In the span of two weeks my toilet wouldn't stop running and my washing machine flooded the pantry and kitchen.
The former was thankfully an easy fix that consisted of turning the water to the toilet off, opening the lid to the tank and seeing that the flapper wasn't closing all the way thanks to the chain catching. All I had to do was free the chain, turn the water on and watch as it filled up and stayed filled, flush and repeat. Total Savings - at least $80 (which is the cost for a plumber to simply enter your house).
The second happened two days ago, the washing machine flooded the entire kitchen and pantry, where they washing and drying machine are. Thankfully nothing was ruined and I had enough towels to dry everything. After turning the water off and drying, I pulled the washing machine out and felt around the three hoses (two intakes and one drainage) and felt the top of the drainage hose (about 2 feet off the ground and thus away from the flooding), was wet. Went to YouTube and figured out how to take it off. A quick trip to Lowes, $13.72 and a YouTube video later, the new drainage hose was connected. A load of laundry later and it was no longer flooded. Total Savings - at least $150
The internet is your friend, and if you have some common tools (I needed a pair of vise-grips to remove the claps that hold the drainage hose on), you should be able to save some serious $$ on stuff like this. Also, take advantage of your local hardware store, go in there with the broken part and/our description (better yet, pics/videos) of the issue and many of them will be able to help you troubleshoot, get parts and fix the problem at a fraction of the cost.
March 30, 2019 at 09:50PM
