Plumbing

November 14, 2019

First floor plumbing is easy-peasy; an occasional drip from the sink can’t do much damage in the basement. Second floor plumbing however, is an entirely different beast. Last night Linda informed me that the plunger for the upstairs sink drain was stuck; the water wouldn’t drain, and she couldn’t raise the plunger. I fiddled with it to no avail, and this morning dismantled the unit. It’s pretty standard stuff—should be a piece of cake. SHOULD be! I’ve learned over the years that any job that they say takes a half hour actually takes a half day. Or more. At least two runs to the hardware are required, plus an additional trip to return all the stuff I bought but didn’t need. One more jaunt to bring the receipt I forgot the last time. If I can actually find the receipt, for which odds are at least 50-50.

I’m not sure why the old drain wasn’t working; everything looked fine, but replace it, I did, getting everything wiggled into place and tightened up. Success! She used it to wash up, and all was well. Or so I thought.

Last Thursday we used the last of our village garbage bags, so I hopped in the truck, drove into town and picked up a supply. To do so, I needed money, so I went to the safe, and noticed the floor in front of it was wet. How could that be? Looking up, I saw the remnants of a drip at the edge of the molding that was directly under the upstairs sink, and knew the nightmare had begun. I’ve been working on that sink for the past hour, not including the time spent earlier. I blame the cheap plastic stuff, but can’t rule out operator error. Everything is fine until I press the stopper, let the sink fill a bit, then open it up to drain. There is a tiny leak around the ball unit that operates the plunger, and no matter how tight I make it, it still drips. I think a small O-ring will fix it, but that requires...another trip to town!

This is where perspective helps. On mission trips to third-world countries I learned that a simple job like replacing a sink drain would be more than an inconvenience or irritation. It’s likely the parts were completely unavailable, or if they were, there would be no choice of brands, no opportunity to pick a better unit. My time in other countries has made me appreciate the fact that I can go in either direction to find two Home Depots within a half hour drive, not to mention three hardwares and a couple plumbing supplies. I’ll beat this drain, and thank God that I have the tools and time to do it. I was going to add “talent,” but the jury’s still out on that.