Home Repairs & Tips (I had to do it or else) Not Home improvement thread, but in the end yes.

I see a couple of threads on home improvements but none on just home repairs. Something you had to do or else. So I thought I'd start a thread.
Our house is only 15 years old but seems like there is always something in need of repair. Lets see your recent repairs. Things you learned, tricks and home repair tips. Something that might help us all out when the little and the big things break.

 

Last Friday the wife called me at work all excited about water under the kitchen sink. I told her not to worry it probably was just the left hand side sink strainer basket. I had to reseal it with plumbers putty a month or so back. I would check it when I got home. Just get everything out from under the sink and set a fan in front of it.
Got home and checked it. Nope dry as a bone. Garbage disposal leaking out the bottom. Trip to Lowe's to get a replacement and about 30 minutes labor and all done. Good as new.

 

Last Saturday I had to replace the MOEN cartridge in the shower. After 20 years it started to drip and I had a bad feeling about it as I knew what I was going into. Normal is a 15 min job but after 20 years the sediments sedimented the handle to the stub. Dremel and 3 hours later cutting piece by piece I removed the cartridge. Put new back in 5 min.

 

15 minute job becoming 3 hours.
Had a similar thing happen to me about 2 years back. We just had all new flooring put throughout our house. Took out the carpet and linoleum and put down all new laminate hardwoods and tile. About 3 weeks later we noticed the toilet rocking in our master bath. It was about 5:00 pm on a Saturday afternoon and the wife was getting ready for work as she was working nights at that time 7p-7a. I thought to myself I'll tighten up the toilet bolts and chat with her while she's getting ready shouldn't take more than 5-10 minutes.
Now I'll try and make this as short as possible.
One toilet bolt would not tighten as it was not in the grove of the flange. And it was too short to reinsert back down into the groove from the top with the toilet in place as it had been cut off so the cap would fit. Off to Lowe's for a new bolt. Tilted the toilet over slid the new bolt in from underneath and up through the hole. Then worked it into the grove in the flange. Set the toilet back down and thought success!! NOT... Started tightening it and it came loose in my hand like the other bolt. Thought damn, gonna have to take the toilet up. So up it came. Then the problem became apparent, the PVC toilet flange was busted where the bolt groove is. To some this is no big deal but to me this was not going to be fun. You see my house is built on a concrete slab...now what to do?
So I sat on the edge of the tub for a while thinking if I have to call a plumber, this isn't going to be cheap.
After about 15 minutes I decided to run back to Lowe's just in case there was a repair kit. And yes, thank God there was.
A metal replacement flange that you anchor into the concrete that sits on top of the PVC flange. So I grabbed one, 2 new wax rings(just in case)
and 4 Bosch concrete bits (again, just in case).
Got home drilled 3 of the 4 anchor holes in less than 10 minutes with one bit. The 4th and final hole took over 30 minutes and burned up all 4 bits. Why? I have no idea. Rebar I guess. I then anchored the metal flange down, added the wax ring and the toilet bolts. Then sat and tightened the toilet. Done.
And yes, all this by only 8:30 pm or 3 and a half hours. The real way I wanted to spend my Saturday evening.

 

OMG me too what are the odds

 

basically had to do the same thing on the spare bath toilet. so far so good but still not what I'd want to do is chip out the concrete and put new piping in...

 

FUCK those things. Every one I've ever changed is a super ordeal.

 

For owning such an old house it's been nearly a year since I've had to rip into the electrical or plumbing. But the next one is coming soon, I can feel it.

That of course doesn't count the once a month round of touch-up paint on the corners, walls, and trim boards. Apparently I'm a clumsy fuck.

 

I have to do the same thing but probably every 6 months. Not because we're clumsy. Wife and the vacuum's my root cause. She evidently thinks it's an M1A1.
Even have to take those wood shaded pencils and touch up the corners of the furniture.

 

My vacuum and my very rambunctious dogs are the cause of mine. Its been too hot to walk them all summer, they get frustrated, one of them shows their frustration by picking the paint off of the wood paneling.

 

So far this year I've..

Replaced the spout to the tub.
Replaced the plumbing under the tub. Luckily the basement ceiling is unfinished and it just drained to concrete.
Replaced a Taco pump in my outdoor wood burner.
Replaced a capacitor on a pump on the indoor boiler.
Replaced all the gears in a garage door opener.

All of these were unplanned and so I consider them repairs.

 

Would agree.
Usually anymore if its a repair and I have no experience with.

• Google for the error code or problem.
• Amazon for the parts.
• Youtube for the installation instructions.

The Holy Trinity of Home repairs.

 

***
For each plumbing fix I use this silicone grease all over the contact surfaces. I got the waterproof type. It seals and greases the moving parts.
After I finished the 3 hours nightmare on upstairs bathroom, I went to the downstairs bathroom that I fixed about 3+ years ago and checked the cartridge. Having put silicone on it before, removing, regreasing and installation was less than 15 min.

 

I have experience with everything luckily. 1.5 year general construction - taught me all the important homeowner stuff - electrical, plumbing, hvac, drywall, roofing, siding, framing.. etc. I also know welding, 3phase, industrial mechanical, and IT!

 

they need to teach this in school... but somehow asking me to fix something ends up being #1 on everybody's list. Then theres the one person that actually needs help and doesnt ask for help and I go over to find a nightmare of shoddy plumbing "patches" that I have to fix to get the sink going again. Heres my example of someone that needs help.

 

Help is not the word for this. Looks like someone slatherd some type of pipe dope on a drain line with screw together compression fittings.
Guess they thought double locking it was a good idea also.

 

RTV actually, two colors--clear and white. I took one look at it and said "this isnt going to work" I had already bought a repair kit. It basically was the seals that were bad and leaking, but it was also clogged. So I had to put new seals in it and then unclog it, I didnt have a snake with me so I had to use a plunger to unclog it. I then ran the hot water for about 10 minutes to help clear the rest of the clog.

 

If you're married or ever get married. I wouldn't let the wife know all of that. You'll never see an afternoon to mod the Taco.

 

Nah, I just put it off like everyone else does.

 

I got one.... Wife's been complaining about a slow drip from the bathtub. One thing led to another resulting in me inadvertently causing a pinhole leak in the pipe running into the slab. So... that leak caused me to rip out the bathroom and jackhammer the slab in order to fix it. Guess she's getting a new bathroom now.... Come to think of it, maybe that was her plan all along!