Replacing Broken Water Valves
This all began when we noticed that one of our valves under the bathroom sink was leaking.
Leaking Bathroom Valve
In addition to the leaking bathroom valve, the ones in the laundry room were really old and one had a handle.
Broken Laundry Valve
Note:
Our house has copper for plumbing so I was able to reuse the existing compression fitting and nut from the old valves. I’ll include some links at the end for water line valve installation on different materials.
First thing is to turn off the water to the house. The water shut off valve for our house is in the sidewalk in front of the house. Use a wrench to turn the valve.
Turning Off Water
Drain the water from the lines by opening up a faucet until only a slight trickle comes out. Draining the lines usually takes between 5 to 10 minutes.
No matter how much you let the water drain there will always be some coming out of the pipes when you start removing the valves. Make sure you put some towels in the area to catch any water that might leak out.
Preparing Work Area
You’ll notice in the picture below that the hose is permanently attached to the water shut off valve for the bathroom faucet. Because of this I had to replace the water shut off valve and the hose going from the valve to the faucet.
Removing Sink Connection
One of the laundry room water shut off valves was really stuck, but a couple shots of WD40 and about 5 minutes later it came off with no problem.
Oiling Stubborn Valve
When removing the valve, use the biggest wrenches / pliers possible that still allow for full range of motion in the work space. As you can see below they don’t have to be pretty.
I love the 12 inch crescent wrench I have, similar to this Crescent 12-Inch Adjustable Wrench
Old Bathroom Valve Removal
I left the nut and brass compression ring, also referred to as a ferrule, on the copper pipe. The idea behind this is to reuse the old nut and compression ring on a new valve.
Bathroom Valve Removed
Compression Ring
There are different threads available for the replacement valve. The best thing is to remove the old valve, take it to the local hardware store and match up the threads. My water valves have coarse threading.
Coarse Thread
Just a side note. My replacement laundry room water valves cost about 50% more than the bathroom ones.
Replacement Laundry Valve
Replacement Bathroom Valve
Wrap some Teflon tape around the threads of the new water valve.
- Just pretend you are tightening the nut back on to the threads. That is the direction to wrap the tape. If wrapped in the other direction it will loosen and start to come off.
- On most of the replacement water valves I wrapped the threads 3 times around. If there is a golden rule of how many times to wrap the threads with Teflon I don’t know it. Sorry
Wrapping Teflon Tape
Hand tighten the nut on the replacement water valve then finish tightening with a wrench.
Installing New Valve
Water Smart Landscape Conversion Started
We decided to convert our grass filled front yard to xeriscape. The great thing about doing this is if you live in Las Vegas call the Southern Nevada Water Authority before starting the conversion you will potentially get up to $1.50 sq/ft back. If you do this it is important to have them come out first before ripping out turf.
There is one thing I know about something as labor intensive as landscaping, that in order to get it done in a timely fashion we are going to have to pay to have someone do at least part of the project. To save some money we’ll do most of the demolition work ourselves.
The Plan
After sketching out the dimensions of the front yard, we came up with an overall plan for the front yard. We can’t afford to do everything we want all at once so we’re going to break it up into 3 stages. Here are some of the things we would like to incorporate into the new front yard.
- 2 different sizes and types of rock
- Additional parking
- A small wall in front to keep debris and the random dog out of the yard
- Minimal plant maintenance
Stage 1 – Remove all the existing decorative walls, the planter box attached to the front of the house, sandstone gravel and turf. Once that’s finished we’ll work with a landscaper to put in the new gravel and irrigation in.
Stage 2 – Figure out a paver solution for the additional parking section. I want to use pavers so water can go into the ground and not the street.
Stage 3 – Put in the stacked stone wall in front of the house.
Original Front Yard
Fixing Loose Bathroom Holders
Time was a little short this weekend for anything but a quick fix. All of the bathroom holders, towel and toilet paper holder, in the master bathroom were so loose they would spin. The hand towel holder next to my sink came off.
Spinning Towel Holder
To start with the holder had to come off the wall. There is usually a screw at the bottom of the holder that secures the unit to the wall. An eyeglasses screwdriver worked great.
Removal Screw
Once the towel holder was removed, examining the mounting bracket revealed that a drywall screw was used.
Mounting Bracket
The bracket was fixed to the wall using a drywall anchor.
Wall Anchor
I replaced the screw from a drywall screw to a regular wood screw of the same length. The surface area where the drywall screw met the bracket was considerably smaller than the replacement wood screw.
New Wood Screw
The wood screw bit into the plastic wall anchor better than the drywall screw. The added surface area contact of the wood screw held the mounting bracket much better.
Finishing the re-installation was a matter of putting the holder back onto the mounting bracket and tightening the securing screw on the bottom of the holder.
Hacking a Medicine Cabinet – Painting the MC
I went through a couple of trial and error session with painting up the metal portion of the cabinet. Your Grandpa’s method is still the best. Prime first then paint. Learn from my time consuming mistake of trying to spray the semi-gloss white enamel without priming. I ended up using some Krylon primer on the carcass. That was of course after sanding down some of the sections that bubbled up for some reason.
Metal Painted Semi-Gloss White
Painting Cabinets
This is part of the cheap bathroom redo that we are doing to the downstairs bathroom.
First thing we did was remove the drawers and doors from the cabinet carcass.
Drawers Are Removed For Preparation
As you can see, the drawers were unfinished inside with contact paper liners.
Drawers With Unfinished Insides
After everything was disassembled, including taking the faces off the drawers, the surfaces were ruffed up with 180 grit sandpaper. This is so the paint has something to adhere to.
Step 1 – Sanding the Surfaces
Truthfully, I tried to paint a piece of the cabinet without priming it first, and it took three coats of paint. What I found works best is to prime as many of the surfaces with a spray can of primer. This was exponentially faster than priming with a brush and roller. Of course this wasn’t possible on the cabinet carcass.
Step 2 – Priming the Surfaces
Next was to paint the surfaces with brush and roller. I used a 1 inch brush to get into the detailed areas first then used a small smooth foam roller to cover the flat areas. Using the roller last removed any brush strokes on the flat areas put there by the brush.
Step 3 – Painting the Surfaces and Letting Dry
For the drawers, in addition to painting the facing I primed and sprayed the rest of the drawer with an enamel semi-gloss white paint. The unfinished wood was too unsightly.
Finished Drawers
Once everything dried for 24 hours it was reinstalled.
Everything Reinstalled and Finished
Note: To create a clean edge between the newly painted cabinets and the wall, use caulk to create the new transition.