The weekend began with what felt like our largest plumbing job yet — mostly because it required shutting off water to the entire house. That meant I ended up with my hand in a muddy, bug-filled hole in the front yard, armed only with a tiny wrench.
We were repairing a small leak that the floor crew accidentally caused when they reinstalled our bathroom pedestal sink. We couldn’t fix it by turning off the shut-off valve under the sink because that valve was the source of the leak. And the last thing we wanted was water seeping onto our new floor. Fortunately, we had temporarily managed the problem by shutting off the sink’s cold-water line, which left us rinsing hands with hot water for a few days.
Who’s the better plumber?
Despite expecting a fiasco, the repair went smoothly. Shutting off water to the house was unpleasant but straightforward. Removing the faulty valve took some force, but we managed it. Installing the replacement valve was surprisingly simple once we found the correct part. We had preemptively gathered a handful of valves from Home Depot, grabbing anything that vaguely resembled what we needed. One of them fit perfectly; the rest went back to the store today.
With the new valve installed, the leak is fixed and we’ve put away our makeshift plumbing gear — well, everyone except Burger, who still insists on keeping his plumbing posture intact.