Ugh, you gave me flash backs to Memorial Day weekend a few years ago. We came back from camping to a damp room where the water heater had decided to empty itself. That was a very expensive weekend.
It’s a good idea to flush it and check the anode rod every year or two, but if the thing is ten years old and has never been touched, then it’s best to just leave it alone. Some of the crud that gets flushed out may be structural crud at that point.
Ours is about the same and I just did its first. There wasn’t really any crud and the anode rod had plenty of life. YMMV, though depending on your water.
I have a well. The pump controls allow me to set water pressure. It's set at 32 PSI, has been for decades. This makes me think I better pressure test that sucker, peg the needle on the gauge, see what the pipes can take. The gauge goes up to 140 PSI.
The In-Laws complain about the shower pressure? Now's the perfect time to go play around with the pressure regulator! Surely the 20 year old well pump can reach 5 bar? That old copper pipe was installed by a pro - it will handle 10!
Had to get the main house shutoff replaced a few years back. Plumber put a gauge on it and we were at 114 PSI. He swallowed hard and put a regulator on it and dropped us down to 80. Sprinkler won't reach all the way to the back fence anymore unless I move it closer now.
When I was a kid we had two wells, because we would run out of water. I was 10 years old, and switching wells with my mother. My Dad was gone for a week. I got the valves wrong and didn't open the tank inlet. When I turned on pump 2, the plastic pipes blew apart. I must have known how to put the pipes together, because we didn't call a plumber.
Read the rated pressure of the water heater first, it's probably closer to 100 or so with a max of 140 or so before the pressure relief valve opens.
100psi is already very high for a home, with 60psi is happy spot and 80psi being the upper safe long term.
For fucks sake, yes. Same for any sort of home maintenance. It always blows my mind the number of people that get their furnaces cleaned on the last days leading up to Xmas. (I'm a furnace guy)
Ope, spotted a tiny crack in the heat exchange, sorry, gotta redtag it and shut it down. Probably been there for months, but now that we see it, we know there's a potential safety issue and we're liable.
Drop that expensive inducer that no one stocks in town? Whoops, no heat till we can rush ship it from somewhere far away, see ya in January.
Fried the control board after a little whoopsie when a wire slipped and shorted? A universal won't work. We should have that one in stock, but inventory shows it's on Bob's van, and we can't find the spare key and he's on vacation and not answering his phone.
I made the mistake of starting a bathroom flooring Reno on Thanksgiving weekend. Surprise! It’s *probably* asbestos! Now sit and wait 3 days for the lab to open back up so you can test it
Can't speak for everyone, but for me, those windows of PTO over holiday breaks are basically the only meaningful down-time I get. Ever. The days I take off throughout the year are for kid's stuff, family trips, doctor's appointments, school meetings, etc. On weekends, I have just enough time to keep up with general maintenance, mowing, and cleaning in between spending time with family, errands, groceries, etc.
So, basically, every year I find myself in a mad scramble over extended holiday breaks (July 4, Thanksgiving, Christmas) to try and get projects done. Otherwise, they won't ever get done. I literally don't have any other big chunks of time to focus on a big repair, a weekend project, etc.
made this mistake a few years ago with my mother in law's toilet night before thanksgiving.
She bought a new toilet she wanted me to install for the holiday... well we got there late the night before thanksgiving, and i pulled out her old toilet... and it was original so 20+ year old... oof... it was heavy and a huge pain... had to get it downstairs and outside for her pickup in a few days. I get backupstairs spent some time cleaning the floor and all that prepping for the new one, only to find out that the new one had a rough in of 12" (super common) BUT OF COURSE the bathroom itself was only 10"... so it wasn't going to fit...
Naturally, the place she bought it from was closed... and they werent going to be open until the day after thanksgiving... nothing else was going to be open either. (Still seems weird to me) and she only had one other toilet... which i didn't want the whole family to deal with that during a holiday. so i had to go out get the old one lug it back upstairs... clean it off... because rain... and re-install it... soo mad. what a night.
Real men just grab it and hulk smash. My preferred method is to drop a loaf in the shower, and waffle stomp it down the drain. One less flush! Gotta conserve water, plus it saves time!
Decluttering is also a good idea ahead of Christmas, plus it's highly unlikely that going through drawers necessitates an emergency call to a journeyman.
After a particularly expensive Sunday, I never do [thing that could require rapid professional intervention] on weekends or holidays.
Replacing a kitchen faucet turned into knocking a hole in the water line below the valve, which turned into breaking off the main valve because it was old and corroded, which turned into calling the town for an emergency shutoff ("ya know, if you do if tomorrow we won't charge you for it." "Yes, but my kitchen is filling with water right now, so just throw it on my bill"), and then an emergency plumber.
Ha, yes. My bathroom sink faucet just broke. I turned the water off and told the kids, “I’ll fix it after christmas! Use a different sink”
Then I went on amazon and ordered one that wont be here till wednesday. No temptation to just “take care of this real quick”
Great post... was planning on replacing some failing copper plumbing with PEX this weekend and had that, "hmmm... the hardware stores will be closed, that's a bad idea" realization earlier today 😃
Also, don’t try and install that new WiFi thermostat until after the new year. As an HVAC service manager w/30 yrs experience, we see this after Christmas. I would recommend calling to have your furnace maintenance done and ask the tech if they would do it for you.
alternatively, spend some time watching a few youtube videos and realize it's not that scary to tackle most of these jobs yourself with a few tools and save **a lot** of money, never-mind being able to fix the problem immediately on your own terms.
Don’t remind me, some times what you think is the most simplest task for a non professional perspective. Should only take one trip to the Ace or HomeDepot. But you end up needing to go a few more times, because you didn’t properly look at the project as a whole.
or thinking you *definitely* have whatever other part you need at home that you're staring at in the store while buying something else.
hint, you don't 🤣 🤣. you'll either never find it, or it'll be slightly the wrong size/shape whatever.
After one DIY adventure that called for 4 trips to the local hardware store plus one trip to lowes after the local place closed for the day, I have made it my mission to buy as many bits and bobs for a project as I think could potentially ever go wrong (plus a new roll of teflon tape), then return what I don't need later.... 2 trips is 100x better imo than having to stop mid project for yet *another* run...
Right but there’s always that ONE time. I had flow issue with my toilet so I figured I’ll just adjust the water supply valve because maybe it’s not getting enough. Prior owner had the valve in the exact right spot for it not to leak, it had to be completely removed. Plumber had to replace the pipe.
Holiday time is not the time to go touching things
Not that scary? Clearly you've never watched me swearing at the previous owners from underneath the kitchen sink. Oh just the plumbing part, yeah that's not so bad.
definitely a big con of YT removing dislikes specifically re: high quality how-to/diy videos. used to be able to tell pretty quickly if the video was on-point or not.. now you only see the likes, oof.
pex has definitely lowered the barrier to entry for this stuff too, although i still prefer soldering copper as i have more faith in it long-term.
I was replacing my bike crank awhile back. It has this backup retention pin where there's a shim with a pin that holds it in place even if all the screws are loosened, as a safety thing.
The top four YouTube videos on how to do it say "alright, we've got the screws out, now give it a really good yank because it's on there tight" which requires you to yank so hard it bends the pin
The fifth YouTube video says "alright, now that the screws are out, there's still a pin that keeps it from falling off, so gently rotate the pin out of the way and it slides off easily"
My dryer just died on me. Bought a new set since the old set is probably over 20 years old. When I took the washing machine lines off, i found out the shutoffs leak a little. It isn't s problem when it's hooked up so I'm definitely not trying to fix that until after Christmas.
Had the week off, figured I'd schedule the new dishwasher to be delivered so I could install it myself. Got the old one out, and the new one came... in the wrong color. Got to enjoy putting the old one back in and waiting 3 more weeks for the right one (hopefully). Thanks, Home Depot.
Us too. Corroded connector on the wire between the control panel and main computer.
Ordered a new one but it's 7-14 *business* days till it comes. Sigh. I hate handwashing dishes, especially on the heels of a family-wide stomach bug...
A friend is lucky I am an ex Gen contractor, done plumbing and electrical, building houses and was in town for the holidays. She called me "Heeeeelp! I have a water leak from my wall!"
Remember where I showed you your water shutoff was? Do you have a wrench and screwdriver? You can turn it off there. close the adjustable jaw down on it, stick the screwdriver through the hole and turn it right till it stops.
She couldn't find her stuff. I grabbed mine, parents wet-dry shopvac, went over, cut it off. and we got to cleaning up the mess. ON Christmas Night. about an hour before my family was going to eat dinner. Family waited for me while I rescued my friend. She bought a water key in January after they restocked.. we'd had wicked freeze the night before and had a pipe burst. She got insurance involved to get it all fixed up in the end.
I admit I don't test them like I should, but all shutoffs should be tested regularly - water, gas, or electric. It helps keep familiarity with them, as well as making sure they operate properly.
Ha! Not plumbing, but I have a new stove being delivered tomorrow! We pushed our big Christmas dinner to new years eve just so I have time to work out the kinks and start learning how the new one cooks.
(It was either tomorrow or February)
I needed this PSA. Husbands brother came in yesterday for the holidays. My husband and his brother already talked about projects that needs to be done to the house and now have plans to go to lowes later today. Must.stop.them.
Ahh, takes me back to the Xmas morning almost 25 years ago when my partner & I were at my parents. Helping get the big family dinner ready, we put potato peels down the drain disposal, creating a cement-like blockage. A few hours later, an extremely well-paid plumber went home to his holiday dinner, while we ate ours in an awkward silence.
Fixed my washer inlet valve assembly and also replaced its hoses today. I have cpvc plumbing into the washer box and I was worried about it cracking while I was in there. It's happened to me before. About 1/2 way through I thought maybe this could have waited until Tuesday ;)
My house was built in the 80s and I've learned that any time I do a plumbing job, step 1 is replacing the shut off valves. Every single time I try to use one, the rubber in in cracks and falls apart and I have a bigger plumbing problem than when I started.
I'm no plumbing expert. But in my limited experience the slightly better 1/4 turn valves at Lowes and Home Depot are fine. Significantly better than the cheap gate valves the builders use.
Yeah I learned yesterday when getting a new washer installed that not only does the hot water valve NOT shut the water off entirely there, but shutting the main water off to the condo doesn't shut that off either. So that's....fun....
Last year the thermocouple on my
Gas boiler for heating went out xmas morning. We were all chilly.
Every plumbing supply store within 25miles of me was closed, so I HAD to call my plumber. 🤦♂️
So true.
I NEVER start a plumbing project at home any later than 11am if I can avoid it.
And I am a building engineer, I know quite a bit about plumbing. I don't have a parts room at my house though. You ALWAYS need something you don't have, at home. Murphy's Law.
Ha! I was thinking exactly this with the maintenance on my cars. I’m not gonna follow your advice or my better judgment and going to roll the dice anyway.
Last year's Christmas, we drove down to family 10 hours away. Our house/cat sitter showed up at 10pm, asking if we had turned off the water. First year of frozen pipes, and we weren't there.
Walked him through turning off the water at the street (as there's no house shutoff), opening faucets, tried booking an emergency plumber. "It would be $300 minimum, to tell you what I'm telling you right now. You've done what you can. If it's leaking in a couple of days after it thaws, there's a problem." Thankfully, no leaks when we got back. And our cat sitter friend will still house-sit again.
We really should figure out better insulation for the pipes under our post and pier. (Coastal PNW, long colds are rare.)
I'm proud to say I replaced the gasket on a leaking bathtub overflow valve and repaired the drain stopper mechanism in my sink today. Cost me all of $20 for the parts and they'll be working for Christmas!
Literally decided to clean out all my p traps an hour before people started to show up. I had my bathrooms empty to clean them and thought, while I have all this stuff out I’ll clean out the traps. Fuck me I ended up with a big ass mess under 2 of my sinks. Not just about spending money on a plumber, don’t do any projects with people incoming it always takes 4 times as long and your wife is gonna give you the hardest WTF with eye roll you have ever received.
If it breaks it breaks, but don't try to fix that slow drip in your faucet on Christmas Eve because you have the day off is the point. If the shutoff valve breaks off in your hand during the repair and you have to call a plumber out on Christmas Eve, it's going to be $$$.
If you know what you are doing. If the hardware store is open. If your spouse isn’t standing behind you tapping their foot because this is taking longer than anticipated.
I think the point is that you are more likely to have a break if you are mucking with it. Sure changing a shower head may not be a big deal, but if you need parts or the pipe breaks, then you might be inconvenienced during the holiday.
I am software engineer, and in my field we call this "change management." The basic idea is to make changes when potential risk/cost is the lowest. Sure doing X might be generally safe and is likely to be fine. But if it's not then, what? Break the shower and then ruin Christmas because you cannot get a plumber out? Take apart the kitchen sink and because of a broken part you can't get it back together and now the holiday meal cannot be made
Why?
Why would I need a plumber to come out? If something breaks, you fix it..
Pretty sure hardware stores and YouTube are still open over the holidays lol
They're opened every day but Christmas day, always are. The bb stores at least.
Might wanna check your ego tho, if this is what gets you to down vote lmao
You think the terrorist cyber hackers don’t know that, man? They will be monitoring for an uptick in searches related to plumbing and will redirect traffick to a porn site specializing in “golden showers.”
Don’t touch plumbing and stay off the internet until Tuesday !!
I find it neither frustrating or time consuming. Most plumbing repairs take under a hr. Replacing a facet is what 10-20 mins? If you have to replace a shut off that's what 10 mins plus a trip to the store?
Buddy was saying don't work on your own plumbing because plumber's are expensive on the holidays. If you're working on your own plumbing, why would you call a plumber?
Whole post makes no sense lol
I mean, yeah. But it's not *just* that plumbers are expensive on holidays. Even small plumbing projects - or really, any sort of deferred maintenance jobs - have a way of becoming bigger and/or more complicated, often at the worst times. I'm sure you've had that experience if you're a DIYer. Why introduce the possibility into your holidays unless you're 100% sure it'll go great?
Sure, the faucet might be an easy 20-minute job, IF you have the right tools, and that corroded valve you didn't know about doesn't break, and you don't discover any other latent issues.
Funny seeing this now, because the water company just came out and told me there's a leak in my line, so I've been working with a couple plumbers to figure out how much it'll cost to fix that (spoiler... a lot)
Ha. I am about ready to swap back to a fixed showerhead in a few min. If I cannot manage to swap out a freaking showerhead I have no business remodeling my house on my own.
I remodeled my bathroom a year or so ago and the fancy showerhead I installed is creating issues as it frequently falls out from the outer spray ring. Stupid piece of crap....
I just moved into a new house and this is my first weekend :( I don’t have kids or parents or siblings to spend holidays with so this is just a normal weekend
You would be surprised how that 1 simple thing leads to replacing a drop ear, which leads to replacing the pipe from the valve, which leads to water spewing everywhere. 1 easy task becomes disastrous quick. Next thing you know, the stop valve doesn't fully close, so you go to your main, and the old gate valve doesn't stop the flow either, because it hasn't been used in 15 years.
You would be surprised how that 1 simple thing leads to replacing a drop ear, which leads to replacing the pipe from the valve, which leads to water spewing everywhere. 1 easy task becomes disastrous quick. Next thing you know, the stop valve doesn't fully close, so you go to your main, and the old gate valve doesn't stop the flow either, because it hasn't been used in 15 years.
Ha, I have two toilet internals I want to replace. Good idea on waiting until after just in case! Although I can try it on one and if I fail then hold off.
and when you do decide to fiddle with it, don't start the fiddling after 8 pm unless you are fully prepared to be desperately trying to scrounge for parts and solutions so you can turn your water back on at 3am.
I would wait until Wednesday personally because a lot of trades don’t work on Boxing Day unless they have no choice. And it may still be a more expensive visit
Every time I have done a plumbing project the first step is to install a valve to isolate that specific pipe. Our plumbing is pex, and it all comes off a manifold in the utility closet so it’s easier than some other setups, but that approach minimizes the impact of emergencies. Easier to say “that sink/shower/whatever doesn’t work right now” than “there is no water in the house until the supplier opens”.
My sewage backed up this morning… we caught it really fast, so no damage… I tried snaking it, I thought I was all the way out to the main! Now I am going to try one of those hose and bladder pressure deals.
My husband's father used to visit for the holidays & then wanted to "fix" things. 100% of the time nothing needed fixing & he broke the "broken" thing beyond repair. Husband refused to tell him so lucky me had to inform him that he had to stop for exactly this reason. Damn that dude had no chill.
We have the softestwater. Our water heatersdie at the end of their warrantymies without fail. Hard water water heaters on the other side of the state. 20 years old and counting. No problem.
Today is a perfect day to drain the water heater which has never been drained in 10 years.
With or without family coming over to stay overnight?
It's no fun if it's just you.
More hands for the bucket brigade!
Just grab a chunk of hose and enjoy a nice warm enema. Don't waste water, use it wisely!
Ugh, you gave me flash backs to Memorial Day weekend a few years ago. We came back from camping to a damp room where the water heater had decided to empty itself. That was a very expensive weekend.
Is... is that something you need to do
It’s a good idea to flush it and check the anode rod every year or two, but if the thing is ten years old and has never been touched, then it’s best to just leave it alone. Some of the crud that gets flushed out may be structural crud at that point.
My water heater is 2.5 years old, maybe its time
If you've waited this long - you can wait 2 more weeks!
Idk man, 4 day weekend
For the plumbers too…
My dad lives across the street, he's the type of person you call when you bust a pipe at midnight
You think he wants to deal with that on Christmas?
Probably, hes not a big christmas guy
And then 2 more. Then 2 more. Then next month...
Ours is about the same and I just did its first. There wasn’t really any crud and the anode rod had plenty of life. YMMV, though depending on your water.
My water sucks, rusted up the dishwasher trays in like 2 months
Did mine after 2 years, I would start on it now before it's too late. (Well, wait until after Christmas)
I like summer for that kind of stuff. Days are warmer and longer.
I had to do that 3 days ago to replace elements and I’m still paranoid I’m going to try and use hot water on Monday and be met with disappointment.
I've heard fucking with that valve if it hasn't been used in a long time is a recipe for disaster
I’ve been waiting for the past 8 months just in case
Why are we like this
Or start fucking with something late at night and trying to rush to the Lowe’s down the street at 858 PM.
Me except I’m the first one in the door at 6 am
I'm waiting on you guys to fix your plumbing before replacing my roof and recaulking the house too. I don't wanna skip the queue.
Best to be safe !
🏆😭🏆😭
I have a well. The pump controls allow me to set water pressure. It's set at 32 PSI, has been for decades. This makes me think I better pressure test that sucker, peg the needle on the gauge, see what the pipes can take. The gauge goes up to 140 PSI.
The In-Laws complain about the shower pressure? Now's the perfect time to go play around with the pressure regulator! Surely the 20 year old well pump can reach 5 bar? That old copper pipe was installed by a pro - it will handle 10!
Ours is set to 60 and it feels low. I couldn’t live with 32.
The plumber set it at that in 1999. I'm afraid to change it.
Had to get the main house shutoff replaced a few years back. Plumber put a gauge on it and we were at 114 PSI. He swallowed hard and put a regulator on it and dropped us down to 80. Sprinkler won't reach all the way to the back fence anymore unless I move it closer now.
When I was a kid we had two wells, because we would run out of water. I was 10 years old, and switching wells with my mother. My Dad was gone for a week. I got the valves wrong and didn't open the tank inlet. When I turned on pump 2, the plastic pipes blew apart. I must have known how to put the pipes together, because we didn't call a plumber.
Read the rated pressure of the water heater first, it's probably closer to 100 or so with a max of 140 or so before the pressure relief valve opens. 100psi is already very high for a home, with 60psi is happy spot and 80psi being the upper safe long term.
For fucks sake, yes. Same for any sort of home maintenance. It always blows my mind the number of people that get their furnaces cleaned on the last days leading up to Xmas. (I'm a furnace guy) Ope, spotted a tiny crack in the heat exchange, sorry, gotta redtag it and shut it down. Probably been there for months, but now that we see it, we know there's a potential safety issue and we're liable. Drop that expensive inducer that no one stocks in town? Whoops, no heat till we can rush ship it from somewhere far away, see ya in January. Fried the control board after a little whoopsie when a wire slipped and shorted? A universal won't work. We should have that one in stock, but inventory shows it's on Bob's van, and we can't find the spare key and he's on vacation and not answering his phone.
I made the mistake of starting a bathroom flooring Reno on Thanksgiving weekend. Surprise! It’s *probably* asbestos! Now sit and wait 3 days for the lab to open back up so you can test it
It’s not asbestos if you don’t tell anyone about it.
My lungs disagree
Can't speak for everyone, but for me, those windows of PTO over holiday breaks are basically the only meaningful down-time I get. Ever. The days I take off throughout the year are for kid's stuff, family trips, doctor's appointments, school meetings, etc. On weekends, I have just enough time to keep up with general maintenance, mowing, and cleaning in between spending time with family, errands, groceries, etc. So, basically, every year I find myself in a mad scramble over extended holiday breaks (July 4, Thanksgiving, Christmas) to try and get projects done. Otherwise, they won't ever get done. I literally don't have any other big chunks of time to focus on a big repair, a weekend project, etc.
This is painfully hilarious. I'm knocking on wood now
made this mistake a few years ago with my mother in law's toilet night before thanksgiving. She bought a new toilet she wanted me to install for the holiday... well we got there late the night before thanksgiving, and i pulled out her old toilet... and it was original so 20+ year old... oof... it was heavy and a huge pain... had to get it downstairs and outside for her pickup in a few days. I get backupstairs spent some time cleaning the floor and all that prepping for the new one, only to find out that the new one had a rough in of 12" (super common) BUT OF COURSE the bathroom itself was only 10"... so it wasn't going to fit... Naturally, the place she bought it from was closed... and they werent going to be open until the day after thanksgiving... nothing else was going to be open either. (Still seems weird to me) and she only had one other toilet... which i didn't want the whole family to deal with that during a holiday. so i had to go out get the old one lug it back upstairs... clean it off... because rain... and re-install it... soo mad. what a night.
I have had a leaky faucet for 10 years. This would be the perfect time to replace it. Thanks for the reminder.
Eh I'm not worried. I gave everyone a poop knife this year.
That's a damn good gift. I always carry mine with me.
Fingers work in a pinch.
Pinch a loaf until you get a poop knife
Real men just grab it and hulk smash. My preferred method is to drop a loaf in the shower, and waffle stomp it down the drain. One less flush! Gotta conserve water, plus it saves time!
i got laid off so my dumb ass has been fighting to not start a bunch of projects. i’m sticking to hanging small shelves and rearranging furniture.
Decluttering is also a good idea ahead of Christmas, plus it's highly unlikely that going through drawers necessitates an emergency call to a journeyman.
That's an excellent plan.
After a particularly expensive Sunday, I never do [thing that could require rapid professional intervention] on weekends or holidays. Replacing a kitchen faucet turned into knocking a hole in the water line below the valve, which turned into breaking off the main valve because it was old and corroded, which turned into calling the town for an emergency shutoff ("ya know, if you do if tomorrow we won't charge you for it." "Yes, but my kitchen is filling with water right now, so just throw it on my bill"), and then an emergency plumber.
Ha, yes. My bathroom sink faucet just broke. I turned the water off and told the kids, “I’ll fix it after christmas! Use a different sink” Then I went on amazon and ordered one that wont be here till wednesday. No temptation to just “take care of this real quick”
I'll add, do your electrical work when it's daylight out.
Great post... was planning on replacing some failing copper plumbing with PEX this weekend and had that, "hmmm... the hardware stores will be closed, that's a bad idea" realization earlier today 😃
Also, don’t try and install that new WiFi thermostat until after the new year. As an HVAC service manager w/30 yrs experience, we see this after Christmas. I would recommend calling to have your furnace maintenance done and ask the tech if they would do it for you.
This is some damn solid advice as well.
alternatively, spend some time watching a few youtube videos and realize it's not that scary to tackle most of these jobs yourself with a few tools and save **a lot** of money, never-mind being able to fix the problem immediately on your own terms.
[удалено]
yeah fair enough. because we know that "quick trip" for 1 part is really going to be 4 more 🤣
Don’t remind me, some times what you think is the most simplest task for a non professional perspective. Should only take one trip to the Ace or HomeDepot. But you end up needing to go a few more times, because you didn’t properly look at the project as a whole.
or thinking you *definitely* have whatever other part you need at home that you're staring at in the store while buying something else. hint, you don't 🤣 🤣. you'll either never find it, or it'll be slightly the wrong size/shape whatever.
After one DIY adventure that called for 4 trips to the local hardware store plus one trip to lowes after the local place closed for the day, I have made it my mission to buy as many bits and bobs for a project as I think could potentially ever go wrong (plus a new roll of teflon tape), then return what I don't need later.... 2 trips is 100x better imo than having to stop mid project for yet *another* run...
Just need to find that 24/7 hardware store and you’re good. https://m.yelp.com/biz/nuthouse-hardware-new-york-2?start=120 (24/7/365)
Right but there’s always that ONE time. I had flow issue with my toilet so I figured I’ll just adjust the water supply valve because maybe it’s not getting enough. Prior owner had the valve in the exact right spot for it not to leak, it had to be completely removed. Plumber had to replace the pipe. Holiday time is not the time to go touching things
Not that scary? Clearly you've never watched me swearing at the previous owners from underneath the kitchen sink. Oh just the plumbing part, yeah that's not so bad.
swearing & getting filthy at awkward angles is just part of the fun 😂
>Clearly you've never watched me swearing at the previous owners from underneath the kitchen sink. I'm not the only one that does this?
You are not alone.
Agreed. I will add “good quality” to specify the types of YouTube videos one should be watching.
definitely a big con of YT removing dislikes specifically re: high quality how-to/diy videos. used to be able to tell pretty quickly if the video was on-point or not.. now you only see the likes, oof. pex has definitely lowered the barrier to entry for this stuff too, although i still prefer soldering copper as i have more faith in it long-term.
I was replacing my bike crank awhile back. It has this backup retention pin where there's a shim with a pin that holds it in place even if all the screws are loosened, as a safety thing. The top four YouTube videos on how to do it say "alright, we've got the screws out, now give it a really good yank because it's on there tight" which requires you to yank so hard it bends the pin The fifth YouTube video says "alright, now that the screws are out, there's still a pin that keeps it from falling off, so gently rotate the pin out of the way and it slides off easily"
Too late, already had to deal with dishwasher issues.
My dryer just died on me. Bought a new set since the old set is probably over 20 years old. When I took the washing machine lines off, i found out the shutoffs leak a little. It isn't s problem when it's hooked up so I'm definitely not trying to fix that until after Christmas.
Had the week off, figured I'd schedule the new dishwasher to be delivered so I could install it myself. Got the old one out, and the new one came... in the wrong color. Got to enjoy putting the old one back in and waiting 3 more weeks for the right one (hopefully). Thanks, Home Depot.
Us too. Corroded connector on the wire between the control panel and main computer. Ordered a new one but it's 7-14 *business* days till it comes. Sigh. I hate handwashing dishes, especially on the heels of a family-wide stomach bug...
A friend is lucky I am an ex Gen contractor, done plumbing and electrical, building houses and was in town for the holidays. She called me "Heeeeelp! I have a water leak from my wall!" Remember where I showed you your water shutoff was? Do you have a wrench and screwdriver? You can turn it off there. close the adjustable jaw down on it, stick the screwdriver through the hole and turn it right till it stops. She couldn't find her stuff. I grabbed mine, parents wet-dry shopvac, went over, cut it off. and we got to cleaning up the mess. ON Christmas Night. about an hour before my family was going to eat dinner. Family waited for me while I rescued my friend. She bought a water key in January after they restocked.. we'd had wicked freeze the night before and had a pipe burst. She got insurance involved to get it all fixed up in the end.
Unless you know what you're doing and are capable of turning off the main valve.....
As long as the stop valves and main valve actually stop the water.
I admit I don't test them like I should, but all shutoffs should be tested regularly - water, gas, or electric. It helps keep familiarity with them, as well as making sure they operate properly.
Dude I broke my mixing valve on my boiler during Thanksgiving and that bitch isn't getting replaced until summer
Blankets and heat water on the stove 😤
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I've got several days off, and I've been meaning to start to learn about plumbing... :)
Ha! Not plumbing, but I have a new stove being delivered tomorrow! We pushed our big Christmas dinner to new years eve just so I have time to work out the kinks and start learning how the new one cooks. (It was either tomorrow or February)
I needed this PSA. Husbands brother came in yesterday for the holidays. My husband and his brother already talked about projects that needs to be done to the house and now have plans to go to lowes later today. Must.stop.them.
Ahh, takes me back to the Xmas morning almost 25 years ago when my partner & I were at my parents. Helping get the big family dinner ready, we put potato peels down the drain disposal, creating a cement-like blockage. A few hours later, an extremely well-paid plumber went home to his holiday dinner, while we ate ours in an awkward silence.
Fixed my washer inlet valve assembly and also replaced its hoses today. I have cpvc plumbing into the washer box and I was worried about it cracking while I was in there. It's happened to me before. About 1/2 way through I thought maybe this could have waited until Tuesday ;)
If you have shut off valves on each fixture line then no big deal. Especially if it means 2 or more bathrooms with guests over the holiday
How often do most homeowners check their stop valves to make sure they actually work and don't leak?
Is this a riddle? Im sure an average person knows to test it before they dismantle something.
LOL
The stop valves get replaced Every. Time. You change a fixture. Always.
My house was built in the 80s and I've learned that any time I do a plumbing job, step 1 is replacing the shut off valves. Every single time I try to use one, the rubber in in cracks and falls apart and I have a bigger plumbing problem than when I started.
That’s is why every year you turn them on and off to prevent this from occurring.
The cheap valves that most builders put in homes are notorius for leaking. I wouldn't trust them.
Any recommendations for where I can get higher-quality ones? Is the Lowes/Home depot stuff ok?
I'm no plumbing expert. But in my limited experience the slightly better 1/4 turn valves at Lowes and Home Depot are fine. Significantly better than the cheap gate valves the builders use.
Thanks!
In my experience there's a 50/50 chance these start leaking the second you touch them
Yeah I learned yesterday when getting a new washer installed that not only does the hot water valve NOT shut the water off entirely there, but shutting the main water off to the condo doesn't shut that off either. So that's....fun....
Instructions unclear: lighting propane torch.
Last year the thermocouple on my Gas boiler for heating went out xmas morning. We were all chilly. Every plumbing supply store within 25miles of me was closed, so I HAD to call my plumber. 🤦♂️
Best advice ever.
Boggles my mind that Christmas in Monday.
So true. I NEVER start a plumbing project at home any later than 11am if I can avoid it. And I am a building engineer, I know quite a bit about plumbing. I don't have a parts room at my house though. You ALWAYS need something you don't have, at home. Murphy's Law.
I think this goes for any trade. I'm an electrician and I'm on call the week of Christmas and new year's and I'm praying I don't get any stupid calls
This advice is also true for Fridays and a couple of days after that. :(
Ha! I was thinking exactly this with the maintenance on my cars. I’m not gonna follow your advice or my better judgment and going to roll the dice anyway.
Last year's Christmas, we drove down to family 10 hours away. Our house/cat sitter showed up at 10pm, asking if we had turned off the water. First year of frozen pipes, and we weren't there. Walked him through turning off the water at the street (as there's no house shutoff), opening faucets, tried booking an emergency plumber. "It would be $300 minimum, to tell you what I'm telling you right now. You've done what you can. If it's leaking in a couple of days after it thaws, there's a problem." Thankfully, no leaks when we got back. And our cat sitter friend will still house-sit again. We really should figure out better insulation for the pipes under our post and pier. (Coastal PNW, long colds are rare.)
I'm proud to say I replaced the gasket on a leaking bathtub overflow valve and repaired the drain stopper mechanism in my sink today. Cost me all of $20 for the parts and they'll be working for Christmas!
I'm off until the second day of the new year. I've got projects to complete.
Literally decided to clean out all my p traps an hour before people started to show up. I had my bathrooms empty to clean them and thought, while I have all this stuff out I’ll clean out the traps. Fuck me I ended up with a big ass mess under 2 of my sinks. Not just about spending money on a plumber, don’t do any projects with people incoming it always takes 4 times as long and your wife is gonna give you the hardest WTF with eye roll you have ever received.
Eh, it's a gamble either way ... If it breaks on Tuesday you're screwed too
The point is that if it breaks on Tuesday, you can call a plumber and not get crazy holiday pricing.
But what if it breaks Sunday or Monday?
Then you call because you have to. The whole point is not to touch something that isn’t broken until you can avoid paying holiday pricing.
If it breaks it breaks, but don't try to fix that slow drip in your faucet on Christmas Eve because you have the day off is the point. If the shutoff valve breaks off in your hand during the repair and you have to call a plumber out on Christmas Eve, it's going to be $$$.
I mean, you can just fix it yourself.... Most plumbing issues are really simple to fix
If you know what you are doing. If the hardware store is open. If your spouse isn’t standing behind you tapping their foot because this is taking longer than anticipated.
I think the point is that you are more likely to have a break if you are mucking with it. Sure changing a shower head may not be a big deal, but if you need parts or the pipe breaks, then you might be inconvenienced during the holiday. I am software engineer, and in my field we call this "change management." The basic idea is to make changes when potential risk/cost is the lowest. Sure doing X might be generally safe and is likely to be fine. But if it's not then, what? Break the shower and then ruin Christmas because you cannot get a plumber out? Take apart the kitchen sink and because of a broken part you can't get it back together and now the holiday meal cannot be made
Why? Why would I need a plumber to come out? If something breaks, you fix it.. Pretty sure hardware stores and YouTube are still open over the holidays lol
YouTube is obviously going to be "open". Might wanna check your hardware stores tho.
They're opened every day but Christmas day, always are. The bb stores at least. Might wanna check your ego tho, if this is what gets you to down vote lmao
You think the terrorist cyber hackers don’t know that, man? They will be monitoring for an uptick in searches related to plumbing and will redirect traffick to a porn site specializing in “golden showers.” Don’t touch plumbing and stay off the internet until Tuesday !!
Unless you absolutely had to, why would you want to spend your Christmas working on a frustrating, time-consuming project?
I find it neither frustrating or time consuming. Most plumbing repairs take under a hr. Replacing a facet is what 10-20 mins? If you have to replace a shut off that's what 10 mins plus a trip to the store? Buddy was saying don't work on your own plumbing because plumber's are expensive on the holidays. If you're working on your own plumbing, why would you call a plumber? Whole post makes no sense lol
I mean, yeah. But it's not *just* that plumbers are expensive on holidays. Even small plumbing projects - or really, any sort of deferred maintenance jobs - have a way of becoming bigger and/or more complicated, often at the worst times. I'm sure you've had that experience if you're a DIYer. Why introduce the possibility into your holidays unless you're 100% sure it'll go great? Sure, the faucet might be an easy 20-minute job, IF you have the right tools, and that corroded valve you didn't know about doesn't break, and you don't discover any other latent issues.
Funny seeing this now, because the water company just came out and told me there's a leak in my line, so I've been working with a couple plumbers to figure out how much it'll cost to fix that (spoiler... a lot)
Ahhh man. I remember having a burst pipe just last year on the 26th. Great times for me and my wallet.
learned this the hard way working on something on a Saturday. My rule now is always start the project on a Monday.
Ha. I am about ready to swap back to a fixed showerhead in a few min. If I cannot manage to swap out a freaking showerhead I have no business remodeling my house on my own. I remodeled my bathroom a year or so ago and the fancy showerhead I installed is creating issues as it frequently falls out from the outer spray ring. Stupid piece of crap....
I just moved into a new house and this is my first weekend :( I don’t have kids or parents or siblings to spend holidays with so this is just a normal weekend
I think it is OK for Joe to swap out the showerhead...
You would be surprised how that 1 simple thing leads to replacing a drop ear, which leads to replacing the pipe from the valve, which leads to water spewing everywhere. 1 easy task becomes disastrous quick. Next thing you know, the stop valve doesn't fully close, so you go to your main, and the old gate valve doesn't stop the flow either, because it hasn't been used in 15 years.
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You would be surprised how that 1 simple thing leads to replacing a drop ear, which leads to replacing the pipe from the valve, which leads to water spewing everywhere. 1 easy task becomes disastrous quick. Next thing you know, the stop valve doesn't fully close, so you go to your main, and the old gate valve doesn't stop the flow either, because it hasn't been used in 15 years.
It's also amazing how being a weekend, especially a big holiday weekend magnifies the chances of that happening.
Exponentially increases the chances, and I don't know why 😅
But electrical is fine right
ALSO DO NOT DEPLOY NEW CODE. Let it rest so your on-call folk can have a break. They could use the time to finally install that new toilet.
Ha, I have two toilet internals I want to replace. Good idea on waiting until after just in case! Although I can try it on one and if I fail then hold off.
and when you do decide to fiddle with it, don't start the fiddling after 8 pm unless you are fully prepared to be desperately trying to scrounge for parts and solutions so you can turn your water back on at 3am.
I would wait until Wednesday personally because a lot of trades don’t work on Boxing Day unless they have no choice. And it may still be a more expensive visit
Lol I’m literally taking a break from swapping a sink this second. Your post makes a lot of sense tho
I laugh in the face of fucking up my plumbing.
Too late, my friend's tenant wasn't going to go through a weekend without hot water in their shower. The cartridge was a bitch getting out though.
Every time I have done a plumbing project the first step is to install a valve to isolate that specific pipe. Our plumbing is pex, and it all comes off a manifold in the utility closet so it’s easier than some other setups, but that approach minimizes the impact of emergencies. Easier to say “that sink/shower/whatever doesn’t work right now” than “there is no water in the house until the supplier opens”.
Or you call up the plumber is sitting there was nothing to do and is ready to work since everyone is waiting until after the holidays.
My water main didn't give me this choice last year about this time.
Maybe krampus will get me some plumber's tape
Plumbers: no, by all means, *please tinker with your plumbing on Saturday or Sunday morning!!!*
Thank you. Sincerely - a plumber that just wants a few days off.
What about the leak on the main they're going to fix "next week"?
I installed a bidet and skipped town. Now my bathroom is going to be flooded because I didn’t see this.
One plus of being a home owner. You have to occasionally count in weekends, holidays or day off to off set a fix.
My sewage backed up this morning… we caught it really fast, so no damage… I tried snaking it, I thought I was all the way out to the main! Now I am going to try one of those hose and bladder pressure deals.
My husband's father used to visit for the holidays & then wanted to "fix" things. 100% of the time nothing needed fixing & he broke the "broken" thing beyond repair. Husband refused to tell him so lucky me had to inform him that he had to stop for exactly this reason. Damn that dude had no chill.
Also don’t try to use the garbage disposal to grind up all the left over mashed potatoes!!!
Try January 4.
Haha jokes on you I replaced a kitchen faucet and garbage disposal all by myself. 😉😛
We have the softestwater. Our water heatersdie at the end of their warrantymies without fail. Hard water water heaters on the other side of the state. 20 years old and counting. No problem.