MY 1 WEEK'S LESSON ON DO-IT- YOURSELF PLUMBING

"There,that should do it." I said to myself with some degree of satisfaction, as I gave the plumber's wrench one final turn. Now, all I had to do was turn the main water valve on to see if I had done a good job at replacing our kitchen sink faucet.

All in all, I had been working on this project for four days already.

It all started one Saturday when our maid,Cheche, pointed out that the leak coming out of our kitchen sink faucet was getting stronger. My kneejerk response of course, was to regulate the water flowing into the faucet by adjusting the water valve under the sink. Easy to do...no major expense.

"If I lessen the flow of water going up the faucet, the leak just might stop. Right?" I reasoned.

"Eeeehh. Wrong!"( to the sound of the buzzer in "Family Feud.")

To my dismay I found out that even if I completely shut off the water valves, water still continued to come out of the faucet. Major problem!

So now, even the water valves...not only the faucet... were defective and needed to be replaced.

Since this was going to be a major undertaking, I decided I might as well change all the pipes and fittings that were old and rusted.

I have to admit I was excited about doing this project by myself. I just recently had success installing a new handheld bidet in our bathroom so I figured I could do this.

SUNDAY:

The following day,Sunday, I bought a new Danze kitchen sink faucet assembly which had a flexi sprayhose attachment. This, plus the pipe fittings,teflon tape and water valves cost me a little over two thousand bucks.

The first thing I decided to work on was to remove the metal plug that was covering the hole for the sprayhose. This should have been a breeze except that I found out that the screw which kept it in place was so covered with rust I couldn't just unscrew it.

" No problemo! There's always WD 40 to take care of these things," I told myself. So I took my can of this all purpose anti-rust cleaner and generously sprayed the stuff on the screw. After a few seconds I tried turning the lock nut...nada! Zilch! It didn't even turn a wee bit.

This was supposed to be the easy part, and I had already hit a snag. If I couldn't remove this plug I wouldn't even be able to install the sprayhose.That would render the whole project useless, and would mean P 1,894 down the drain.

"There's a solution to every problem!" I psyched myself as I surveyed the situation and thought of another strategy.

After closely studying the metal plug and how it had been put in place I had an "Aha!". I discovered it had been glued to the sink so all I had to do was cut around it and I would be able to pull it out!

Taking my trusty old NT Heavy duty cutter, I slid its blade through the edge of the plug and started cutting through the glue. In just a few minutes the plug came off! I was back on track.

I was pumped up by this minor success so I proceeded with the next major step: removing the old faucet assembly.

This wasn't going to be a pushover. I accepted this fact when I saw how rusted the retainer screws were under the faucet. In vain, I tried to give it the WD 40 treatment but I must have been hoping for a miracle! (I was also beginning to lose faith in the product.)

What complicated the whole thing was that I had to do the work under the sink in a cramped little space. I didn't have much leverage with the wrench or the pliers I was using to turn the rusted lock nut of the retainer screw.

I decided to give it a rest for the meantime and come back to it after siesta. Perhaps I would figure out a solution to rusted screw problem by literally sleeping on it.

After my nap,I told Jaja about the obstacle and she suggested we call in Mang Dolpo, the resident plumber to have a go at it. Grudgingly, I agreed to having the expert brought in.Well after all, he doesn't even charge anything for a job. So...

When Mang Dolpo arrived and we told him what the problem was, he didn't say much. He just got a wrench,asked for a flashlight (which unfortunately we didn't have) and crawled under the sink and tried doing what I had unsuccessfully done earlier.

After some time, Mang Dolpo came out from under the sink and mumbled,"Ang hirap.Kalawang na talaga."Before he left, he suggested that an option would be to just use a steel saw and cut through the whole assembly. I said I'd give it a thought. Jaja gave him some money for his trouble.

I felt vindicated by his failure after all he was supposed to be the expert. I also felt challenged by the whole thing so I resolved to get this done within the week.

MONDAY AND TUESDAY:

During the next two days I went back under the sink and tried everything I could think of to get the lock nut to budge. In desperation I even tried using my power drill on the nut hoping the shock treatment would dislodge enough rust from the screw for me to turn the nut. Still nothing!

I even searched the internet for an answer and would you believe I found one! This guy suggested using an impact screw driver, and if this didn't work use a tool that would cut the rusted nut. Finally, if all else failed he recommended using an acetylene torch!

WEDNESDAY:

The idea I got from the Net about cutting through the nut appealed to me, so this evening I gave it a try. I had a hacksaw with a carbon blade that could cut through metal and used this to do the job.I made some progress but it was tiring.

For one, the hacksaw blade was already dull on some parts. Also, because of my cramped position I had to take frequent breaks from sawing and drink lots of water since it was real hot under the sink. When I finally called it quits and checked my progress I realized I had almost cut through the whole nut. I'd be able to remove it the following day! Although I was tired and aching from all the sawing, I was able to sleep well that evening.

THURSDAY:

This was going to be the day I would make a major breakthrough in my project. After office, I went to Ace hardware in SM Megamallto buy new blades for my hacksaw.Then I headed for home excited about the prospect of finally getting one screw out of the way! That one lousy screw stood in the way of my being able to install a new faucet!

I continued work on the project after dinner. With a new blade on my hacksaw, cutting through the nut was easier. It took only about 5 minutes and I felt the nut drop! I had finally sawn it off!

My victory was short-lived though because when I tried pushing on the faucet assembly to see if it would budge, it didn't move an inch!

Adversity is the mother of creativity, it has been said, but in this case it was more like despair looking for a miracle! Perhaps it was out of frustration that I decided to give Mang Dolpo's suggestion a try.

I positioned my hacksaw on the base of the faucet assembly and started sawing away.

At first, there was some resistance as the blade cut through the rubber mount of the assembly.But as I picked up speed I started to see rust getting on the blade of the saw, then all of a sudden I felt the saw cut through something and the faucet assembly moved! I had done it!

There was another retainer screw on the other side of the faucet base so I sawed it off in no time. I quickly disconnected the brass copper tubings attached to the faucet,then afterwards removed the whole assembly from the sink.

I cleaned the area where the old faucet had been. It had a lot of rust and there were spots where glue had been applied before. When this was done, all I had left to do was put on the new pipe fittings and attach my new Danze Kitchen faucet and that would be the end of the project.

Since all week I had already visualized what I was supposed to do, I managed to connect all the pipes,angle valves and flexi hose tubings quickly. The faucet assembly itself was easy to install. The only thing I wasn't sure of was if I had wrapped the teflon tapes correctly on the threaded pipe fittings. But, I thought that was just a minor inconsequential detail. (Big mistake! I was to find out soon enough.)

Now the moment of truth. I opened the water valves under the faucet and went outside the house to open the main water gate valve.

When I returned to check on my handiwork I got a shock from what I saw.

There was water everywhere! Water was dripping from the joints of the water valve fittings. Water leaked from the flexi hoses connected to the faucet, and there was water coming out of the spray hose even if it hadn't been turned on. But the worst was yet to come.

When I lifted the lever of the faucet to the OPEN position no water came out!

Since it was starting to flood under the sink I placed a small washbasin under it to catch the dripping water. I shut off the angle valves but it only worsened the situation because now, water started spurting from the joints where I had wrapped teflon tape incorrectly.

I tried tightening the joints but that did not stop the leaks,it just lessened the flow of the water leaks. I must have looked like the cartoon character who tries to shut down a leak only to find out two more spring up somewhere.

As I was busy doing this Tasha came up behind me and asked, "Dad, can Vika, Ayana and Alex sleep over tonight?" Since I didn't answer her immediately she repeated her question.

"Tash! Can't you see I'm busy!" I snapped back at her. The deluge I was trying to control was getting on my nerves so her pestering only made me more irritable. Tasha backed off realizing that now was not the time to make a request.

After some time,I realized the futility of my efforts and accepted the fact that I just had to re-install everything again. But, I wasn't going to do it that night because I was wet and I was tired from the ordeal.

My main concern though was the water was continuing to leak at a very fast rate and I had to shut down the water main or else the whole ground floor would be flooded overnight.

I instructed the maids to put bigger basins under the sink and advised them to wash everything that needed washing because we weren't going to have any water until the next morning.

I couldn't sleep that night because I had to keep checking if the basins under the sink were starting to overflow. Fortunately, the leaks had been reduced to just water drips so the basins didn't really fill up as I feared.

I remembered a Russian proverb: "The morning is wiser than the eve." Thus consoled I managed to grab a few zzzs.

FRIDAY;

I decided not to report for work today. Since we were going to need water in the morning I opened the main water valve partially. After breakfast, I instructed Cheche to look for Mang Pablo and tell him to come over.

When he arrived I gave him a quick briefing on what I had done and what had happened. Like before, he didn't say much. He just stared at the maze of leaking pipes as if thinking of what he was going to do,(or perhaps he was chuckling to himself that I had made such a big mess!)

I watched as he started to remedy the whole situation.

He disconnected everything I had done. He tightened some of the pipes I had installed. He wrapped more teflon tape on the threaded parts ( I realized that I had used too little tape.) Then, I noticed that he didn't connect all the flexi hoses after he had re-insralled the angle valves. Rather,he turned on the water main and checked if there were leaks. (So that's what I should have done!)

When he was satisfied that there were no leaks up to that point, only then did he connect the flexi hose and the faucet assembly.

After tightening the last hose, all he had to do now was turn on the valve under the faucet.

I expected water to come out of the faucet this time, but to our surprise, water came out only from the spray hose!

(Oh no! I thought to myself. Had I bought damaged goods?Would I have to go to all the trouble of disconnecting the assembly and returning it to the True Value store at Shangrila Plaza?)

Mang Dolpo must've been puzzled too, so he did what a plumber would do in this situation. He opened up the faucet and studied its mechanism trying to figure out what was going wrong. I observed as he dismantled the faucet and I noticed that the principle of operation was simple enough.

When he couldn't unravel the cause of the malfunction, Mang Dolpo put the faucet back together and told me he had a faucet just like this one which he wanted to try out on our sink. He left to get it and while he was gone I had an idea.

I dismantled the faucet as I had observed him do it. Then I fiddled around with a part called the deflector valve which was supposed to be movable. I tried pushing and pulling it but it was stuck. I gave it one more pull and it came off. That's when I saw the cause of the problem.

Inside the hole where it came from were tiny bits of dust and dirt. I cleaned it up, re-assembled the faucet and waited for Mang Dolpo to come back.

I told him what I had done and suggested we still use the unit I bought. He reconnected the hoses and this time when we turned it on...voila! It was working properly.

Mang Dolpo did the final checks on the water lines and made sure there were no more leaks. I gave him some money for his services and made him take home some pancit for his lunch.

That Friday afternoon, I had a good siesta.