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Posted by David Sherman on Thursday, April 24, 2008 at 21:12:16 :
In Reply to: Home repair. OT but. posted by The Dodge Boys on Thursday, April 24, 2008 at 20:23:22 :
That's why I save all old plumbing fixtures and valves. Unless the threads are completely worn out, they're way better than the new ones. It's still pretty easy to find nice old faucets at yard sales or in dumpsters when people are renovating buildings. I save all the old toilets too -- they work on the first flush instead of taking 5 flushes and a bunch of plunger action. The thing that really gets me with plumbing fixtures is even if you buy the fancy $500 bathtub set or kitchen faucet, the innards are the same cheap junk that's in the $50 set. One catch with the old faucets is they really like graphite/asbestos packing around the valve stems. You can't buy the stuff any more, and the only choices are teflon rope or rubber washers, which are either too tight and sticky or too loose and leaky. Even if you can't get any old fixtures for free, if you're spending a couple hundred on new chinese junk, why not take your wife to one of those old-building recycling places (like Brown's in Spokane or the Habitat for Humanity stores) and spend the same money on a nice looking good quality made-in-USA setup?
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