A few reasons my profession is Computer programming and not plumbing:
With programming,
1) I stay drier.
2) I don't get covered in goop.
3) I don't get sprayed with liquefied bread.
4) My back doesn't ache for days from laying under a counter top at awkward angles for hours.
Of course, our master bath has 2 sinks/faucets and when we bought the house, one faucet/drain had obviously been leaking for a while and was in visibly poor condition. Anyways, not a huge deal since I was able to just shut that side off and not use it. The picture below is from one of our kids bathrooms and this faucet isn't as bad as ours but you can see the separation in the facet body and if the picture was better you could see the deterioration around the aerator.
It has been about a year now and my wife was nearing the end of her patience over getting the master bath in full working order - even though I have not been slacking exactly, mostly busy with all the other big repairs we found we needed (roofing, siding, wiring, toilet plumbing, shed tear-down, etc). I will admit that I wasn't excited about the project because I had a feeling it was going to be painful in a few ways based upon past plumbing experience. I decided that it was time to get it done though - I knew it would be nice to get closer to having our bathroom remodel/fixup "done".
I already had 2 new Delta "Linden" faucets that I had ordered from Lowes some time back - that was an adventure as well since my first attempt at ordering was from a "cheap online retailer" resulting in a long wait without any feedback on when the boat from country of origin would eventually arrive. After a few weeks I finally cancelled and just ordered from Lowes which only took a couple days to get.
It had taken us about 2 weeks of research to decide on faucets. I didn't want to break the bank but I wanted to find something of reasonable quality. We also wanted something that had a bit more height than most standard bath faucets. I also had one major issue to account for - the depth from the center of the handles to the backsplash is VERY short. The counter is a preformed solid-surface/corian material with a built-in backsplash. The depth from the faucet mounting holes is very short which meant that I can't install a faucet that requires much depth. I did some research and the Delta "Linden" faucets seemed like they fit the criteria but I knew it was going to be really really close regarding the depth to the backsplash. I already had a plan to take a little material out of the front side of the mounting holes to give extra room. I figured I just needed to be careful not to take so much out that the holes were too close to the edges of the faucet base which might let water leak through to the underside of the sink.
My plan was to start with one sink knowing that if I ran into problems, keeping at least one sink/faucet working would be a good thing (a happy wife makes for a happy home!).
I knew I needed/wanted to replace the shutoff valves along with the faucets but first I wanted to remove the old sink to give some extra space under the counter. Removing the existing faucet wasn't too hard but make sure you have something to catch drain water and water from the valves when/if you remove them. A roll of paper towels comes in handy for small spills. I did put on some cheap 5 mil rubber gloves to cut down on the "ick" factor but still managed to get black gunk on the back of my arms as I rolled over under the sink while removing the drain. The fact that the pipes were probably 30 years old showed by the buildup inside and out. I also noted that the shutoff valve oozed water a bit when I was shutting off which reaffirmed my desire to replace them.
Once I got the faucet off, I cleaned up the counter around it and started enlarging the holes in the counter top using my dremel and a dry wall cutting bit. This was very slow going - probably an hour per faucet. I originally was going to use a wood rasp I had but couldn't find it when I needed it initially. Later, I tried the wood rasp when working on the second faucet and it was still very slow going but the rasp did maintain a smoother overall hole but did keep hitting my knuckles on the top of the back-splash ledge. I think I took out about 1/8- 3/16" of an inch from the front of the 2 outside holes. The center hole didn't need any work since just the skinny faucet drain rod goes through it which leaves plenty of room.
Next I decided to replace the shutoff valves - the original late 1980's multi-turn valves could have been repaired with new washers but I feel that the 1/4 turn valves are better from a long term maintenance standpoint. I had already replaced the shutoffs for the 3 toilets and eventually will replace them for all the sinks as well.
The existing plumbing used compression fittings which in general work but I am not a total fan of them. They require tightening a nut against the valve body that compresses a brass ring against the copper tubing. This is all good except that the level of effort to remove the existing ring & nut depends on how tight it was put on (i.e. how much it crushed the copper tubing) and also how much accumulated gunk, build-up etc is in the way for the pieces to slide off. After shutting off the water and removing the valve body, I cleaned up the copper as much as I could with some steel wool to make sliding it off easier. I had also bought a "compression sleeve puller" tool I had hoped would help with the removal. This tool didn't help 9 out of 11 times I tried it since purchase. I think the only times it did work was when I had to go back and redo some of my work. I had a slightly less painful experience with it when I put some soap on the tip that goes into the tubing which eased removal of the ring from the tool. I ended up using a screwdriver through the tool to keep it from twisting which did help with that. The bigger issue was that it was so difficult to twist the handle due to the state of the nut/tubing, etc that I then moved onto using a wrench on the hex end of the tool handle which did provide more torque but also made it too easy for me to twist the tubing sideways a touch. I think that is where some problems started. Next time I should try a using my drill with a socket which may be less likely to result in bending the tubing. I may still try a different tool someday but this one just didn't work well for me which could be more about me + technique and/or the state of the pipe/plumbing than the tool but I don't know for sure. Dealing with this is one reason I would consider using a plumber instead of doing it myself.
Anyways, I finally got the compression sleeves and nuts off; had to use the dremel to get the sleeve off the puller twice during this project. I cut off the end of the copper tubing to get rid of mangled sections and because of that I had to bust the back panel out from behind the sinks before soldering because it put me too close to get an extension pipe on easily (and 1 panel had been damaged from a past leak). I ended up using the dremel with a wood cutting bit to help remove the back panel.
Now to handle adding on roughly 4" tube extensions (planning for future work to a degree). This was the first real use of a recent torch kit I picked up mainly for plumbing work. I think that the Home Depot link is the one I got - it specifies MAPP gas but you can use propane as well - which is what I ended up using. I soldered on the copper couplers to my extensions while in the garage - this was easier than doing it fully while under the sink. Remember to make sure the tubing is clean (use a tube cleaner or some reasonably fine steel wool) to clean off the area to join and make sure you use flux compatible with the tubing. At this time, I decided that the MAPP gas was too hot and I decided to use propane while soldering under the sink. I'm not a fast solderer and didn't want to evaporate the flux before actually getting the solder in the joint. Once things cooled down, I went ahead and put the new 1/4 turn valves on the extensions with the provided compression fittings - I was able to do this carefully by hand without over tightening or twisting the tubing to the point of bending it sideways which I found can happen when tired and laying at awkward angles under the sink. My wife did help this process by making sure I didn't let any of the parts slip apart while getting it initially tightened. Now all I need to do was solder them under the sink - no problem right?
As I was preparing to solder the extensions on, I did note that I had some water still dripping out of the lines but I knew a plumber trick which is to use a bit of bread pushed up into the tube to temporarily hold back drips which could otherwise ruin your solder joint. The idea is that the bread is soft and dissolves in the water fairly quickly which then will wash out when you test the lines. I used probably 1-2" of bread crust in each tube. I used a large Philips screwdriver to carefully push the bread up a ways into the tube - probably 4 inches or a bit more. It just has to keep an occasional drip away for a couple minutes but don't wait long after adding the bread - and do each tube just before you are ready to solder it - don't add bread to both and then try to solder unless you are really good and really fast. The soldering itself was pretty easy - no fires and only a little scorching when using the plumbers blanket - one with a hole in it for the tubing which I just slide off when done. Make sure you have the valve OPEN when you solder to allow hot air to escape to prevent damaging the valve and make sure you are not soldering real close to the valve if you can avoid it. I think they can take some heat but I hate to chance too much and damage it.
Ok, here is where I admit a funny mistake which careful readers might have picked up on. I have a hole in my plumbers blanket for tubing when I add tube extensions. Once I was done, my wife asked me with a "look in her eye" - so how do you get the blanket off since you have the valve on already. Ohh <rats>. The answer is: Honey, pass me the utility knife - I'm not removing the valve.
So the new 1/4 turn valves are installed and I want to test. I close the valves and I turn the water on while my wife watches - and we call each other on the cell phones. Initially she says it looks good - nothing gushing but then when I start carefully checking like I always do.. wipe with a piece of toilet paper and leave a piece under to ease noticing leaks for a while. I find a little bit of water on one valve - it is leaking and additional tightening isn't helping. By this time, I'm pretty tired already and I want it fixed even though I could have left it that way for a day without any harm since it was such a small bit of water. I remove the valve and the compression sleeve puller worked reasonable well this time. So why the leak - turned out that I didn't check nor notice a slight burr on the compression sleeves that came with some of the new valves. I then took the brass ring from the valves I intended to use for the other faucet just to keep things moving. Fortunately, I didn't mangle the extension too much but I decided to cut off a bit just to be safe since the valve was just a little bit looser than before on the tube. I got the valve tightened down and that time it held water with no leaks.
At this point, I was thinking about mounting the new faucet but 2 things came to mind. One is that I realized the gasket that comes with the sink, which appears to be made from a foam plate type material and thickness, was going to be too small since I enlarged the holes in the counter. I had some square sheets of red/brown type rubber - about 1/16" or so thick so I and the wife made some new gaskets using the old gaskets as templates. Not sure where I got the rubber sheets from - been laying in a box for probably 5-8 years.. These posed me a problem later - basically the rubber is thicker than the original gaskets so the faucets don't sit flush on the counter - not a huge gap but can be noticeable at times. Of course, I'm very tired at this point and just want something to work so I made the call that it was good enough for now and would at least prevent leaks very well.
So I went ahead and got the faucet mounted and got the drain installed. I knew I had a little trouble with the drain since it seemed like it had a very slight angle going through the pre-cast sink. I figured that I could drip a little and that just tightening up things a bit more would do the job if needed.
At this point, everything is in place so we go to test things. My wife politely declines the honor of testing it. I've got the valves turned on under the sink along with the outside valve and I've removed the aerator from the faucet as the installation instructions indicated. I turn the faucet on and what happens? You can hear the gurgle as the water starts to move and the air starts to come out of faucet, I turn down the water but it seems like it needs to be on more with the bread in the lines.
Now, lets take a brief second to describe the sink itself - it is shaped like a sea shell which you can't fully tell from the pictures later in this post and it is some what shallow and has a gentle rise as it gets closer to the edge of the counter. The faucet itself is taller than before and and angles a bit more out from the original faucet. So what happens? Without the aerator in the faucet, the liquefied bread sprays into the sink with lots of velocity and is directed by the gentle curve of the sea shell shape up and out of the sink - into the face of a very very tired and annoyed person.. me. My wife didn't withhold the fact that she found it a bit amusing. Of course, when we noticed lots of water leaking from the drain she stopped laughing and I took a minute to regroup. Ended up taking the drain apart and found a burr on one of the drain fittings.. finding a bit of theme here and plan to learn from it - check for burrs on everything. I was able to take care of the burr with a utility knife and put things back together again. The liquefied bread was at least gone. This time everything stayed dry and worked appropriately. After adding the aerator onto the faucet it no longer shot water out in a way that would spray out of the sink basin.
Anyways, by this time it is after 11pm and we have one fully functioning sink - saving the other for the next day - Sunday.
It is now Sunday.
So for the other faucet, I planned on not making all the same mistakes but unfortunately there were new ones to make.
I ended up going over to Lowes and Home Depot to find new compression sleeves since I used the some of the ones from my spare valves with the valves installed the day before - I was in a hurry and bought 1/2" sleeves since I was working with 1/2" tubing.. not doing plumbing all the time I didn't think about how the sizes tend to be different since some stuff is an inside dimension and other stuff uses outside dimensions, etc, etc.. 5/8" sleeves was the correct size in this case and found on the next trip to Home Depot. Starting to know the cashiers by name.
I've worked through stuff and made sure that there were no burrs on the sleeves or on the various drain pieces etc.. Not going through that again.
When I got to one of the supply lines, it was leaking quite a bit more than the other on Saturday so I decided to use a little extra bread - probably close to an entire crust on one side of a slice of bread on one tube and a bit less on the other tube. When it decided to leak it was a lot, so better safe than sorry - I didn't want to deal with a messed up solder joint because that is time consuming and I was REALLY tired of being under the sinks.
So I got things soldered up, the sink attached and everything hooked up. The valves had not leaked when tested so things were going very well compared to the prior day.
Now it was time to test again. Took a few precautions to not get covered in liquefied bread this time and my wife again decided I should do the honors of testing it. All the valves are on and I turn on the faucet handles and get - a few seconds of gurgle and then nothing. What happened? To make a long story shorter - there is such thing as too much of a good thing. I used too much bread and it wasn't able to dissolve the the entire plug which basically wedged itself up into the valve area of the handles. I had to remove the handles and the valve components and carefully dig out the bread which was more like play dough or bread dough before baking. Then my daughter helped out and we used a bucket over the open handles to capture the remaining bread in the lines by briefly turning the water on. Once the line and handles were flushed and reassembled I did another quick test and one side was fine.. yeah! In the other handle I had apparently dropped the components back into the valve in the wrong direction (off by 180 degrees) and had to disassemble and fix for proper functioning.
And then it was finally over.. until I go to put new back wall panels in under the sinks. That might be a long while. I am debating whether to redo the other faucets (both kids baths, kitchen and washroom) which are in various levels of need too or simply call a plumber. My family goes back and forth on their recommendation - using a plumber would be much faster but then they have fewer stories to share with people they meet. We'll see - I hate to pay someone to do something I can do myself but I may change my mind if the memory of the amount of back pain from this adventure is still fresh in my mind.
Below is the final outcome. Not bad and hopefully will last a while.
Below you can see the hookups from the faucets and my brand new drain lines, etc. I'll go back another day and redo the backside wall - we are thinking about replacing the mirrors on the wall behind the faucets with medicine type cabinets with mirrors so we have some off-counter top storage for toiletries, etc. Not sure why the previous owners didn't put in any storage other than under the sink in the master bath.
Thanks for reading; hope you either got a good laugh and/or learned something useful.
Scott
James 1:12
Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
