Spent 6 hours trying to fix a $10 leak in my kitchen sink

I noticed water pooling under my sink last Tuesday and figured it would be a quick fix. Turns out the PVC pipe joint was just loose, but I spent 6 hours taking it apart and putting it back together because I kept overtightening it. A plumber friend finally told me to just hand tighten it and use a little plumber's tape. All that time wasted for something I could have done in 10 minutes. Has anyone else spent way too long on a simple fix that cost almost nothing to solve?

3 comments

3 Comments

viola_lopez301mo ago

Did you at least save the old piece of tape you took off? Because that's the only thing that would make me feel better about wasting 6 hours. I've done the exact same thing though, overtightening plastic fittings until they crack. It's like my hands don't know their own strength. The worst part is knowing you could have called a buddy and been done in 15 minutes but your pride wouldn't let you. How many trips to the hardware store did that 6 hours cost you?

john_fisher1mo ago

Lmao did you try using Teflon tape instead of trying to get it perfect with the dope? That switch saved me from cracking fittings and cut my time in half.

lily_torres311mo ago

Oh man, that hits home hard. I think it's such a classic example of how we convince ourselves that doing it ourselves is faster until we're three hours in and wishing we'd just paid someone. It's like that thing where you try to fold a fitted sheet perfectly for 20 minutes when you could have just balled it up and moved on with your day. Or when you spend an hour searching for a missing sock instead of just grabbing a new pair from the drawer. We get so locked into this idea that we have to finish what we started perfectly that we forget the whole point was to get it done. I've definitely lost count of hardware store trips on projects like that.