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Or if you live in a private house you call on your conscience to get off its butt and do something.
I took a shower the other night. Usually I take baths. At any rate once my shower was done the shower head wouldn't stop dripping. Okay, do I need to call a plumber? Uh, I don't know... I never tried to fix a faucet that didn't have old fashioned washers or o-rings... I look on line. My shower uses cartridges, I see. I can figure out which cartridge without tearing everything apart. So far so good. I watch a video that shows how to replace my cartridge. Looks a little tricky, but do-able. Then just to be on the safe side I watch a video that shows what can go wrong replacing my cartridge. Especially if the last guy who replaced the cartridge cut corners. It's scary. I don't want to have to replace the whole valve inside the wall. Okay, do I need to call a plumber?
After most of a day fretting about it, I get brave and go to the hardware store. I buy the cartridge I need and some extra things to do the job thoroughly and things in case something minor goes wrong. It's late when I get back, too dark to feel comfortable working. So I wait till today, hoping the job will not be a disaster. I follow the directions, get to the point when things can really go wrong... But everything comes apart fine. The person who installed the last cartridge did it correctly. Relief! I do the whole job faster than the guys on the video. Of course, I'm not trying to show someone else what I'm doing. I carefully turn the water back on, and... it works fine. I can go forth knowing I can deal with any leaking faucet in either bathroom. And I saved a lot by not having a plumber come in for ten minutes work! (It could have been hours if the guy who installed the previous cartridge had done a make-do job!)
I took a shower the other night. Usually I take baths. At any rate once my shower was done the shower head wouldn't stop dripping. Okay, do I need to call a plumber? Uh, I don't know... I never tried to fix a faucet that didn't have old fashioned washers or o-rings... I look on line. My shower uses cartridges, I see. I can figure out which cartridge without tearing everything apart. So far so good. I watch a video that shows how to replace my cartridge. Looks a little tricky, but do-able. Then just to be on the safe side I watch a video that shows what can go wrong replacing my cartridge. Especially if the last guy who replaced the cartridge cut corners. It's scary. I don't want to have to replace the whole valve inside the wall. Okay, do I need to call a plumber?
After most of a day fretting about it, I get brave and go to the hardware store. I buy the cartridge I need and some extra things to do the job thoroughly and things in case something minor goes wrong. It's late when I get back, too dark to feel comfortable working. So I wait till today, hoping the job will not be a disaster. I follow the directions, get to the point when things can really go wrong... But everything comes apart fine. The person who installed the last cartridge did it correctly. Relief! I do the whole job faster than the guys on the video. Of course, I'm not trying to show someone else what I'm doing. I carefully turn the water back on, and... it works fine. I can go forth knowing I can deal with any leaking faucet in either bathroom. And I saved a lot by not having a plumber come in for ten minutes work! (It could have been hours if the guy who installed the previous cartridge had done a make-do job!)