Leaky handle

Bought a house built in the 70s by the original owner who I bought it off. The bathtub and sink were both dripping, so we went in and replaced all the washers.

I messed up (or the threads were stripped) since when I put in the inner parts, it just kept screwing as if it jumped off track. So if I screw it all the way in, it shreds the end washer again.

So I only partially put it in, its not fully tight, but it seals shut (the tap doesn't drip). Now the problem is when I turn the water on, some water comes out the handle. Not a great solution at all.

So, other than taking all the shower tiles out, and cutting the old copper fittings and putting a new one in, does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this?

I am going to try some teflon tape to see if it helps seal it better.

Reply to
Adam Kubias
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What's behind it?

Jon

Reply to
Jon Danniken

Yeah....there should be an access door behind the fixtures. If not, then someone must have drywalled the area and it would be better to cut open the drywall than to remove the tiles.

Reply to
philo 

Adam,

How does the packing look? It's the bonnet packing that seals the stem as it passes through the bonnet nut. Replacing the packing is much easier and cheaper than replacing the faucet valve.

Dave M.

Reply to
David L. Martel

If only. Behind my bathtub plumbing is my shower stall in the other bathroom!!! So far so good.

I guess I could cut a hole in the tiled shower wall if I had to.

In Brooklyn, one bathtub backed against the kitchen wall, the shower might have backed against the closet of the next bedroom, might have even had a removeable panel.

But the 2nd bathtub backed against an ouside wall. That would have been trouble on the fifth floor!!

Reply to
micky

That should not be a bad job then, BTW: I advice cutting it with a knife or something similar. I once cut open a wall with my sawzall and nicked a copper pipe. Minor damage but not a good thing to do.

Reply to
philo 

My house is ancient and when it was time for me to replace the faucet assembly a friend of mine who was a contractor told me I would never be able to find the exact assembly I needed and the whole wall would have to be opened up and new pipes put in.

If I went to one of the "big box" stores he would have been right...but there is an excellent plumbing supply near my house and they still stocked the identical assembly. The one I replaced was easily 40 years old or more.

Whenever I have a project I tell them what I am doing, they then fetch the *exact* parts I need and tell me *exactly* how to do it.

(Anyone who might live in Milwaukee...it's Crown Plumbing.)

Reply to
philo 

It's shredded again. Maybe if I just change that I will have it totally working.

Reply to
Adam Kubias

Drywalled. That is a much easier job.

Reply to
Adam Kubias

Adam,

What's shredded? Packing? Faucet washer? What's stripped? what type of faucet is it? If you take the "stripped" inner parts (the stem) to a hardware store they'll sell you a brand new stem. Be sure to bring the stem with you to the store, the threads are different for hot versus cold.

Dave M.

Reply to
David L. Martel

We also have a plumbing supply house near us that I love. It's in the back of a Kitchen and Bath Design Center. A lot of the contractors shop there. As a homeowner you can get excellent advice from not only the folks behind the counter but often from the contractors that are waiting on their supplies.

For electrical parts (and advice) I use a electrical supply counter that's in the back of a lighting design center. Same deal.

For one job, I actually "hired" a plumber to come to my house and tell me what to do. We found a time that he was going to be nearby and I met him at the house. I had already jack hammered the basement slab and exposed the connection I needed to deal with. All he had to do was look in the hole and tell me what to buy. Best $20 I ever spent 'cuz I wouldn't have figured it out on my own.

Reply to
DerbyDad03

Yep...and even though he just gave you quick advice, that $20 was really cheap.

When I was still working, my company had a $210 minimum charge...but we worked in an industrial rather than home environment.

Reply to
philo 

When I was a service manager I had a "minimum charge" too. If the charge wasn't enough to pay for the paperwork, I didn't charge - or do the paperwork. I got a few tips ( but VERY few) Basically it cost $25 between the work order and the processing. Any bill under $25 was, at best, a break even proposition when all was said and done.

Cheapest advertizing you could possibly dream up was to go out and change the wiper or light bulb the guy had just bought from the service department and say "no charge" - or lube a sticky doorhandle or squeaky door hinge - and say "no charge". When they had something that needed fixing, they remembered that and didn't haggle over the bill because the KNEW they were being treated fairly.

And even though those freebies didn't show up in the service records, the dealership STILL had the highest "retention rate" in all of eastern Canada - and although the service department was not paid for those jobs, we still had one of the highest "absorption rates" of any dealership - of any brand, in the country.

"retention rate" is the percentage of cars sold in the last 3 years that returned to the dealership for more than 3 services per year. Target was 50%. Average was just over 30%. We were consistently better than 75%, and for several years were well over 100% because we serviced a lot of vehicles that had been sold by other dealers.

"Abvsorption" is the percentage of the total cost of operating the dealership , not including salesman's commissions, that was covered by the parts and service pepartments - in other words, what happens if you go 6 months without selling a car??? Consistently over 100% - so the sales were "gravy".

Bet the plumber worked on the same premise - a few minutes while in the area anyway bought a LOT of good will

Reply to
clare

I meant the packing is shredded (if that is the part which kind of looks like a plastic washer). I brought the stem, and we replaced that the first time, as well as the rubber washer at the end of the stem and the o shaped gasket around the middle. The end washer got chewed right up (probably because we sank it too deep) and so did the packing.

Reply to
Adam Kubias

You can get hand saws that work, provided that you don't shove them in too far around plumbing, or like you said, a utility knife works if you are patient (and don't want a big dusty mess).

I like to find out where the studs are first, then cut right up to the inside edge of one, the idea being to sister another stud next to it as the stud which holds the replacement panel.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Danniken

Adam,

We're having a communications failure. I'm not sure whether you are working on the tub or the sink. I'm not sure whether you still have a "stripped" problem after replacing the stem. Something keeps shredding. I can't figure out what that part is. It could be the faucet washer, an o-ring, or the bonnet packing Have you examined the seat? Does it need replacing? Is it damaging the faucet washer? I think that you have an easy repair and that you would be helped greatly by watching a few YouTube videos. There are many good faucet rebuild videos.

Dave M.

Reply to
David L. Martel

$20 was cheap to me and a couple of free lunches for him. He came over at the end of the day on the way home from a job that was in my neighborhood. I don't think he "wasted" more than 15 minutes parking, coming in, offering advice and leaving. I hate to use the term, but this really was a win-win.

BTW...this happened at least 15 years ago, so rates were cheaper then.

Reply to
DerbyDad03

Hey, if I'd known you couldn't figure it out on your own, I'd have charged you 50. Please remit the other 30 dollars.

Reply to
VisitingPllumber

If your plumbing skills are as bad as your logical reasoning, you must be a pretty lousy plumber.

If I hired you to come over and tell me what to do, how could you _not_ know that I couldn't figure it out on my own?

Reply to
DerbyDad03

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