DIY mission goes kaput

humour

These plumbers remind me of doctors. They come with a tool-kit accompanied by a helper, like a doctor with his compounder. “Fix”, both of them do, albeit of different kinds. Nowadays, even a plumber’s fees is no less than a doctor’s. It starts with a couple of hundreds and rises at the multiples of hundred.

Since I figured plumbing is neither medical science nor rocket science, I decided to take the tools into my own hands when my kitchen tap knob got loose. I dismantled it and removed all the visible screws. I did some of the usual manoeuvres randomly. Viola! It worked! I saved at least a couple of hundreds. And the tap worked for another six months. But after that my techniques did not work.

Emboldened by my earlier success, this time around I ventured into replacing the tap. I bought a new tap for much less price than these plumbers charge. Beaming with confidence, I got into action. My children were my biggest supporters. We removed the old tap and could fit the new one in its place. It took us almost an hour to fix the tap to its right position, i.e., its nozzle down. At first, it was leaking at the base, finally we managed to fix it. As no valve was at sight, we could not stop the water supply. My daughter and I were completely drenched by the end of the successful task. Looking at the mess, even my ever nay-saying husband joined us at some stage, but not without murmuring.

Everything was fine until I felt an acute pain in my back, which I thought had something to do with all the bending I had to do while playing a plumber. The next step was attaching an extension pipe. So I bought an extension pipe for Rs 100 and a thread-like thing to wind around the base of the tap. Though I did not know what the thread-like thing was called, I managed to obtain it by painstakingly describing it to the shopkeeper. This time, I added a pair of cutting pliers to my tool kit.

I removed the tap, then attached the extension pipe, and again fit the tap. My cheerleaders were keenly watching the process and giving suggestions in between. However much we tried, we could not stop the water leakage. I tried to remove the extension pipe. It refused to budge, but in the process, I hurt my hands. Even the kids gave a try. So we sent an SOS to the last person we usually approach. My husband came fuming, but even he could not do it. He gently hit the pipes to loosen the ends. A thin jet of water appeared. I then bought the most trusted M-Seal and tried to plug the leakage unsuccessfully.

Now there was no other go than hiring the services of a plumber. The duo did it in a minute. Still the water jet was there. So they concluded there was a crack in the extension pipe.

I retorted, “How can it be. It’s new.”

“Who fixed it?”

I just cannot forget the grin on the face of the plumber when I replied, “It was me”.
“It is damaged because you have tightened it to much,” he said.

So, he himself brought a new extension pipe and fixed the problem. It cost us another couple of hundreds. Finally, it was back to square one.