Plumbing

     A few days ago, the faucet in the washroom sink here at Roseholme Cottage stopped shutting all the way off.

     The fixture wasn't a design I liked much, separate knobs for hot and cold feeding a single low spout, with tight spaces that were difficult to clean.  There'd been evidence that the rubber washer in the hot side was failing, but as long as it was working, well, why mess with it?

     Then it stopped working.  A small stream of hot water adds up fast to higher bills, and the drain in that sink is susceptible to clogs.  (I don't care how careful you are, brushing and putting up your hair and -- usually -- remembering to swipe out the sink, it attracts hair clogs.) 

     There are two reasons plumbing work is expensive.

     1. Nearly every part of it is inconvenient and awkward.  Replacing faucets on built-in sinks is especially so, but none of it is easy to get to.  The frustration factor is high -- and so is the back strain.

     2. It is highly skilled work.  When plumbing goes wrong, it makes a huge, costly mess.  We pay plumbers to deal with the aftermath -- and to get repair work right the first time.  It takes a willingness to work with grime, a large number of specialized tools and the wit in experience to know how to use them.

     That said, if you will accept the risk and the difficulty, there's some plumbing you can do yourself, especially if you're wanting to save money and have parallel experience.  Shutoff valves and cartridge type control valves (or repairable designs) make basic sink faucet repair reasonably straightforward: ID the fixture, buy the parts, possibly a valve-seat wrench and/or reamer for older types, turn off the water and replace the cartridge or rebuild the valve, fussy little rubber washers and all.

     Me, I was tired of the tiny spout and hard to clean faucet; I hunted down a brand-new single-control fixture, medium-height, and bought new connection hoses, PTFE tape, plumber's putty (wrong!) and a pair of just-in-case replacement shutoffs.  The other issue leading me to do my own repairs when I can is that the previous homeowner did his own plumbing, with great enthusiasm and a sublime indifference to the directions and the traditions of the craft, along with the inflexible laws of electrochemistry.  There's a great admixture of copper and galvanized pipe even now, and I don't want professional plumbers thinking I did that work.

     Come Saturday, I got all cleaned up (in case I needed to make a parts run), scrubbed the sink, emptied the vanity cabinet and cleaned it, got out my plumbing tools and had a look.  One shutoff valve didn't have a knob and they both looked kind of...old.  Funky, even.

     A look up at the old fixture had worse news: one of the simplest ways to install these has half-inch threaded pipes sticking down below each valve.  The supply lines connect to the ends, but up above them, snug against the underside of the sink, big plastic flange nuts clamp the fixture to the sink itself.  The instructions always warn, "HAND TIGHTEN ONLY!" but between the gorilla-sized lunch hooks of the guys who install them and decades of exposure to a moist environment, they're never easy to remove.

     I shut off the supply lines, using pliers on the one without a handle.  For a wonder, they shut off all the way and neither one leaked at the valve.  I disconnected the supply lines and felt the copper pipe rotate just a few degrees on the hot side when I started to unscrew the fitting.  That could be a problem: if it was soldered to an adapter threaded into galvanized pipe and I had just unscrewed it, I was in trouble.  Such a combination corrodes and you don't want to disturb it unless you're going to replace it.

     A check in the basement found the line was copper, with push-in fittings.  The manufacturer swears they hold up as well as soldered or crimped connections -- but they will rotate, and I think you probably shouldn't turn them after they've been in place a few years. (Also, debur the pipe end!  The seal depends on a high-grade O-ring and if it gets nicked, all bets are off.  You'd never guess how I know.)

     Back upstairs, I finished unscrewing the lines at the shutoff valves and started on the connections at the faucet ends.  My long basin wrench would reach them, but the jaws were so big that there wasn't room to rotate it.  (I'll be shopping for a svelter one.)  My set of stubby combination wrenches didn't go up that far. (Already ordered a 7/8" -- those things are too handy.)  Adjustable wrench time!  Of course, that meant I was wedged in the cabinet, looking up at an comfortable angle, turning the nut a few degrees at a time.  I have a little clip-on rechargeable book light (similar to this, but there are a jillion different kinds; some "music stand" versions have two goosenecks!) that at least gave plenty of light without getting in the way.  It was a prime example of why plumbers earn their pay: a pro would have had the right tool, and still been stuck in the same awkward position.  (Also, always take the time to get an adjustable wrench tight on the nut.  They are engines of destruction if you don't.)

     Once both lines were off, an infinity later, I started in on the big plastic flanged nuts.  Of course, they wouldn't turn by hand, and the only grip was by four plastic fins.  I managed to get the adjustable wrench on them (in a completely wrong, don't-do-this-with-good-tools way) and slowly, slowly backed both nuts off.  I stopped to get a pair of work gloves, and several minutes and a couple of full turns later, I could reach in blind with both hands and just barely spin the nuts, a little at a time, until they were finally free.  The drain-stopper control needed a thumbscrew loosened, and then I could take the whole assembly off and throw it away.

     The top of the sink wanted cleaning where the old fixture had been, of course.  The new one mounted differently, skinny supply lines, short 1/4-20 threaded rods and a couple of big notched washers and nuts: the notches clear the supply lines, while the nuts, washers and threaded rod clamp it to the sink.  Simple, easy -- and you cannot install the darned supply lines ahead of time, because the nuts on the end of them are too fat to fit through the holes in the sink top!

     But first a bead of plumber's putty, to seal up the junction--

     Friends, I have lived in old houses with old plumbing most of my life.  Porcelain (well, enameled) sinks and tubs, plated-brass fittings.  You use plumber's putty to seal things.  Well, you did: The label on my can of putty said, NOT FOR USE ON PLASTIC.  The washroom sink top is a modern composite material: plastic. The instructions for my new faucet said to use plumbing-rated silicone sealant.

     Short, frantic searching turned up three tubes, all a bit past the best-by date.  Two had been opened.  The third was sealed, felt soft, and oozed out okay when opened, so it was back to the task.

     There's a plastic piece that does most of the sealing.  I laid beads of silicone on it, stuck it to the bottom of the new fixture, and set it in place.  Back inside the cabinet, I reached up with a washer and nut, and dropped the washer.  Fine, it's notched anyway.  I reached up to start the nut, and knocked the new fixture over.  After a few words, I reseated the fixture, got back under, took hold of one threaded rod while starting a nut on the other, getting it close, and installing the washer, then did the other side.  Took another look topside, squared everything up and then tightened the nuts with a hollow-shaft nutdriver without looking.  One of them didn't feel right.

     A look up from underneath showed the washer on that side had slipped way off-center.  I had to loosen the nut, which made the whole fixture go cattywompus until I loosened the other nut.  It took a slow process of going back and forth until I had it square, the nuts tight and the washers centered on the threaded rods. 

     Connecting the supply lines took two wrenches, one to hold the big fitting on the end of the little pipe into the fixture and the other on the nut.  I managed to get them pretty snug by hand first, then -- I hope! -- sufficiently tight with the wrenches.  The connections at the shutoff valves were practically a relief after all that fiddling around.

     And then it was time to find out!  I turned on the hot side first, checking for leaks, running the water to purge the new fixture; then the cold, and I had to turn the shutoff a little more on (they usually seal best at full off and full off), and checked more and ran it awhile.

     That was last night.  The job took about three hours, start to finish, and as of 12:30 this afternoon, it's still holding.  I won't count it done until twenty-four hours have passed, and I'll keep watching it, but so far, so good.

     The new fixture is an improvement, easier to get your hands under and with fewer dirt-collecting corners.