A viewer in Edmonton sent us some pretty nasty photos of mould under her sink. Two plumbers told her that the moisture was not coming from the plumbing.I saw two things on her photos. First, mould was building up around the cold water pipe, meaning that there was humidity under the sink that...
When you replace a dripping faucet and the newly installed one still drips, the cause is usually a piece of something that got into the pipe during the installation. You need to flush out the pipe.Turn off the water and remove the valve stem that is leaking. Take a bucket and hold it upside d...
Chris in Mississauga wants to put a pedestal sink on an outside wall but is worried about the pipes freezing.You are right to worry, Chris. When we put sinks on the outside walls, we need to run the plumbing pipes on the warm side of all that insulation, which means inside the sink cabinet. A p...
Terry from Winnipeg, Manitoba has a bad smell coming out of his sink garbage disposal unit that he can't get rid of.Don't try to kill the smell with bleach. That will kill the smell, but it will also kill your graburator because the bleach will eat at any rubber or fiber washers. Look for an ...
I have asked the plumber responsible for the work done whether it is normal for the laundry tub (now requires an electronic pump to drain) has water backing into it when it is rested. Approximately two inches fills the tub even after it is totally drained. Knowing very little about this stuff I h...
Brian in Calgary just can't get the handles off of his faucets in the shower. He has tried to pull them off until his hands are raw. When he tried to pry them, he discovered that the plumbing in the wall is not stable and the pipes move forward. He tried WD-40 and CLR to get the handles to...
When you drop a sharp object on porcelain finished sinks or appliances, often a chip of the porcelain will pop off. This can be patched with porcelain touch-up kits. But in the bottom of a sink the porecelain seems to pop off without dropping anything, and the patch never seems to last.That ...
DUST PROTECTION - TEMPORARY DOOR OR ARCH CLOSURE
Often when we are working on home improvements, we need temporary fixes. One that many of us use is that plastic shrinkable window cover for stopping winter drafts.
One plastic covering that is less well known is a construction doorway. Th...
Putting a sink in an island in the middle of the kitchen presents some plumbing challenges. Generally the venting for a sink goes upward in the wall while the drain water flows downward towards the floor – but in an island, going up is not an option.
To have a large sink that drains properly y...
David writes that he recently installed a double sink but it gurgles and backs up. It is 10 feet away from the plumbing stack and goes through a garbarator. What did he do wrong?
When you attach a large double sink on a long horizontal run, the drain pipe will tend to fill up with water ...
