All disciplines and activities suffer from a ‘hammer’ syndrome, where everything starts to look like nails. Software certainly has its share of these, with perhaps the biggest being the assumption that all problems can be solved with information management. But not all real world problems can be solved so easily.

A simple faucet repair not only turned out to be not so simple, but provided a serendipital lesson on when whizbang technology loses to direct human involvement.

Both faucets in the service pantry had rusted, or rather the faucets’ ‘shoe’ that contains the ceramic washer had rusted, and both had to be completely replaced. On the surface, this looked like a two hour job, but wound up taking considerably longer.

The faucets were in a pedestal vanity, which had to be completely disassembled in order to get to the faucets and their ancillary hardware, including the drain stopper mechanism and, not least, the bolts that secured the vanity’s basin to the wall.

Completing this simple repair took multiple trips to the local Ace hardware store, the local Lowes, and a high-end plumbing fixture supply house at the other end of the county. In the end, I probably would have been dollars ahead, and certainly time saved, if a professional plumber were called in at the beginning.

But bringing in knowledgeable help wasn’t the lesson, although it certainly qualified as relearning, again, an earlier one. Actually several, the chief one being about the efficient division of labor, with a good second one related to anger management.

The lesson had to do with setting the direction of the ceramic valves. The new shoes included new ceramic valves. The hot and cold faucets look identical, which they are in fact. But, after completing the faucet replacement, reassembling the pedestal vanity, securing it to the wall, and finally putting on the fancy faucet covers, I noticed that both faucets operated in a clockwise manner. This posed a problem that I hadn’t even considered, because they had to operate in opposing directions.

Resigned that I’d have to take everything apart, I went back, again, to the high-end plumbing fixture supply house, prepared to buy another shoe and ceramic washer assembly that rotated counter clockwise. To my complete astonishment, the counterman told me that the washers were reversible, by simply removing a small part, flipping it over, and reinstalling it. He also showed me the operation, several times. I was happy not to have to spend even more money, but also humbled by the demonstration.

As I left the parking lot, it occurred to me that there were, literally, thousands of parts that the high-end plumbing fixture supply house stocked, most if not all having small installation details that no web site could catch, much less an Illustrated Parts Breakdown diagram. Which may be why the instruction sheet, such as it was, that came with the shoes and ceramic washers didn’t even try to cover, and their web site even less useful. Which may explain why high-end plumbing fixture supply houses still have counterman. Another lesson, for another time.

© Copyright 2009 Chuck Brooks for FutureWare SCG

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Tags: ceramic washers, counterman, IPBs, plumbing repairs

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