Most men are expected to fix anything that goes wrong around the house,
including the car.  Do you end up filling this traditional role, or do you
have some other way to handle these "handyman" chores.  Also, what level of
work will you do?  Do you do only screwdriver & hammer types of things, or
do you tackle anything?  

I worked summers with my grandfather as sort of an apprentice handyman and
I fell right into the traditional role.

20 responses total.

As far as the car goes, I can change tires and put in oil and gas.
Beyond that, it goes to a mechanic.  Val can do other things, like
change the oil and check the plugs, but she doesn't have time generally.

As far as around the house, we live in an apartment, but, yes, I usually
do most of the handyman puttering around Val's mother's house.  

My Father role was played by my gradfather.  Gramps was a master carpenter
and at an early age showed me the ins and outs of carpentry.  I love doing
all the remodeling in our house.  I built a 14x20 deck last year and I am now
in the process of remodeling our master bath.  It is just now in the drywall
stage but coming along quite well.  As for cars I can do the normal, oil,
tires, and brake jobs.  When it comes to major stuff like bearings and the
like, I would probably attempt it but I dont have the  room or the tools.

This response has been erased.

Oh God please help me...I am past the drywall stage now and heading full steam
to the plumbing.....Ughhhhhhhhhh

Dan, will I do?  I have done both drywall and plumbing (also electrical etc
etc) extensively and would be glad to discuss with you.  I am not sure the
size of your project, but the plumbing is best done before the drywall, but
what the heck, we can get around that!

This response has been erased.

either way it works!

Yeah i could use some help...be back with details when i have more time

Ok Marc here goes....I do have all the drywall work done wich is ok...All my
orimary plumbing is in place.  I am remodeling an already existing bathroom.
 I guess my problems come in because i have the  drain pipes in one place and
I need to re-route them to where the new ones will be...(for the sink and the
tub...) The sink shoulndt really be a problem..Its the tub..I have never cut
down pipe before and I am not really sure how to begin that..

Dan, First question, do you have a basement with all the drain plumbing
exposed below the floor?  Second question, is your waste plumbing plastic or
black iron?     

It should be a relatively easy job if you have a basement and plastic drain
pipe.  One caution, however, is your vent stack.  I forget the code, but I
think the drains have to be within 8 foot of a vent stack.  Failure to do this
not only violates code, but could cause the drain to completely empty due to
siphoning action.  Be sure to locate where your vent stack is and hopefully
it is relatively close to the new drains. 

The tubs usually have a "ladder" bracing on the floor joists beneath them to
support the extra weight.  They also have a hole cut directly through the
floor about 8" x 12" directly beneath the tub drain.  This allows access to
the drains from below.  They also usually have an access panel in the next
room adjacent to the tub area.  This usually is a sheet of plywood and is
screwed into a 2x4 frame.  (Usually this is in a closet or hidden area.  This
gives access to the supply side plumbing. 

If you have plastic, you can cut the pipe with any saw and then clean it up
and use the pvc glue and put all your parts back together.  The waste lines
have to have a slope and I am not sure what that is, something like 1/8 to
1/4" per foot of run.  Better check that to make sure because it is important.
 
If you have a "between floors" bathroom, the problem suddenly gets real tough.
It means a rip-down of drywall down below.  If you have a crawl space, it gets
nasty, but basically it is the same as a basement, only infinitely more
crowded. If you have black Iron pipe, you may have to rent a pipe cutter. 
Don't even try to hacksaw this stuff, it'll eat hacksaw blades and laugh. 
You could then convert to PVC from the cut on up.

Big items are:
1)  Where is your vent pipe (btw it is not necessarily right below where it
comes out from your roof).  If you put in a new vent thru your roof, be
careful and drop me a note first.
2)  Support the tub and cut the access holes
3)  Lay out a diagram of where all the plumbing is going to go and get the
parts before you start.  
4)  Sink drains have a code for horizontal slope too.  I think it's the same
but best to check.  (Washt. county Supt. of Building inspection)

I assume you are tapping into a vertical waste pipe.  Let me know if it is
a horizontal one.  There are a few different precautions for those.

Hope it helps.

Ok first: I live in a mobile home.  I have plastic pipes.  My vent pipe is
accesbile.  I enclosed it already in the wall nest to where the tub is going.
 The vent pip[e was alreadyu existing as well as the area wherre the drain
pipe connects to the vent.  I still have pipe from the last tub in place right
to where the tub drain was.  Unfortunately the drain in the new tub is going
to be in a different place.  The old tub was like a garden tub with the drain
along the side of the tub.  The new tub has the standard drain at the one end
of the tub.  So really all I need to do isrun the plastic pipe from from the
vent to the tub drain.  I think the hard part might come in when I will have
to cut another hole in the floor to allow for the drain catch.  I am sorry
if I wasnt specific before.  I just dont know how to cut the pipe and to form
new pipe.

Dan, I can't really visualize the layout, but be sure to cap the old drain
so you don't get fumes.  Best would be to cut off this pipe completely and
re-route it to the new drain.  From what I think your layout is, it will be
approx 2-1/2 to 3 feet from the old drain to the new one.  

If you do cut the pipe off, leave enough so you can glue on a new flange or
coupling.

Again, good luck.

Thanks Marc...I'll be sure to let ya know how it turns out.

Boy, did I do a stupid thing.  I bought a new battery for my lawn tractor and
installed it.  Afterwords, the starter would spin, but the tractor would not
start.  The teeth on the pinion gear would not engage the flywheel.   I took
the upper engine covers all off, to get at the starter.  I could see it
spinning, but not thrusting the pinion into the flywheeel.  I was getting
ready to take the flywheel off, so I could remove the starter, and something
made me check the two batteries.

The new battery (Sears DieHard Gold) has polarity which is reversed in
comparison to the original battery on the Simplicity tractor.  The battery
can only go in one way, so, I did not put the battery in backwards.

The battery cables would not reach across the battery to connect the DieHard
terminals, so I got new cables and everything is now ok.  Other than the fact
that I took half of the tractor apart and then had to put it back together
again.  

I never was suspicious that my starter was running backwards.  When it runs
backwards, the pinion thrust mechanism does not work.  

All's well that ends well.

(Backwards polarity was my first guess :) )

Doesn't it always work that way....Well speaking of fixing things..My wife
got a brake job on her car for Mother's Day...She got to work on Saturday just
terrified...Her brakes had gone out on her...Luckily she thought quick enough
to down shift and get the car slowed down....The thing that sucks is that
there was no early warning...It looked like the wear down tab had broken
off...unless she didnt tell about that getting bad before it broke off...Oh
well

There is nothing about sudden failure of the type you describe above that your
wear tabs could have told you, bubu. A sudden loss of stopping power or "no
pedal" almost always involves a loss of hydraulic pressure due to either
a) a blown line or hose, b) a leaking slave cylinder or caliper, c) fluid
bypassing a diaphragm in the master cylinder. <otter refuses to get into power
boosters here>
My point being that a functioning wear tab would probably not have helped.
Glad she's OK!!

Thanks..but all the above mentioned seemed to be in working condition...The
pads themselves were almost non-existant..

Weird. Probably heavy glazing, then, but it is unusual for it to get *that*
bad.

Well everything is working great now...still curous what the problem could
have been..

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