I think the title pretty much says it all. There are many times I like to think I’m a Handy Man, and all those times prove me wrong. I think I’m more of a ‘brute force’ kinda guy. But, I keep trying, and one day, one day, I just might be handy.

Sunday was not that day.

Our kitchen tap has been leaking for, well, just over a year. When Tara and Liam went off to BC last year, I was in charge of fixing it. Well, I didn’t. And it’s been an annoying little leak since then.

About two months ago I finally got around to taking it apart and swapping out all the washers. While this was a bit more of a job than I expected, I got it all back together again, and, no leaks!

For one whole day.

Then it leaked even worse.

It was somewhat manageable and it stayed that way until we could find a replacement faucet on sale. Eventually we did.

And it sat and sat until I could get around to actually installing it. Now, I knew that it wouldn’t necessarily be super easy. I mean, I had to get the old one out first, and god knows how long it was there.

Sunday rolled around and I started around 1pm. I emptied everything under the sink, crawled in, and saw the nut I needed to loosen. It was about 2cm thick and almost warn into the wood around it. I tried, I really really tried to get this thing to move. All the wrenches I had were too small. I resorted to vice grips, but just couldn’t get the leverage that I needed to get the damn thing to move.

“Think think think” I thought.

Well, if I could get the top portion loose, I could likely get the nut loose. Good plan!

So I disassembled the faucet and tried to move it. Nope. Not budging. How about the chrome thingy under the faucet and over the sink. Yea, if I could get rid of that, the rest would be easy.

Hack Saw the to the rescue! I sawed and sawed through that damn thing, knowing it was hollow, it couldn’t take that long.

And it didn’t really. I got both sides off and it sort of got loose. But the nut underside still wasn’t doing anything. And I still couldn’t get that leverage.

“Well” I thought to myself “it’s time for a new tool”. And that’s what I did. I popped out to Home Hardware, grabbed an adjustable wrench, and returned home. Got back under the sink and tried again.

Not much more success. In fact, pretty much the same result.

I stood up, looked at it, and my lovely wife called me into the other room for a break. It was about 3pm.

With a little food and drink in me, I got back to it. This time I took the wrench and tried to move what remained of the faucet. It moved. It twisted, and I think this was going to work. However, I had to pop out for dinner.

After all that, and getting Liam to bed, it was back to the faucet. I was committed at this point as there was no way to reset.

When I twisted the top, the bottom was also moving(which makes sense) so I would have to remove the hoses. I started to do that, and suddenly found out that the shut off valves didn’t fully shut off. In a hurry I found the main shut offs. This is useful for future use I’m sure.

Got the hoses off, and twisted the top enough so that the nut could be loosened by hand. Not the copper tubes were in the way, and the nuts there were corroded on.

Brute forcing it this time, I just snapped the buggers off. That worked really well.

Got the old faucet off, and in 10 bloody minutes installed the new one. 10 minutes. 4 hours to get the old off, 10 minutes to get the new on. Of course.

And at the moment it doesn’t leak, but the pressure isn’t all that great. I think that’s the unit and I might be able to adjust that.

But no, I am no handy man. I’m just too foolish to give up or call someone

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Filed under: Family - @ September 11, 2012 9:09 pm