Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2021/11/25/plumbers-prepare-for-brown-friday.html
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Some of my very earliest memories (age 3-4ish) were of my Dad trying to fix the sink on Thanksgiving or Christmas, demanding that we fetch tools and yelling at us for handing them to him wrong. Dad’s a lovely guy, but I have a strong aversion to home repairs to this day because of that – when I do home repairs, I demand that my wife and kids keep a wide berth, because I refuse to subject them to the moment when I become possessed by my father’s voice.
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Ice? How the hell is ice going to unblock your damn drain? Boiling water, yeah. Solid water? Hmmmm.
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Not the drain, the grinder. I too have been told that. It dislodges stuck things.
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I’ve also heard of using frozen citrus for the garbage disposal as it provides the abrasiveness of the ice as well as a pleasant scent. I’ve never done it, though as we don’t use our garbage disposal and I’m going to remove it at some point. There’s really no good use for them except keeping plumbers employed.
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I don’t like garbage disposals. It encourages people to jam all sorts of nonsense down their kitchen drain.
Just scrape all that stuff into a garbage can. Drain pipes aren’t magical, all that stuff doesn’t just disappear when it goes into the sewer system, it just creates problems further down the line.
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My only plumbing chore is to change mom’s bathroom tap from a unihandle to one with separate hot-cold handles.
I think I’ve got everything, so it’ll probably be only one trip to Home Depot for that unexpected part or tool.
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Aaaaah. I see. I’ve never had one of those. I knew someone who did. It was always broken. They’re not that common over here.
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Dual taps, or just dual handles?
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I bought some PVC fittings Home Depot a couple of days ago. The woman at the register looked at my purchases and then up at me. “Well, you’ll be crying later today” she laughed. “I will?” I asked, not really sure where she was going. “Yup. My first husband was a plumber, and my second husband is a GC, and the main lesson I learned from both of them is that plumbing sucks.”
She wasn’t wrong.
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Have a neighbor who is a retired plumber, he does on-call duty [major holidays] for a local rooter service. He gets $300.00 US just to show up on a holiday, then the real fun starts & get your wallet out, it’s going to cost you.
Update: Just peaked over the fence, he’s filthy dirty and cussing up a storm, on his way to another log jam.
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I had to replace the entire bathtub plumbing after we moved into our new house this summer. I went with all brass just to limit how many times I had to cry over it. Worth every penny.
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Just dual handles. The Moen single handle is harder for her to manage.
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Ah, still a mixer thank goodness.
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In this case, I needed the fittings for a cold therapy system I’m building for Mrs. F (severe Fibromyalgia sucks), so the stakes were pretty low. I categorically refuse to do home plumbing anymore, having built out a bathroom in a loft apartment we shared 20 years ago. It felt like groudhog day- doing and re-doing fit ups and trying to cram my fingers into ridiculous tiny crevasses to turn a nut or connect a drain lever. Never again.
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I knew that thing would prove its worth at some point.
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Lateral thinking.
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Huh. Why would anyone want a bathroom tap that didn’t mix?
Before the tap, I have to fix the bathroom’s tilt & turn window to close properly. Those are a pain until you figure out all the complex bits. A vice-grip will substitute for the special adjustment tool that they probably have.
Because we’re British, damn it!
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