Let’s Get Into Our Bathing Suits!
Or call a plumber.
We can’t curse about this unexpected home repair story because it happened on Sunday… so we’re stuck with looking on the bright side. Someone actually came to our house on Sunday to fix it.
The drama really all started on Saturday evening. And by drama we mean that Chad was watering the front flower bed with the hose. Don’t come after us Durham, we know our day is Sunday – but hand watering is okay any day right?
Seems harmless enough. Well once he was all done the faucet outside would not turn off. The faucet handle would turn but the water just kept coming.
While not projectile gushing, we did feel a bit like Stephanie and D.J. Tanner after dropping Dad’s wedding ring down the sink.
Embedding is down so check out what we mean by clicking here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8iHrQ2uJuY
Now what?
After believing we found the sweet spot to stop it from gushing, we discovering it was still running on Sunday morning, filling our big red bowl about every 8 minutes. No bueno. There were only so many bushes and flower beds that I could run the bucket to before it became a real hassle. We were definitely on track to waste lot of water.
The real fun came when we started calling around for plumbers to come do the repair. A local handyman we know wasn’t able to come out – tip though, he told us to leave the hose on the faucet and attach a sprayer and that would keep the water from gushing until he could come fix it. Good to know if there is ever a next time.
Then we called both Rescue Rooter and Benjamin Franklin Plumbers here in Durham. Each wanted to charge us between $149 – $159 just to come to our house to look at the faucet. No repairs, no parts, no labor in that price. Luckily, the guys at Roto Rooter were able to come out within an hour and fix the entire thing for $150.
Plus we found a $30 off coupon online. No service fee involved, the $150 was for the parts and labor.
So really this was a low-stress repair, that while unexpected was not the end of the world thanks to Roto Rooter. We so much would have rather spent that dough on something beside a new outdoor faucet though. It only took the plumber about 30 minutes to do, he just cut the water off, cut our old line down in the basement, pulled the old faucet out the wall, slid in a new faucet and reattached it to the cut line.
With water running and without time to do the research ourselves, we decided our time, sanity, and water bill was worth just letting the Roto Rooter guy do his thing.
Bonus, we also found out that our main shut off water valve in the house no longer works. The plumber had to cut our water off at the meter box in our yard after trying our valve with no success.
He suggested that the washer in our basement valve probably has just worn out. He didn’t have the part handy but could come back and fix it for us – again no service charge. He also suggested that we could fix it ourselves with a new valve and something called a shark bite tool using a similar method as he used for the faucet repair. It will definitely be added to the list of necessary home repairs but we’ll likely leave it to the pros – since it is our MAIN water valve and all.
So that’s pretty much it. A little tale of our unexpected home repair, expensive Sunday, but satisfaction with Roto Rooter.
Just for fun, since it’s our wedding week and all – let’s throw another Full House classic to celebrate! Check out the clip here – the You Tube user won’t let us embed the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9LTlPi1IZw
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Ugh, I feel your pain. After watering the wifey’s plants and filling up the kids pool, I neglected to turn off the faucet that evening. The sprayer was connected so who really cares right? Well the next morning I look out the front door and start to wonder if it rained the previous night. The panic soon set in and I run out to the side of the house and see a nice 1/4″ hole in the hose geysering water out into the yard. Needless to say, our City of Durham water bill will probably dwarf your new faucet repair bill, so don’t feel bad.
Thanks! We hate spending the beans but you’re right – if we had just let it go our water bill would have been huge! Here’s hoping yours isn’t too bad :)