About a year ago our bathroom sink started draining slowly. Amanda has the bad habit of brushing her long hair over it, doing her makeup over it, and that adds up. No problem, I thought. I'll just pull the trap and clean it out.
Until....
I discovered what our plumber had done. The primary reason for a trap is that it traps water thereby preventing sewer gases from entering the house. The secondary purpose is to trap the stuff and gunk that you eventually need to clean out. For that reason traps are simple to remove. Loosen two large "nuts" that hold it in place and voila'.
So why would our plumber "hard plumb" one end of the trap? Yep, glued the joint. No nut. I resorted to chemicals down the drain.
Today I decided it was about time to find out why our shower merely drizzles water. It's possible that the shower head is somewhat obstructed with sediment and needs cleaning. Or maybe we just need a different type. This is a simple job for a homeowner. They sell shower heads of all varieties at home improvement stores. Just unscrew the old head, peel off the used teflon tape on the threads, put on new tape, install new shower head (or cleaned old one).
Unless you've had the plumber from hell.
The idiot screwed the shower head on sooooo far and sooooo tightly that I can't get it to budge. The entire angled pipe coming from the wall wants to unscrew first. I've used every possible tool and clamping device for the pipe that I can come up with. The shower head will NOT unscrew.
Now while it is possible that I may be able to safely unscrew the entire pipe and replace the lot, I was not going to try that a half hour before our local hardware store closed for the day!
This is not supposed to be this difficult! I replaced both shower heads at our house in Florida. One of those had been there since 1949 and even it unscrewed with no problem.
Idiot plumber.
11 comments:
Wow, small world, I had him too... LOL You describe those two activities correctly...
I was doing a major remodel on our bathroom. The first stupid thing I found was carpet over wood, but I guessed that from the water stained ceiling below. So the floor and subfloor were completely rotted and needed to come out. I was replacing a standard tub with a longer and deeper whirlpool tub (I'm tall). Well after getting the tub and floor out I found that the shower next to it routed the drain through the joist supporting the tub making a nice 5 inch cut out of an 8 inch joist.
With the subfloor off I could bounce the joist up and down easily. I'm amazed the tub didn't come falling through to the family room below.
Well I was committed now, so I had to find a steel fabricator to get me 2 12 foot 1/4 inch x 8 inch steel beams to sister to the damaged joists.
What kind of plumber cuts more than half a joist away underneath a major permanent weight? The same kind that hard plumbs a sink trap! Neither could possibly be up to code.
I feel for you Deb...
You will want to go through the trouble of fixing those two plumbing fiascoes when you have time to tackle a bigger project.
Good luck...
Oh what a pain! It's hard enough for us gals working out how to do jobs that have been traditionally known as a man's job....and even harder when some lazy/stoopid man stuffed it up in the first place to make it nearly impossible!
Looks from your last post like you are very handy to have around indeed!
Funny I popped over to your blog after our little bit of banter about toyboys over at Little Wing's blog. And the funny part is my toyboy is a plumber! But his callout fee from downunder may be a little steep ;)
Oh and there's no chance I'll be marrying him! Friend with benefits (the plumbing variety only) hehe
Your experience sounds dreadful. I hope things are more peaceful for you these days :)
You do get all the plumb jobs, Deb. Barbara has been after a decent tap-unit for the kitchen sink, for years now. One of these days, I shall have to get a plumber in. Unless, of course, Deb happens to be passing by one day........
jq75, thanks for dropping in! I'll be tackling the job sooner than I'd like. Company coming!
who me?, I just *love* coincidence. Thanks for the visit. Hmm just the local fee is horrendous and is why I'm not calling a (different) plumber.
dickiebo, just give it a try. It's like Tinkertoys. LOL
Why do these so called professionals do such sloppy work?????????
Plumbers On Crack!!!!!!!
Scary that he is actually licensed and that the job passed inspection. Lesson one - never hire based on the fact that three of your close neighbors are the plumber's family. We have since found a really super plumber. We love him. My budget is just a tad tight right now having spent more than I wanted to on an outfit for the 80th Gala. But that'll be another story!
Oh yeah, there are many horror stories in most professions. The big problem arises when living in an area without a lot of competition and the big shots snow the public with piles of crap. (How befitting this plumber)
Your 80th Deb? Must post some photos of it when it happens.
hahahahahahaha
You *are* trying to cause trouble, aren't you?
Hay!!! How'd that get into this entry???
"That" gets in to most entries.
However, "Hay" does need to be moved as I believe "hay" has only been used in the most recent.
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