More Adventures in Plumbing

The week before last I was in St Louis for my college roommate's wedding, and after the wedding I was staying at my grandfather's house. He's been in a nursing home for almost a year now, so I was there by myself.

Sunday morning that terrible cold was at its worst and I got up earlyish (since I couldn't breathe well enough to actually sleep) looking forward to a very long, hot shower. So I get undressed, and pull the knob to turn the water on, when the ENTIRE fixture comes off in my hand, and water is jetting across the entire bathtub.

I'm grabbing my phone and wrapping a towel around myself (I have no idea why exactly, it's not like there was anybody there) and calling my dad as I run to the basement.

Dad: Hello
Me: Dad! QUICK! Where's the water shut off for Grandpa's house???? (I can hear the water gushing from the basement.)
Dad: Try the front corner on the [neighbor's] side.

Here's were I have to give my dad A LOT of credit. He gave me an answer quickly without asking what the hell was going on (he waited until I got the water shut off to ask that haha). And he was right about where the valve was (which is impressive for a house he's never actually lived in), and I managed to get the water shut off before there was any flooding. Anyways, so then I shut off the water valves just to the bathroom in question, and then reopen the house line. I go back upstairs to look at the broken bathtub fixture to see if I have any idea what failed and if it's something I can fix. I'm sitting on the edge of the tub (still in a towel), talking to my dad and looking at the pipe coming out of the wall and the shower knob (now on the counter).

Dad: Try taking the faceplate off the wall to see if you can spot the problem.
Me: Um, Dad? Can I put some clothes on and call you back in a couple minutes?
Dad: Oh, um, ok. (Listen to that awkwardness! Isn't it great??)

So I get dressed, find a screwdriver and take apart pretty much everything I can see to take apart, and call Dad back. I tell him the faceplate is caulked onto the wall, and we agree that removing it is unlikely to reveal anything helpful. He suggested emailing him pictures, which I did. I had both my big-girl camera and my point-and-shoot in StL, but of course I only had the transfer cable for the big-girl camera, so they were very nice photos of the shower fixture. And to make this more fun, emailing pictures meant dragging my sick self to the nearest cafe to get WiFi.














Unfortunately, after sitting in (what seemed like) a very loud cafe looking over these pictures with Dad on the phone, going back to the house and further disassembling the plastic knob, I now know how the faucet works - how it lets water come out and how it changes the ratio of the hot/cold water to change the temperature, but I had no idea what was actually broken.

Plumbing fail.