Our Drippy Shower Drama

When we moved to our new place, there was only one thing that was really bugging me enough that I felt we had to make a move to fix it asap.  Our leaking showerhead in the master bathroom.

Our shower was dripping at a rate of about a drip per second & it was sooo stinkin’ loud when we were trying to sleep in the same room.  Not to mention all of the water that was being wasted & the fact that I had to clean the shower practically every other day so that we wouldn’t get any mold.  I just couldn’t understand why no one would have fixed it before we came.  The previous tenants weren’t drove nuts by it?!

I thought it would be an easy fix.  When your faucets or showerhead is dripping, it’s usually a problem with the shut off valve (not the faucet).  I found a pretty good video of the process here.  We had a single Delta shower shut off that looked like this:

First thing first, I had to find the water shut off valve in our new place.  I found what I thought was the valve in the laundry room next to our water heater.  But, I couldn’t get the thing to move.  I tried & tried, but that thing was stuck.  It made me think that maybe that wasn’t it, and that I needed to look elsewhere.  So after searching high & low & coming up empty, I consulted the Google.

The Google told me that lots of condo just have one main water shut off valve.  Commence panic.  I was like, crap that means I might have to get someone else to do this!  This stinks!  But, I went ahead & contacted the HOA, explaining the situation & asking where the shut off valve was if I had access to it or what the process was to get it shut off for a period of time.

In response, the HOA sent someone out here to show my husband the valve while he was home on vacation the other week.  And… it was where I had originally thought it was.  Except he couldn’t get it to move either.  Apparently some other people have had this same problem & forced the valve & ended up breaking it, resulting in a major water disaster.  So I sure am glad that I didn’t try to force it any more than I did!

The HOA guy made an appointment to come back later in the week to replace the valve.  That did require him letting the whole building know that he was going to shut off the water to the whole place.  Hubby was still on vacation when he came, so that worked out well.  And now we can shut our water on & off easily!  I was so excited, thinking that I was now going to be able to fix the leak.

When I got home, I got started!  So first think I needed to do after shutting off the water was take the shower valve apart.  I got out my trusty set of allen wrenches & got to it.  Only that little screw would not budge.  I put all my muscle in it for at least a half hour, then told B that I needed to go to Home Depot for some lube to get the thing to move.  After applying some spay lube to the valve & letting it sit for an hour, I tried again.  Then I had B try.  No luck, the thing would not move.

By this time I was starting to feel frustrated for sure.  It felt like I was getting stopped at every single step of the way.  I had finally hit my last straw when I realized in order to do this thing I was going to have to drill it out & replace the whole thing.  So I decided heck with it, I’m calling the landloard to fix this.  That’s one of the benefits of renting right?  Getting stuff fixed for you.  I figured I had put in a good faith effort & it was now time to call in the professionals before I went ahead with ruining some of their fixtures.  Maybe they had some other trick I didn’t know about to get the thing off.

Finally, I was able to make an appointment for them to send someone out here.  The plumber guy came, couldn’t get it off either, and drilled it out, just as I thought.  Then he had to leave to go find a new fixture to put in… and was gone for 2.5 hours.  (Whaaa?)  So there I sat with no water, my shower all busted apart, waiting for this guy.  Just when I was starting to get really mad (& craving some hot chocolate that I couldn’t have since I didn’t have water) he showed up.  I guess he had to drive many towns over to find the part he needed to replace.  Mmm-hum.  Whatever, just get the job done.

10 minutes later it was fixed!  He cleaned everything up & we tested it.  And it worked!  And didn’t drip!  Oh my gosh do you know how exciting that is!?  I keep forgetting that it’s fixed & feeling dread when I realize I have to go in there, but then remembering that it’s fixed & it’ll be silent when I walk into our bedroom!  Woooooo hooooo!  You have no idea how exciting that is unless you’ve lived with a constant drip in your sleep for over a month.

Lesson I learned?  Sarah you’re a renter!  If you’re encountering obstacles every step of a house project, it’s okay to go ahead & call in the pros.  Let them deal with it & save yourself the stress!