The leak remained active for days. Every time I went down to
my man-basement, I could hear the steady drip. Drip. Drip. I possessed the metal
to repair the pipe, but I did not own the mettle. Drip. Drip. Drip. On Monday,
I was sitting on the couch researching plumbers on Home Advisor, when the
overpowering urge to not suck at being a man my whole life became present in
me. The worst thing that could possibly happen while repairing pipework is
that, well, I could confuse a pipe for a copper gas-line and we would all
explode. That is a very real thought process I examined before I turned off the
water to the house.
 |
| Broken |
 |
| Fixed |
I decided that there
shouldn’t be any gas lines behind the bathtub, and I proceeded to crawl into
the empty space that cabinet drawers normally occupy. I secured the
close-quarters pipe-cutter I bought from Menard’s three days previous and began
to turn. From above, I could hear the drip below. Drip. Drip. Drip. I turned,
tightened, and turned until a gush of warm blood gloved my hand and I shrieked
in terror. I adjusted my flashlight and realized that the blood was actually
water seeping through the cut I had created in the copper pipe. I was only
slightly concerned that water still flowed even though I had turned off the
main knob in the basement, but the pressure slowly subsided and all was quiet
except for the drip. Drip. Drip. Even the drip slowed and faded. Drip.
The lower half of the copper pipe naturally fell away a
couple inches as I had made room for that a few feet below, and I was left with
a pipe screwed to a connector that I needed to unscrew and rethread, which I
did using some pipe-goo-stuff. I then connected the two ends of the copper tube
using a coupler that I had also purchased from Menard’s and I prayed.
I went back to the basement and turned on the main water
supply and I waited for the noise of a dam bursting. But nothing came. Silence.
I waited. Silence. I went back upstairs to see my work, and I could see that
there was no water leaking from anywhere. I turned the water on and off several
times on the faucet, and everything held.
All it took was a little self-motivating and about $20 more to
finish this first vital step. I officially did something worth a shit, and I
felt really good about it. I want to do more stuff, so I need some more stuff
to break. I’m positive it will all happen in good time. I do want to re-pipe the
whole house with Pex which looks pretty easy, and I have a neighbor willing to
help with it all. That may be the next big thing. We shall see.
This is all for this post, I just felt like writing. Time to
get back out into the sun!
