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Warning: tried to fix my kitchen sink leak with plumber's tape and made it way worse
I was in my kitchen in St. Louis last Saturday, noticed a drip under the sink. Grabbed some plumber's tape from my junk drawer, wrapped it around the pipe threads, turned the water back on and boom. Water spraying everywhere. Turns out I wrapped it the wrong direction. Had to call a real plumber who charged me $90 to redo it in 10 minutes. Anyone else screw up a simple fix like that?
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the_mary1mo ago
That $90 lesson stings, but what direction were you wrapping it? I always heard "wrap it clockwise" but never understood why until a neighbor showed me it's about the nut tightening pulling the tape tighter instead of bunching it up. Did the plumber show you the right way while he was there, or did he just fix it and leave? Seems like they'd at least explain it so you don't call them again next time.
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grantp141mo ago
Right? Same thing happened to my buddy Dave last summer, except he tried to fix it himself first and ended up cross threading the whole thing. Had to call an emergency plumber on a Sunday, that was like $250 easy. Now he's got this whole tape roll with a sharpie arrow on it so he never forgets which way to wrap it. Honestly sometimes you just gotta pay the stupid tax and move on, at least now you know for next time.
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seth_singh201mo ago
Wait wait wait, people are really acting like wrapping tape the wrong way is some huge plumbing disaster? It's a leaky pipe under a sink, not a busted water main flooding your basement. I get that it's annoying to have water spray everywhere for a minute, but come on, you turn the valve off, dry it up, and try again. You really needed to drop $90 on a plumber for that? A five minute YouTube video could have shown you the trick, and now you're out almost a hundred bucks because you panicked. Seems like a pretty expensive way to learn something you could have figured out with a little patience, doesn't it?
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