How do plumbers do it?

Flashpoint

Flashpoint

Smile, wait for flash
Charter Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Dec 16, 2016
Messages
3,986
Location
Alamance County
Rating - 100%
21   0   0
I'll wait for your minds to crawl out of the gutter...

Now, I'm trying to install a new faucet kit into an old style hallway sink, but my problem is getting the old stuff out. From underneath the faucet and hot/cold controls are held in by nuts that I just can't get a wrench around. First of all those nuts are too large for the relatively short adjustable wrench I have, so it takes a good sized wrench just to fit around them and tht sized wrench is too long to work under there.

20211221_143142.jpg


This is what the top looks like so I don't think I can do anything from this end.

20211221_142959.jpg

Open to any suggestions, thanks!
 
Last edited:
I'll tell you how I got the bathroom sink out of the cabinet in my in-law's master bedroom.

I cut the water to the house (because Dad straight piped the sink who knows how many decades ago). Then I cut the water pipes with a tight-space pipe cutter, took the drain apart (in fragments...because decades old).

Then I removed the sink clips, pried back the trim retainers back.

Then I used a lot of foul language and brute force to pry and yank that cast sink out.

Afterwards, I used channel locks and a hack saw to remove the sink hardware, clean it up, and install new faucet and drain hardware. Put some cutoffs on the piping, then reinstalled the sink and trim.

Then had the joy of replacing the non-standard drain piping with new piping.

All because the faucet was leaking and needed replacing.

The scraped knuckles were mostly healed in a couple weeks.
 
Last edited:
RetiredUSNChief said:
I'll tell you how I got the bathroom sink out of the cabinet in my in-law's master bedroom.

I cut the water to the house (because Dad straight piped the sink who knows how many decades ago). Then I cut the water pipes with a tight-space pipe cutter, took the drain apart (in fragments...because decades old).

Then I removed the sink clips, pried the trim back retainers back.

Then I used a lot of foul language and brute force to pry and yank that cast sink out.

Afterwards, I used channel locks and a hack saw to remove the sink hardware, clean it up, and install new faucet and drain hardware. Put some cutoffs on the piping, then reinstalled the sink and trim.

Then had the joy of replacing the non-standard drain piping with new piping.

All because the faucet was leaking and needed replacing.

The scraped knuckles were mostly healed in a couple weeks.
Click to expand...
The repair gods always require a blood sacrifice.
 
J R Green said:
You could unhook the drain and water line and lift the sink off the mount. Then it would be easy to get to.
Click to expand...
Sell the house. Look for a new house with the sink/faucets you want. 🤑

Get a basin wrench like described. Use it once and be glad you have it IF you ever need it again.
 
Last edited:
RetiredUSNChief said:
Don't get me on the toilet seat replacement a few years back. A 15 minute job, counting the cleaning, dragged out for THREE FRICKIN' DAYS!
Click to expand...
I used to have motivation like that too
 
For those who want to replace the sink, install the new faucet with the new sink on the kitchen table so you don't have to do it while on your back after you installed the sink.
 
Last edited:
Crow feet, water pump pliers, angle wrenches, also have stubby wrenches to to a decent size. Think I took/cut the lines off the last ones and just used a socket.
 
Mirac said:
Click to expand...

hah.
i pulled a similar stunt.
faucet was super drippy and I just didn't quite understand at what point I was dealing with handle and what point i was dealing with valve. the cutoff under the sink either didn't work, or wasn't there (can't remember which). After getting wet in a hurry, then laying in the puddle trying to cut it off, I gave up and had to run down into the basement and cut off the whole house feed. fortunately that valve still worked.
lessons were learned that day.
 
heavydoc said:
I used to have motivation like that too
Click to expand...

Oh, it wasn't a motivation problem, I assure you.

Stand by...this gets long. I promise you'll find this humorous, but to this day I'm STILL torqued about it.


We needed to replace the toilet seat, so I went out and bought one. But we were busy running around all over the place for whatever reasons, so I didn't get to it until Friday evening.

No problem, 15 minute job, right?

Well...I grab a screwdriver and pair of pliers to take the old seat off. That's when I noticed for the first time that our toilet didn't have through bolts. No biggie, the existing bolts just screw down into threaded inserts.

EXCEPT...the bolts are corroded and a b*tch to get loose. So I work on them with the screwdriver and a penetrant and finally the bolts come out...but only AFTER tearing out the threads on the inserts an hour or so later.

I'm getting perturbed at this point, but out came the drill so I could drill the stupid inserts out to prep them for replacement. (Being careful not to crack the porcelain.)

Off to Lowes before they close. AND WOULDN'T YOU KNOW IT, THIS IS A NON-STANDARD PART THAT ISN'T CARRIED BY LOWES!

Same for Home Depot.

My ire has been long since roused to cursing level over this 15 minute job and now I'm THOROUGHLY pissed because it's Friday evening and this 15 minute job looks to be going into Saturday.


BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!


I get home and do some google-fu to find the toilet model and the appropriate inserts, then set about googling the plumbing supply stores in the area.

WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THAT PLUMBING SUPPLY STORES WOULD BE CLOSED ON THE WEEKEND WHEN US COMMON FOLKS WHO WORK DURING THE WEEK WOULD HAVE THE TIME TO DO ANY SIGNIFICANT PLUMBING WORK?!?

So I pull out the duct tape and tape the new seat into place so we can use the toilet over the weekend.

Then I call my boss in Virginia and tell him I'm not going to be into work Monday like I thought because of this.

Monday morning I call the plumbing supply store and verify they've got the inserts. They have two packages. I drive my happy keister up there and bought a package and head home.

I'm headed to the bathroom to fix this when my wife decides we've got some OTHER more important things to do right now, so I drop the inserts next to my tools in the bathroom and we head out to do whatever the F she thinks is more important than something I specifically had to take a day off work to fix.

Later, after an entire day wasted running around doing something else, we finally get back home and I start installing the inserts. The inserts have to be installed into the holes and flared into place. You do this by holding the insert still using the provided wrench, then thread the bolt through the hole and tighten it down until the back of the insert flares out snug against the other side of the hole. I'm being careful, because the last thing I want to do is over tighten this and crack the porcelain.


First insert installs, no problem.

Second insert...BREAKS DURING INSTALLATION!

Now I've got to drill out a partially installed insert AGAIN and guess what?

IT'S AFTER SIX PM AND THE FRICKIN' PLUMBING SUPPLY STORE IS CLOSED UNTIL MORNING!

I'm so p****d off at this point I could eat nails and s**t railroad spikes. And I can just picture getting to the store in the morning and finding out that some SOB bought the last insert kit, too.

Another call to my boss telling him I'm not driving up to Virginia that night.

Tuesday morning I'm waiting in the parking lot for the plumbing supply store to open. Buy their last insert kit, then go home and install it and finish installing the new toilet seat.

THEN my wife decides she's going to throw her wisdom out about this whole debacle by opening her mouth and offering this little tidbit of advice:


"That's why you don't start any projects on Friday nights."


To which I responded "Right now, the best thing you can do is shut your mouth about this whole thing."


This is the SAME non-standard toilet later I found that needed different internals one day when I had to fix a running toilet.

I've already told my wife the next time I have to do ANYTHING with that stupid toilet, I'm yanking the whole thing out and replacing it with a new one that has two important features:

1. Everything about it is standard for parts of any kind.

2. It's capable of flushing a bucket of nuts and bolts in a single flush.

Stupid non standard, low profile, POS toilet.
 
@RetiredUSNChief that’s pretty bad, but it could have been worse. One of the consulting engineers I used to work with told his Xmas vacation plumbing story. Let’s put it this way. When he fell off the ladder and landed on the floor, lying on his back, with a blue and a red piece of PEX in each hand and with water pouring out of the kitchen ceiling light fixture, he decided it was time to call a plumber.
 
noway2 said:
@RetiredUSNChief that’s pretty bad, but it could have been worse. One of the consulting engineers I used to work with told his Xmas vacation plumbing story. Let’s put it this way. When he fell off the ladder and landed on the floor, lying on his back, with a blue and a red piece of PEX in each hand and with water pouring out of the kitchen ceiling light fixture, he decided it was time to call a plumber.
Click to expand...

HEY! I saw that in the Three Stooges episode "A Plumbing We Will Go"!

 
Mirac said:
Click to expand...

This might be humerous to watch. but when it's a gas line not water it's downright scary! I was replacing a gas water heater in a mechanical room one time and some MORON thought it was a good idea to install a gas shut off with no insides in it so when I broke the gas line loose there was no way to shut it down and gas line wouldn't go back on. If the homeowners son hadn't been able to get to gas meter and shut it off while I held my finger on the open end of the gas line, I would not be writing this right now -as the furnace was right next to the water heater and it was cold outside. Lesson learned if there is any question after that I shut ALL the gas off FIRST!
 
In the 1930’s and 40’s there was huge growth in fixtures for indoor plumbing. There were quite a few firms striving to corner that market, and in that effort they each developed unique sizes and especially thread pitches. Why do I know this? Well I bought a house built in 1943 and had a trap under a sink rust through, had to replace everything from the cast iron pipe to the sink stopper, not terrible, but it took days to find that there was no replacement for the old part.
 
JimB said:
In the 1930’s and 40’s there was huge growth in fixtures for indoor plumbing. There were quite a few firms striving to corner that market, and in that effort they each developed unique sizes and especially thread pitches. Why do I know this? Well I bought a house built in 1943 and had a trap under a sink rust through, had to replace everything from the cast iron pipe to the sink stopper, not terrible, but it took days to find that there was no replacement for the old part.
Click to expand...
my old house had a hodgepodge of cast and copper pipes that had been sitting for decades, but patched up from time to time by the same handy person that left live electrical wire with exposed ends hanging from the basement ceiling.
What's a dielectric union? I had to learn, like whoever had the house before me should have...
yeah, I had to buy a number of those and learn how to sweat copper. nice skill to have, i guess. I may have wound up using lead solder instead of lead-free... i had both on hand and couldn't remember which one i grabbed after i was done.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom