Why are some of this simplest things so hard?

[Tim Malyszko]

This evening, I needed to replace the toilet seat in our 1 and only bathroom. Replacing a toilet seat should not involve a blowtorch :mad:.

Anyway, the bolts that held the toilet seat in place rusted and the plastic retaining nuts would not budge. I tried every wrench, lube, etc to get those things off and it would not budge. I even tried ripping the toilet seat off which didn't work.

Finally, I pulled the blow torch out and heated the plastic up to the point that it was pliable enough to pull the whole bolt through the bowl base.

I swear anything I do in this house turns into a big fiasco. A 5 minute job turns into a 1 hour project that involved FIRE.

O well, enough ranting.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Tim.....I'll tell you right up front I hate plumbing. The only thing I hire out is anything involving natural gas....water heater....furnace. As a 6 year old my folks lost every thing they had due to a gas leak. My parents did not have insurance and never did recover from their financial losses.

But plumbing...it seems like that's the way it goes....and I hate plumbing and anything dealing with it.

[Tom Veatch]

... A 5 minute job turns into a 1 hour project ...

I feel your pain!

That's the standard for any plumbing job I tackle. Add to that at least one extra trip to the hardware store to swap the parts I bought for the parts I should have bought.

Don't know if it always turns out that way because I hate plumbing, or if I hate plumbing because it always turns out that way.

[David DeCristoforo]

" Add to that at least one extra trip to the hardware store..."

Around here plumbing jobs are rated by the number of trips to the hardware store they require. Never had a "one tripper". Don't believe they are even possible. A "two tripper" is the best you can hope for. Even if you are a plumber with a truck full of parts. Most are in the three to five range. Any thing over five, hire a plumber next time.....

[glenn bradley]

A 5 minute job turns into a 1 hour project that involved FIRE.

You are not alone my friend.

[Robert Parrish]

We sent a man to the moon but we can't make a toilet that doesn't leak!!

[Mike Henderson]

It's not just plumbing, although I've had my share of problems with plumbing. It's almost any project - I often run into problems with things I thought were going to be a quick job. I can understand why the professional handymen charge what they do. Things are never as simple as they seem, and they have to carry a lot of parts - or make a lot of runs to the borg.

Mike

[Mike Henderson]

We sent a man to the moon but we can't make a toilet that doesn't leak!!
Actually, we can but it would cost the same as to send a man to the moon.

Engineering is tradeoffs. The toilets we have are not a bad compromise between longevity and purchase price.

Mike

[Jim Mattheiss]

You should have a Kohler corner toilet in your powder room!

The Kohler internals to a toilet are different from other toilets, and a corner toilet is slightly different still.

The only time it's made me laugh was when we were rehabbing the powder room. We had the plumbing company come out and pull the toilet (just in case).

We we pulled the sheetrock and insulation down and called the plumbing company back to change the sink rough in for a new pedestal sink.

A different plumber walks in, looks around. He see's the rough in for the corner toilet, tilts his head left, tilts his head right. I just say "corner toilet" and he goes - ok - the rough in doesn't make sense otherwise.

He changed the rough in for the sink and was on his way.

As they say in those commercials - a puzzled look on the plumbers face - Priceless!

Of course it wasn't so priceless when the bill for the sink rough in arrived, but that's what happens when you need professional help on a project!

I only do plumbing work at my father's house. If it leaks it's in his house not mine! I can and will do pretty much everything else, just don't do plumbing.

Cheers

Jim

[David G Baker]

My career dream job was to be a plumber but in Sacramento California you had to have a relative in the business in order to get an apprenticeship. So I went into the news business and spent 31 years doing it. I found that the news business was quite similar to the plumbing business especially in the area of toilets. I will let you use your imagination.
I have always done my own plumbing with the exception of the heavy duty Roto-Rooter type work and I would do that if I had the equipment. I have had my share of problems with plumbing but that is the nature of the beast.

[Ben Franz]

Three laws of plumbing:

1. Stuff flows downhill.

2. No job can be completed with fewer than 3 trips to the store (not counting beer runs).

3. Never bite your fingernails.

[Tom Veatch]

...Around here plumbing jobs are rated by the number of trips to the hardware store they require. Never had a "one tripper". Don't believe they are even possible. ...

David, if I'm not mistaken, isn't that a corollary to the "4th Law of Thermodynamics", All tasks expand to exceed the time available.

[Tim Malyszko]

At least I'm not alone in plumbing pains. Believe it or not, the best plumbing experience I had was replacing the entire house's galvanized pipes with new copper before we moved in. Old homes do have their advantages when they are completely empty and you can get to everything. Fortunately for the plumbing job, our house has no insulation, no finished basement and for that matter, no sub-floor - our 3/4" oak floor sits directly on the joists - standard 1917 construction around here.

I guess the job was easy because I was basically starting from scratch. Heck, that was easier than replacing that stupid toilet seat.

[Gary Herrmann]

Tim, if it makes you feel any better - when I put new toilets in last year, I forgot to take the rag out of the hole the first time. I remembered it as I was tightening the last bolt...

[Chris Padilla]

I got one for you. Apparently, some folks from Europe (forget where) used to live in my buddie's house. They brought over a lot of stuff like light bulbs and plumbing fixtures, electrical outlets, etc.

Anyway, my buddy knows enough to know that he hires out all plumbing jobs.

It turns out that a lot of the exposed plumbing in his house had somehow been replaced with METRIC plumbing. I laugh every time I hear the phrase: metric plumbing. Plumbing is hard enough even when it is all SAE but toss in metric and you'll have suicides on your hands!

*******************************************

Usually, anything new we buy for the house (light fixture, faucet, sink, register vent cover, whatever) always seems to need to be modified by yours truly so it'll work in my house. So the 5 minute job kills the day due to modification. I'm not even in an old house at all (built in early 70s)!

[Neal Clayton]

old is the same, only with no square, level, or plumb joints or surfaces.

[Sonny Edmonds]

We sent a man to the moon but we can't make a toilet that doesn't leak!!


Sure can!
It's called an Outhouse.
No water required. But you might need to hold your nose in the summertime. :rolleyes:

[Brian Effinger]

Everything I do to my house ends up as a problem - plumbing included. This past week I tore out all of the old cast iron sanitary line above my basement floor and reinstalled / reconfigured with sch. 40 PVC so I could add a second bathroom up on the second floor.
Nothing I ever do is easy, and it always requires multiple trips to the store.

[David G Baker]

Sonny,
Don't forget the bug spray for the wasps, black widows and don't forget the Sears & Roebuck catalog. :D
The incidences of black widow bites dropped approximately 90% with the installation of indoor plumbing in California and the plumbing problems began.

[Colin Giersberg]

But which is worse, the spider bite or the plumbing?

Regards, Colin

ps. If I did plumbing, I would have to charge $200 and hour, and I said that 20 years ago. I guess with inflation, I better up that to $500.

[Frank Guerin]

"Don't forget the bug spray for the wasps, black widows and don't forget the Sears & Roebuck catalog.
The incidences of black widow bites dropped approximately 90% with the installation of indoor plumbing in California and the plumbing problems began"

There was not any bug spray and any pages that showed any ladies garments which included full girdles as scampy were imediately torn out by the women of the house. The rest of the pages went I believe as follows. Mens clothe's, etc, etc, them tools.

[David G Baker]

We had DDT in a pump sprayer and the lovely ladies modeling underwear were not removed from our catalogs. :D :D :D

[Wes Bischel]

Tim, if it makes you feel any better - when I put new toilets in last year, I forgot to take the rag out of the hole the first time. I remembered it as I was tightening the last bolt...

Thank goodness I'm not the only one!:D:D:D

Wes

PS When I pulled the old toilet to replace the wax ring last week I didn't put a rag in - experience does teach us sometimes.

[Rich Stewart]

I went on an emergency job one time. The guy was replacing his toilet seat with a hammer and chisel. Broke the toilet in half. Shut-off didn't work. Talk about a mess.