Plumb Crazy!

Did you hear the joke about the Irish tap-dancer?
He broke his ankle falling off the sink!!

I laugh every time I hear this.
As I write this, we have the plumber lying on his back with his head in the cupboard under the sink!!
Shame poor man, this is the third time he has been here since Friday! When we built the house we purposely chose taps that our hands would be able to grip if they were ever riddled with arthritis, you know the kind, big sticky-outy things at right angles so your fingers didn't slip round and round! I thought that they were stainless steel and that they 'would last forever'. In this place, forever seems to be about five years if you are lucky! But Rob said that they were in fact chromed!

Our taps brought him to his knees!

Anyway, a few years ago we noticed that the tops were starting to corrode and the cold taps were running slowly. Ah we thought, new washers, simple job, so the next time I went to town I bought a variety of washers ready for some DIY. We put them away safely and promptly lost them! Each time we used the cold tap in the kitchen we reminded ourselves to look for said washers and 'do the job'. Then the cold tap stopped working altogether! We were lucky that we still had cold water thanks to a filter system that we had installed a few years ago.

Then the toilet started leaking in the downstairs loo, so Rob fixed it with silicone and a new ring thing and all was fine.

Until last week when the toilet suddenly started leaking again and we just couldn't see where it was coming from. So............................time to call for Backup. Rob was worried that the actual toilet bowl was cracked and as we are having Visitors from Overseas (my long lost cousin and his wife), something had to be done! So I said to Rob, that's great, ask him just to change the washers for us at the same time.

Easy, right?

No.

The toilet was a doddle, half an hour, a new ring on the back pipe, bit of plumbers friend AKA silicone, and all was well.

Then he tackled the taps.
An hour later he was still battling to get them undone. They had corroded so badly inside that they were stuck tight and going nowhere! A squidge of Q20 and he said he would return on Friday to finish the job!

Look at the corrosion.

Friday arrived and a few hours later he admitted defeat! Nothing was budging, the Q20 hadn't helped and there was only one thing left to do. Replace the tap tops but leave the bottom part. He knew exactly what shape and style the taps were, so we arranged for him to buy the tops and come back on Monday (today) to 'quickly' finish the job!!

Out with the old......

That was three hours ago!!! He was unable to loosen the taps and had to bring out the big gun in the form of an angle grinder!

In with the new.....

I think we are winning though, I haven't heard the grinder or any muffled cursing for a while now!

And guess what?

Rob found the washers the other day...........ready for the next time!