I learned a good lesson yesterday about needing to know my limitations. I am so stubborn sometimes that I take on repair jobs that are bigger than I can handle. I guess knowing what those limitations are is my problem.
My new tenant called a few days ago to let me know the shower faucet had a slow leak. I figured I would try to tackle it myself and save the $100 or so a plumber would charge. I spent a couple of hours on Youtube and other handyman websites watching people repair these things. I felt confident that I could tackle the job.
The first problem was that once I disassembled the obvious parts and got down to the guts of the shower, I didn't recognize a thing. I thought I would try to unscrew the valve and take it with me to find a replacement since replacing the "seats and springs" and steel ball didn't stop the leak. Unfortunately, in trying to unscrew the valve, I made the leak worse. In fact, I broke one of the pipes in the faucet, sending water through the floor behind the tub, penetrating through the sheetrock ceiling and down to a utility closet on the ground floor.
Now, $653 later, what started off as a small leak has been repaired. Assuming my $100 estimate is close, my attempt to fix this myself cost me more than $500.
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