Your shower is leaking: Home Repair in 2020 (and beyond)

[Ceetar]

Occasionally, when you turn the single handle shower all the way to cold, it locks up and you have to remove the handle to fix it. I turned too hard and broke it last night. It stopped diverting water from bath to shower.

Two trips to home depot and some swearing and it's still not fixed. I replaced the cartridge but that didn't fix the diverter AND it's now leaking. I think I need to replace the diverter as well as getting another cartridge that I didn't mutilate like a newb.

or call a plumber.

[Lefty Specialist]

or call a plumber.

Ding, ding, ding. When I try to fix something and make it worse, I drop my tools and pick up the phone.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Find yourself a reliable local handyman. We have a guy who handles non-serious repairs as needed without us having to escalate it to the licensed contractors.

Locksmith wanted $500+ to install a new deadbolt locks on interior doors; we bought the locks ourselves ($80) and Vince will do it for about $100. I'd do it for free but one of the doors needing the change has a weird positioning that won't fit the lock we have, so a new hole needs drilling and we don;t own that size bit.

[Lefty Specialist]

We've been in our house for 27 years and the most important thing we found was 'the guy' for our problems. He's a contractor, but he has connections for the things he doesn't do, and he's never steered us wrong. He recommended a plumber, the guy who redesigned our deck, the architect who navigated the building codes in our town, the attorney who got our property taxes lowered, a tree guy, a painter, the works. We'd be lost without him.

[Ceetar]

yeah, I guess I need a handyman but it feels weird to just call 'some guy' out of the blue when it's specifically a plumber.

Also holiday and I was pretty sure I knew what I was doing. (and I'm pretty sure I know where I went wrong too) I also think I might have a secondary issue, so there's that.

Dropped a 'contact me' to a plumber this morning and will call them/other in a bit.

[seawolf17]

We've been in our house for 27 years and the most important thing we found was 'the guy' for our problems. He's a contractor, but he has connections for the things he doesn't do, and he's never steered us wrong. He recommended a plumber, the guy who redesigned our deck, the architect who navigated the building codes in our town, the attorney who got our property taxes lowered, a tree guy, a painter, the works. We'd be lost without him.

Absolutely. We had that guy on LI, although we haven't found him here yet.

[Double Switch]

I always "call the guy." I live in a building and the facility manager and I both agree that we prefer to "call the guy" who actually knows what to do and has the equipment to do it. The closest I get to dealing with anything electrical is changing the smoke detector batteries and light bulbs. I have a plumber on speed dial.

[Ceetar]

This year hopefully money will be a little less tight. My parents gave us a loan to pay down a credit card interest free, I got a 25k bump at a new job in october and my wife got 8% more or something, plus a bonus. I think we're actually earning more than we spend now, so an extra 100-200 on a plumber isn't as ugh.

But there's still just so much of these types of things in a house that if you can save by doing it yourself, and learn something towards doing it again next time, it goes a long way.

that said, all fixed, by me. The only remaining issue is that the pipe nipple from pipe to bath spout is longer than the new spout and I've got a gap. I'm not messing around with refitting pipes like that though, so I might be paying a plumber anyway.

The problem was, as is usually the case, that I didn't use enough lube.

[kcmets]

Fuck Home Depot!

Twice in the last ten days I went there looking for something that the
web-site said was in stock in 'my location' even with details about what aisle
it was in and twice it was total bullshit and ended in a wild-goose chase and
ultimately no sale either time.

Complete waste of time.

[Ceetar]

yup, I've had that experience plenty.

[Edgy MD]

You should have seen me caulk my tub. I felt like such a silicone-slinging badass.

I was looking in the mirror and it was Jet Li was looking back at me.

[Ceetar]

You should have seen me caulk my tub. I felt like such a silicone-slinging badass.

I was looking in the mirror and it was Jet Li was looking back at me.

you're hired.

I always miss a spot, somewhere, and it leaks into the basement. not always. just sometimes. I think it's an angle of the water thing. Definitely leaks when i spray upwards

[dgwphotography]

Had to call our plumber this week, because our water heater was leaking. It’s 10 years old, and we had to replace it.

[ashie62]

Got a heater about 2 months ago $1500, one year warranty which is good

Now I get to use the end of a paper clip to knock some lime out of the shower nozzle. Eyeglass screwdriver also works. It works

[nymr83]

My hot water heater does the dumbest thing ever.

Its set up with three separate "zones", one for the 'hot water' to all the sinks/appliances, one for the upstairs baseboard heat and one for the downstairs baseboard heat.

when either baseboard heating system needs hot water, no problem, the system turns on and heats water. however, sometimes, but not always, when the sinks want hot water the message gets lost somewhere and it doesnt turn on to heat water up. the problem is immediately fixed either by turning off and back on the entire system OR just by raising the heat a few degrees to cause the baseboard to want the water which the sinks then benefit from too.

a plumber guy replaced a part - before we knew that resetting the system temporarily fixes the problem - and that did absolutely nothing. his "fix" only seemed to work because he turned the system off while working and then back on! he seemed shady anyway and i dont want to deal with him again.

this isnt much of a problem over the winter because the heat runs regularly enough to keep me flowing in hot water, but i'm dreading the bill in the spring to finally fix this unidentifiable issue.

[Ceetar]

this isnt much of a problem over the winter because the heat runs regularly enough to keep me flowing in hot water, but i'm dreading the bill in the spring to finally fix this unidentifiable issue.

It's probably computers/bad programming. And roughly no one is qualified or knows how to diagnose these things. Had a similar issue with Mazda recently, where the issue was that the memory on an SD was corrupted.

[nymr83]

Yeah I replaced the equivalent of the "motherboard" myself as it was cheap and easy, no dice

[kcmets]

Washing machine won't empty. Water runs and fills up, does 'wash' cycle and just
sits there full of water until it decides to shut down and release the door lock.

Grrrrr....

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Replaced our front screen door yesterday in a 4-visits-to-Home-Depot kinda day.

[Benjamin Grimm]

This is a very slow-moving thread!

[metsmarathon]

it is, but it reminds me that i just had my furnace replaced. so there's that. i also just did some fixifying on a toilet that stopped working probably.

[kcmets]

I won't be a Flex Tape spokesperson anytime soon.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=30966

[MFS62]

This is a very slow-moving thread!

It was a slow leak.
Later

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Today I almost completely dismantled the rickety and dangerous 2nd floor deck that came with the house. 4 tools-- hammer, reciprocating saw, crowbar, ratchet. Had to cut floorboards and cross beams from beneath , huge mess out there.

[Edgy MD]

Sounds like a job for a teenager with a sledgehammer.