align so the stopper-rod comes out the back. Last thing for the drain was to screw the new unit to the waste pipe coming from the wall and check for leaks.
All I had to do was hand-tighten the large metal nut to the top of the waste pipe, just enough for the compression washer between the two metal pieces to do it's thing. A quick twist, and.....hey, my hand is wet. I swear I shut off the water. And why is the water on my hand red?
............OUCH...........
Forget coffee, on to Advil and beer. As I staunched the bleeding, I took a good look and realized what had happened: the top of the waste pipe had sheared off in my hand as I tightened the nut. For all I know, that pipe was 50 years old, and had corroded just enough to wait for a dumb-ass redneck to mess with it. As such, the pipe needed to be replaced; there were no longer threads at the top for the nut.
This is the point where I declared fail and called the plumber in. Replacing a faucet is one thing, but the waste pipe itself was another story altogether.
The new pipe and faucet. After the plumber's bill, my $35 faucet turned into a bleeding mess that cost a total of $175. It just figures that the last faucet I replace in the house (upstairs and down) is the one that goes south on me. Then again, it wasn't the faucet that did me in, but the drain. If I had to advise anything, I would say don't mess with the drain unless necessary. The faucet itself is probably only a half hour job or so, but the drain is another story.
Well, that was my Monday. What's everyone else up to?