I Used a Tampon

Cari comes up with different solutions to problems that I encounter.  Different from the solutions that I would have thought of for sure, and that's how I ended up using a Tampon.

It all started with a leaky valve behind the washing machine.  Initially, I thought the leak was coming from the hose, so I replaced the washer inside the connection.  After the quick fix, the water continued to drip and I tracked it down to the top part of the valve.  Surgery would be required for this job.

I had to replace the entire valve and I wasn't too excited because I knew that this house had been plumbed with horrible polybutylene.  I ran over to Lowe's to get some supplies before attempting the repair.  An employee over at Lowe's saw me shopping for parts in their polybutylene section and he came over to make sure I was getting what I needed.  While helping me, he acted out a suicide by sword, telling me that's what he would do if his house had this crap pipe throughout.  After gathering the parts, I left the employee laying there with a self inflicted sword wound to the chest.

Back at home, I turned off the water at the meter and cut (another) hole in the drywall.  Using my garden pruners, I snapped the gray pipe.  Water started shooting out of the split pipe, soaking the insides of the wall.   The first thing that came to mind was to stick my thumb over the opening and stop the leak.  This tied up one of my hands, while the other was trying to unscrew the old valve.

Here's an image for you to think about.  I was still dressed from church, crouched and squeezed into the corner behind the washing machine.  A small hole in the drywall exposed a gray pipe.  I had wet drywall dust on my arms and pants.  My left thumb was on top of the pipe to stop the water flow while my right hand was struggling with a rusty valve.

I started crying for Cari.  She came to my rescue and tossed me a few towels.  Then she suggested plugging the pipe with a ball of play doh.  That may have solved the water from coming out of the pipe for a while, but it would be a whole new repair job to get the blue blob out of that pipe.  At this point you may be asking yourself why water was coming out of the pipe if I shut it off at the meter. That's exactly what I was wondering as I sat with my thumb holding back a column of water.  It would turn out later, that I hadn't turned the valve at the meter far enough.

After getting rejected on the play doh idea, Cari came back into the closet and handed me a Tampon.  I took her up on the offer and started jamming that thing into the pipe.  I knew that little string would come in handy later on in this project.

The next hour was a nightmare.  I put the new parts in place, pulled out my tampon, and shoved the parts together with water spraying out in all directions.  My movements were quick and the water stopped flowing. It was down to a fast drip.  Unacceptable.  The fix required a few more trips out to the meter turning the valve ALL the way off and back on for testing.  The new parts would be installed three separate times as I tried to get them to stop leaking.

I was not in a good mood at the end of this.  The hole in the dry wall was expanded twice during the surgery and there is no intention to repair it anytime soon.  Fixing that hole is low priority right now.  Just like the hole that still exists in the laundry room ceiling.

Lessons learned:
1. check to be sure the water is fully off when doing plumbing repairs
2. garden pruners make great pipe cutters
3. Keep a box of tampons in the tool box.