Turn on the sink in the bathroom and a sound issues from the pipes that makes you think the end of the world is coming. That is how it was at our house when we moved in. We knew about it, and we knew we would have to fix it. I kept putting it off because it sounded like a hard and expensive thing to do. We needed to replace the regulator valve (I think that is what it is) on the main water coming into the house. I was able to ignore it because we didn’t really use the plumbing in the basement that often anyway. But with my brother BJ living down there now, the sink gets used a lot more – and the pipes have been singing!
Matt decided it was time to fix the problem. He read up on it and picked the brains of people he knew until he was ready. A (few) quick trip(s) to the hardware store and it was time to shut off the water. Here is where his silly wife comes in. Matt tells me it should be e
asy, and we should be ready to go in a couple hours. I say “OK” and don’t bother filling pitchers with water. Not so smart – but we will get to that.
So Matt has a relatively easy time of changing the regulator, but since the water was off, and since we were messing around with the pipe anyway he wanted to put in a new shut-off valve. The one we had was the old kind – the kind you had to turn and turn to get the water off (and the handle was broken). He wanted to put in a ball valve (I could be so wrong on all the names of this stuff) so that we could just turn the little handle a quarter turn and the water would be on or off.
Unfortunately we didn’t really have the right tools to do that job on Monday night. So – the water stayed off all night. I didn’t realize how much I love running water until I didn’t have it for a night, and I wasn’t prepared not to have it. The next morning it was hard to get up and go to work – but I did it! When I got home from work the job was almost done. A few small leaks stood in the way of me and running water! It didn’t take much longer for Matt to have it all fixed.
Our water pressure (unregulated) was running at over 100psi (I hear that is high). We are down to below 60 now, much better. Oh – and it no longer sounds like the end of the world when you wash your hands. It was definitely a good days work for a do-it-yourself plumber.
Matt decided it was time to fix the problem. He read up on it and picked the brains of people he knew until he was ready. A (few) quick trip(s) to the hardware store and it was time to shut off the water. Here is where his silly wife comes in. Matt tells me it should be e
asy, and we should be ready to go in a couple hours. I say “OK” and don’t bother filling pitchers with water. Not so smart – but we will get to that.So Matt has a relatively easy time of changing the regulator, but since the water was off, and since we were messing around with the pipe anyway he wanted to put in a new shut-off valve. The one we had was the old kind – the kind you had to turn and turn to get the water off (and the handle was broken). He wanted to put in a ball valve (I could be so wrong on all the names of this stuff) so that we could just turn the little handle a quarter turn and the water would be on or off.
Unfortunately we didn’t really have the right tools to do that job on Monday night. So – the water stayed off all night. I didn’t realize how much I love running water until I didn’t have it for a night, and I wasn’t prepared not to have it. The next morning it was hard to get up and go to work – but I did it! When I got home from work the job was almost done. A few small leaks stood in the way of me and running water! It didn’t take much longer for Matt to have it all fixed.Our water pressure (unregulated) was running at over 100psi (I hear that is high). We are down to below 60 now, much better. Oh – and it no longer sounds like the end of the world when you wash your hands. It was definitely a good days work for a do-it-yourself plumber.
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