12:42 p.m. - 2009-10-24
Part II
Well, it appeared that when the shower was running it somehow caused water to leak to the underside of the claw-tub because water was flying around everywhere including behind the tub, which was not the case with the faucet. I deduced from this that the source of the leak was not a leaky drain, but the very source of the water itself. On claw-tubs such as ours, the faucet and shower are generally combined as one fixture, a SUPERFIXTURE, if you will. I vowed to replace this, thereby hopefully solving our leak problems.
In Which Action is Taken:
There's a small plumbing supply store near our house where we've often purchased plumbing accessories. We had in fact bought our now dilapidated fixture there years ago when we moved into our house and discovered that the tub had no shower (the former residents had either taken baths or showered in the basement where the floor drain is and where there was a little shower-curtained area with a garden hose rigged up to shower from ceiling height. I know! Weird!). The man who runs the plumbing store is very helpful and dispenses advice to customers for successful installation of his wares. This time would be no exception.
I perused the store's display. It appeared that he had three models of claw-tub superfixture. The least expensive model was the one we'd bought previously and which was now spraying water all over. There was a slightly more ornate one with old-timey looking "hot" and "cold" knobs and an elevated spout that dispensed water from above the rim of the tub. And there was a really ornate one that looked a little flouncy and precious. Insofar as it's possible for plumbing to look flouncy and precious. The three fixtures cost a hundred, two-hundred-twenty, and five-hundred dollars respectively. I decided on the second one.
The plumbing shop man wouldn't sell me one. Not until I came back with photographs of our current fixture and the piping that connects spout and shower-head. There were two reasons for this: 1) with my poor verbal skills and hobo-like appearance, I was unable to convince plumbing shop man that I knew what kind of fixture I needed, that I knew what the fuck I was doing, and indeed that I even OWNED a claw-footed tub. Before he sold me a NON-REFUNDABLE fixture, he would need some verification, dammit, and 2) to make sure the shower piping we had would fit on the new faucet without requiring cutting or re-threading or replacement. This second one seemed as reasonable as the first seemed arbitrary and Soup Nazi-like. But the thing I've learned about plumbing shop man is, he's always got your best interests in mind. That's why you do what he says.
