Sunday, January 9, 2011

A Tale of a Leaky Valve



The story begins with a drip from the tub faucet in our hall bath.

And the drip wouldn't stop. In fact, sometimes the drip was more like a small stream. So, we called the plumber, naturally.

Because our hall bath is original to our 1940s house, the plumbing and fixtures associated with our so deep cast iron tub are . . . let's just say, in the twilight years of life. The plumber from Rescue Rooters revealed the problem was in a leaky valve, circa 1940-something. But to correct the problem, the plumber must cut through the dry wall in our pantry to access the pipes.

The food removal began onto my kitchen counters. The hole was cut. The valve replaced. And the call made for the inspector to visit.

Five days and one trip to Nashville later, the inspector arrives to post a red tag; we failed inspection. Long story short . . . Fort Worth requires tub/shower faucets to have a balanced pressure scald guard attached to the valve/pipes. This means two things: 1) The plumber must cut through the tile to access the pipes to replace them and 2) the plumber must replace our two-knob control to a one control, meaning more tile destruction around the bath. Did I mention the bathroom is old, and we do not have any matching tile to patch the holes?

The moral of the story? A leaky valve has now turned into a full on bathroom remodel. We planned to remodel this bathroom anyway once we finalized an adoption; but looks like we are tackling that project earlier than expected. Our contractor comes one week from tomorrow to begin.

If you can't find me, I'll be at Home Depot.


Our pantry was in the kitchen and the hall for nearly a week! We decided to patch it up best we could until the contractor fully dives in.





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