At some point in your quest to be a super plumber you’ll be faced with having to shut-off the main water supply to your home. Back east here in N.Y.C most of the water services enter the front facing potion of the building down in a basement. The exception might be a corner lot in which case it may enter through the side and sometimes it’s located in a pit along with the cleanout access for the main sewer. Regardless of where your water service is located, follow these simple steps to make sure all goes smoothly.
How to Remove a Large Diameter Piece of Pipe
I generally carry nipple extractors in the following sizes: 3/8″, 1/2″, 3/4″ and 1″ diameters. Any size past that I’ll use my mini hack saw or even a fine (32 teeth per inch) hacksaw blade to make a couple of cuts, knock out a small piece of pipe and then remove the broken piece. The trick is not to cut into the fitting, which takes a little practice. Check out the video!
Hacksaw – Bobs Recommended Tools
Another highly recommended tool company is Lenox. They make a wide variety of cutting tools as well as the blades to go with them. From sawzall blades to hacksaw blades to hole saws, hacksaws, mini hacksaws etc; I don’t get paid to to recommend Lenox, I use their products because they work! It’s that simple.
Tubing Cutters – Bobs Recommended Tools
What can I say, another winner from Ridgid. Their tubing cutters are the best in the industry bare none. Now you may not want to invest in one at the moment but when you’re ready, there’s no other choice!
I still hear dripping – the toilet is still leaking!
That running toilet is driving you crazy! You can’t stand the noise, you can’t stand the high water bill and your wife has finally threatened to call in a plumber. OUCH!
That could be expensive!
You’re feeling rather confident so you take a trip to your local home center and pick up a brand new refill valve, flapper and tank handle.
You’re going to fix that stupid toilet once and for all and there’s no way you’re going to call a plumber to do it.
Hopefully, you’ve been watching some of my videos, and dive right in to replace all of the faulty parts and everything goes smoothly with no problems.
You flush it a few times to test it out, it fills up perfectly, it stops, job well done!
Your wife is so proud of you, you’re feeling like super plumber so you grab a beer and turn on the big screen TV to watch the game. Well, about 10 minutes later, your wife calls out “Honey, I still hear water running!”
So you go back to check it out, everything looks good, you flush it a few more times, it fills up, and it stops. She must be hearing things! Minutes later you hear this faint trickling going on in the bathroom so you run back go through the motions again and cannot see any problem.
Trickle, trickle, trickle, drip, drip, and drip. WHAT IS GOING ON?!
Well, if you’ve been checking out my videos, you already know what’s going on, but if you happened to miss this one, I suggest you check out “Why is my toilet still leaking.”
It’s a simple fix and one that most homeowners overlook. If you still have questions after checking it out, you can always reach me at info@bobsplumbingvideos.com.
Happy Plumbing!