Tried to fix a leaky faucet and flooded my kitchen instead

So I noticed a slow drip from my kitchen faucet last Tuesday and thought 'how hard can it be to swap a washer?' I watched a 5 minute YouTube video and felt ready. Long story short, I cross threaded the new part and when I turned the water back on it sprayed everywhere like a garden hose. By the time I got the shutoff valve closed I had about 2 inches of water on the linoleum. My wife came home to me standing there holding a wet towel and a wrench with a stupid look on my face. Cost me $85 for a plumber to fix my mess plus the $4 for the washer I never even used. Has anyone else had a simple fix turn into a full disaster like that?

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1 Comment

susanh461mo agoMost Upvoted

Oh man, that's brutal! I've definitely been there with DIY projects going completely sideways. Something about feeling confident after a quick video and then reality just hits you like a wave of water in your case. I think half the people I know have a similar story involving a plumbing project that ended up way bigger than they expected. Hopefully your wife has a good sense of humor about it now, because that's all you can do sometimes!