One of the undeniable truths about Memorial Day weekend, is that while time definitely needs to be made to reflect on sacrifices made in the name of freedom, and in particular to personally honor the fallen whom we know, it is still a three day weekend. And as such, when living in a 45-year-old home that has suffered under some indifferent upkeep, that means there’s no way I’m getting through three days off without accomplishing some kind of project. Last weekend it was to attempt a bit of minor home plumbing.
You see, the upstairs bath had a leak. We knew there was a leak because the ceiling tile directly under said bath was acquiring a pronounced water spot. I’d removed the tile and previously had a look, gone “Yup, it’s slowly leaking somewhere” and put the tile back. The leak only happened when someone took a shower, and since the upstairs bath is exclusively used by the boys for bathing, there’s still mostly baths going on. However, seeing as Monday afternoon found me at home with just a recuperating Adventure Girl for company (the rest of the clan having trekked south to Tacoma By The River Sioux City for time with MLGB’s family) I figured that a minor plumbing job would be just the thing to demonstrate that I had productively made use of my afternoon, and not merely sat on the couch drinking beer and binge-watching Netflix with Adventure Girl.
And thus, I present the following tutorial
How To Fix A Leaking Overflow Drain in 29 Easy Steps
- Remove ceiling tile below tub to see up into the pipes.
- Run upstairs and turn the water on.
- Run downstairs and note that the tub isn’t leaking.
- Run back upstairs and switch the water to the shower.
- Run back downstairs and watch water start exiting a path around the overflow drain gasket at a fairly alarming rate.
- Run back upstairs and turn off the water.
- Go to garage and get a flat-head screwdriver to remove the overflow drain.
- Remove overflow drain. Gross! I’m pretty sure this gasket hasn’t been changed since the Nixon administration!
- “Hey Adventure Girl, I’m running to the hardware store, be back in a few!”
- The first hardware store doesn’t have any overflow drain gaskets in stock. Go to Lowe’s (which had a really classy gesture of blocking off one of their parking spots as a Memorial Day remembrance).
- Lowe’s even has two different kinds of gaskets. Buy both, just to be safe, and a new overflow drain cover for good measure. Go home.
- Remove old overflow drain gasket.
- Install new overflow drain gasket.
- Install new overflow drain cover.
- Curse, and go to the garage for a Phillips screwdriver, because of course the new cover uses those, and not standard screws.
- Install new overflow drain cover.
- Turn on shower, go downstairs to verify that leak is fixed.
- New drain gasket made things worse.
- Remove overflow drain cover
- Remove new overflow drain gasket.
- Install other new overflow drain gasket. Aren’t you glad you both both of them? This is going to be a home repair project that only required a single trip to the hardware store!
- Reinstall new overflow drain cover.
- Before testing this, remember that the shower head was really loose earlier. Grab your pipe wrench from the garage and tighten that sucker down a bit. Doggone kids, always messing with stuff.
- You tightened the shower head too much, and broke something inside. Guess what? Back to the hardware store for you!
- Buy new shower head. The cheap one. Teenage boys just need something that sprays water effectively.
- Go home, carefully install new shower head.
- Turn on shower. Note that the shower head no longer leaks.
- Run downstairs. Note that the overflow drain no longer leaks. Don’t ask too many questions about whether it’s the gasket seal, or the lack of water pouring down onto the drain that’s stopped the leak. Either way, it’s fixed.
- Hooray! Now we can drink beer and binge watch Netflix!