Q ed believe it or not, your plumbi...

Q ed believe it or not, your plumbing advice has helped our marriage! We obtain both your TV show and newspaper row in our area and my husband and I have started doing our admit plumbing projects around the house together. The nearest job on our list is to install a personal shower in our tub and shower area. We plan in succession having a romantic evening installing this ourselves. What tips can you give us? -- Beth and Jim, Tennessee

A. A personal shower can be a gayety and romantic project to do together, on the contrary hold off on the champagne until the piece of work is done.

There are sum of two units basic styles of personal shower kits. First, there are the standard examples that attach directly to your existing shower arm pipe coming public of the wall. This shadow has a special bracket built into the shower arm connection that grasps the remote head and trousers in place. It also changes disclosed as easy as a regular showerhead, making installation a snap.

The secondary choice is more of a "high end" personal shower kit and installation is a little more complicated. This emblem uses a diverter valve attached to the shower arm coming revealed of the wall. The diverter valve will divert the water to a regular showerhead attached to the diverter itself or a unallied showerhead attached to the flexible pipe The advantage here is you master a standard shower when you want it and with the flip of a lever you now have a dedicated personal shower. Many of the high-end personal showers also have a vertical bar that you anchor to the brass shower wall. On this bar is a special bracket allowing the personal shower to slide up and down, giving you total govern of the showerhead's height. This is great for children.

Just like mostly plumbing projects, what type and title you choose will depend with your budget and how earnestly time you want to part with doing the project. Lower price units that attach to the shower arm solely can be installed in minutes. The higher priced wall-mounted kits will require a certain time and skill to finished the job. Without getting too "personal," I chance of a favorable result you and you husband will have a romantic time with this plumbing intend during and after the installation.

Q each summer I get depressed about my outdoor faucet. The faucet has a certain quantity of kind of fitting coming not at home of the top that constantly leaks water when I use it. It is similar a waste of water and I'm same upset since I do like to comfit I have no clue in succession how to fix this and I can't leave the stockings on constantly even when I have the nozzle shut up off. What can I do? It's a pain to hold fast opening and closing the valve. Help! -- move with a jerk New England

A. unbrokens to me like you have a classic case of a leaking sillcock vacuum breaker. The fitting term for an outdoor faucet is a "sillcock" because it's a valve that usually goe by the agency of the sill plate of the house.

The suitable news is that many sillcocks with the built in vacuum breaker will have repair kits and parts to easily fix this question Get the make and protoplast of your valve if you can and visit a righteous plumbing supply house to restoration your watery woes.

ed Del Grande, host of " the Plumber" forward DIY Network and "The Homeowner Guide to the Builders Universe" forward HGTVpro.com, holds three Master Plumbers and contracting licenses. delegate questions to edtheplumber@diynetwork.com Always go in the rear [i]or[/i] in the wake of local codes or contract a licensed plumber.

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