agravating simple repair

[handyguys]

Aggravating for sure. Thought I would share the story for y'all.

I rate the complexity of projects on the number of trips to the hardware store. This one trip job turned into a three trip job.

I needed to replace a toilet fill valve that had gone bad. I opted for an inexpensive fluidmaster fill valve. Off to the hardware store, got the valve, back home and installed.

Uh Oh - the original non-braided supply line was now a bit too long. The brass ferrule wouldn't come off so I couldn't cut the line shorter. I didn't have a new supply line handy. Trip two to the hardware store - picked up a new braided supply line.

I installed the supply line and now the toilet is back in action.

I was watching TV that night and heard the toilet run. dang, didn't I adjust the float correctly? My thought it was set too high and the water was spilling over the overflow. I pulled the tank lid and the water level was right where it should be. Hmmm

Guess what? The flapper looked like it was too small! Its the original flapper. How could it be too small? Did i knock it out of whack? no, it seems to be attached as its supposed to. Well, the toilet ran all New Years day. I made my third trip to the hardware store for a new flapper. That fixed it. I don't know what one problem has to do with the other. I must have munged the original flapper somehow during the fill valve install.

Lesson learned? Maybe pick up all the parts you could possibly need while at the store. Maybe keep a set of parts on hand in case of emergency? Don't do repairs when the hardware store wont be open!

rant over

Brian

 

[oldognewtrick]

Dang, all along I thought it was mandatory that any home repair was an automatic 3 trip to the hardware store before the fix is made.

 

[Redwood]

Now you know why us pro's don't opt for partial repairs.

We offer a minor rebuild which includes a new flapper, fill valve and supply line. The small amount of profit we make on that job can be turned into a loss by having a customer callback about a problem with the work we did. We have to guarantee our work will be good for 6 months at our company.