Those of you who did have a Dad, Grandad, Step Dad etc. who DID fix things, you would take the faucet apart, figure out how it works and do what you had to do in order to make the faucet work properly.
If you fall into the first category, I'm not trying to degrade you and make you feel like less of a man. Not being sexist, the man typically gets the "fix it" tasks. Or the more manly man of the two if that is your situation. If you're using a butter knife as a screw driver to assemble your shitty Ikea "furniture" I will applaud you. You are taking the task into your own hands and doing the job the best you know how. Conversely, I will chide you for not having taken advantage of your "smart" phone to look up the task on YouTube. Or, perhaps, order up an old shop class textbook from Amazon. The demise of shop class in schools has put a massive surplus of those old textbooks on the market. There is no excuse for you to NOT have one of those books. Read it. You will become more independent. Even if you have no desire to build things or repair things, reading old books will, at least, give you some idea of what you're dealing with. An informed person cannot be taken advantage of.
My bathtub's faucet started dripping again. I have "hard" water in my home and the plumbing is subject to the effects of mineral deposits and scale. About nine years ago the bathtub's faucet started dripping and I had to address it. Being outside the "normal" business hours, something I deal with as a night shifter, I had to do with what was available. That's my super power. I make things happen with few resources.
I grew up in a rather frugal house. When a faucet started to drip my Dad would fix it. He would take the faucet apart, inspect it and repair it if he could. If seals and springs need replacement he would take me in tow and head off to the hardware store. He would take the old parts along so he could compare them to the variety of replacements, purchase what he needed and then we would return home. The new parts were installed, the faucet didn't drip, Mom was happy and then he would give the old parts to me. Maybe I was different, maybe not. I found those old valves, seals and springs to be more fascinating than the toys I had. I would assume my parents knew that I was interested in those things. Otherwise they would have just thrown those old parts into the bin.
So nine years ago I took that bathtub faucet apart and inspected the parts. Mineral scale had built up on the seals and the bore they resided in. The scale prevented the seals from seating, completely, against the valves. I scraped the scale off of each part, used pliers to stretch the springs a bit, resurfaced the face of the valves and put it all back together. That repair lasted nine years. Then the faucet started dripping again.
I expected to go through the same process of disassembly, cleaning and reassembly but it wasn't to be. The cup seals had wear in them that was beyond repairing. Home Despot was still open so I figured I would go out and get a seal kit, install it and be done for another decade. Nope.
Home Despot had a valve and seal kit from some shit-hole Chinese manufacturer for $10, but they had only one in stock. The sealing face of the valve was plastic. Not the brass of the original part. $10 for injection molded nylon, two o-rings, a spring and cup seal. That's a ridiculous price. Oh, but wait, the genuine Delta valves are plentiful. $10 each, but no cup seals or springs. The only cup seals and springs available were in a "Pro Pack" of 50 for $10. I was pissed off.
You can bet there was some suit, who had no idea that Phillips head screw drivers came in different sizes, who meticulously planned the exact situation I was in. When my Dad and I went to the hardware store a kit of valve, seal and spring could be had. Dad didn't have to purchase a 50 pack of seals and springs because the valves did not include those parts. If you're one of those suits, go fuck yourself. You're the kind of douche who buys a diesel pickup because you don't know any better. I see that and will rake you over the coals as revenge. You twats couldn't change a tire without calling for help. Enjoy your extra long wait and extra billable time as your family waits to get "up north" for your vacation. If you could get out of the mindset of blue collar tradesmen being "below" you, you might just get better service. Your "nose in the clouds" attitude is what your level of service is based off. Us "lower" people know you couldn't fix your way out of a wet paper bag. Maybe you should have taken a shop class instead of calculus I. Shop class would have been a better choice.
It is plain to see that the suits know most people, younger generations in particular, haven't had the benefit of shop classes. [sarcasm] "Who would want a shop class? Nobody would want to have such a lowly blue collar job. They can just call a plumber to fix that leaky faucet. [/sarcasm] Yeah, sure. With their nearly maxed out credit cards on top of their crippling student loan debt. Those young folk couldn't take a shop class because shop class didn't exist. They're at the mercy of those who DID have shop class and bothered to learn, on their own in many instances, how to work in the skilled trades. I find that shameful. One of my nephews was told by the local "quick lube" place that his car needed an air filter. He doesn't even know how to change an air filter! The shop classes were gone when he was in school. The suits know of my nephew and others like him. They're taking advantage of it.
Through my YouTube videos (amongst other YouTubers) I am doing my best to wrest control away from the corporate bean counters and put it back into the everyman's hands. Did your tire go flat? YouTube that shit and do it yourself! Plugging a tire is not rocket science. Do NOT let the fear of the unknown stop you. The information is out there. You just need to search for it.
"Throw off those chains of reason and your prison disappears" - Neil Peart, Rush, Hemispheres, Cygnus X-1, Book II.
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