There was not a shut off under the sink, so I tried the valve in the crawl space by the hot water tank. After an exercise in futility, I deemed it immovably corroded and figured any added pressure would break it, so I quit and went to the source - the water main under the trailer.
The neighbour's trailer had created a lake earlier this winter in our back yard from frozen and burst pipes, so accessing the underbelly of the trailer required the claw of my hammer as an ice pick. Four inches of ice and a few screws later, and I was in. I felt along the line to the main shut off and did so.
I proceeded to carefully remove the putrid looking beast with the help of some WD-40, a pipe wrench, and a few prayers. The drain stem was fused to the sink by rust, so I had to get a new one. Off to Moose Jaw I went to grab the part, and along came the family. After a few hours, we returned and I went to work installing the new and devastatingly beautiful new sink. It was almost a shame to put it in this trailer!
I attached everything properly, muddied myself under the trailer again, asked Faith to watch, and then turned on the water. A slight hot water leak. So I returned to the mud and shut off the water, went back inside, tightened the flex hose to the faucet, and proceeded to once again turn on the water. After going back inside and observing for a few moments, a trickle appeared on the cold water. I thought to myself, "Why go back under and get all muddy again? I'll just give it a quick..."
And the next thing you know I was having a cold shower. Water everywhere. I stemmed the tide by holding my thumb over the end of the flex hose that had become unseated from its nut and broken the plastic piece off inside. I called Faith into the bathroom and asked her to hold it for me. She asks, "Should I take my sweater off?" Uh, yeah, that might help. I went to transfer the hose to her, and it broke off at the opposite end. Plastic crap hidden behind steel nuts! We're just drowning in water as I run outside, put on coveralls and boots like my house is on fire, and dove back under the trailer to turn off the water.
A soaking wet Faith greeted me as I explained my desperate need to return to Moose Jaw and left. I got the part, returned home, attached it, and crossed my eyes and fingers as Faith watched the sink from a distance.
It works. Hallelujah. And looks good, too.
Sunday morning rolls around. My sink still works great. I flush the toilet and hear a thump. I go to turn on the shower and get no water pressure. I check under the sink again. Soon I don the coveralls, gloves, and boots and once again look under the trailer. Water is spurting from the joint closest to me and spraying out about halfway down the line. I turn off the main once again and pray...
This fall I had replaced all of the heating tape, insulation, and poly under there, and saw no issues. So I sliced through all of my hard work and followed the water to about a foot from the main shut off valve. There is a dime-sized hole in the main that looks like someone put a bullet through it from the inside. The heating tape was still hot, but not overlapping. The insulation was soaking, but not an issue. There had to be some defect in the line that just decided to burst since I had the whole thing open and was playing down there the day before. Lucky me.
I called Sheldon, my plumber friend, for advice, and drove the rest of the family to Sunday School which we haven't been to in almost a month. I checked every hardware store for the part I needed to no avail. One had the part, but the wrong size. I returned home dejected. I took my saw and hacked out the section with the hole in it, grabbed our packed bags, picked up a few things, slung it all into the vehicle, picked up the family at church, got some lunch and a few stray items, and LEFT FOR CALGARY.
'Nuff said.
- Mark
No comments:
Post a Comment