Has anyone else had a quick job turn into a total fiasco? I went in today to just replace a double check valve, thinking it would take an hour. Instead, I found myself dealing with a shutoff valve buried in a swampy underground vault where my coworker met a gigantic spider. Once we finally pulled out the old valve, it looked like a wreck, and we struggled with rusty bolts—and then lost the new bolts. After a mini-panic, we found them beneath the valve! In the end, we got everything replaced without leaks, but it was way more than I bargained for. What about you? What's your wildest "I thought this would be a quick task" story?
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There's a saying among mechanics: "Every half-hour job is one broken bolt away from a three-day ordeal." I had to learn this the hard way when I replaced a toilet. It's supposed to be a simple job—just replace the washer. But when I tried to loosen the bolts, one of them cracked, and then the flange underneath broke too. Two days later, after multiple trips to the hardware store and chiseling out concrete, I finally got it sorted!
And of course, those ‘easy’ jobs never are! I tried installing new pull-out shelves in my pantry, but discovered the walls were warped, making everything a colossal headache to fit.