One of the problems with our home is that it’s ten years old now. Things are starting to require some maintenance.
Now I’m no handyman but I’m no completely hopeless, so when Manina mentioned the tub faucet leak has been getting worse, I thought I’d take a crack at it.
I pulled the hardware off of the faucet and was doing pretty well. I took a picture of the cartridge that needed replacing and went down to Home Depot to get the new part and hopefully some advice from the pros.
The clerk was pretty knowledgeable, and gave me a few pointers on removing the cartridge.
Feeling confident, I returned to finish the job.
I tugged, I pulled, I heaved with my might, but that darn cartridge wasn’t budging. I kept at it, again and again, and then it snapped. The brass hosel thing just sheared clean off. Now how was I going to get it out?
I looked for some advice online and tried various methods. Unfortunately, none of them worked. So I called the plumber.
The plumber said it was a pretty routine fix, but I had screwed it up so badly that he had to replace the whole valve, which was only possible by cutting a large hole in either the shower or the wall. What started as a 60 dollar job turned into a 230 dollar repair.
Lesson learned: call the expert right from the start.
MightyJohnsons 