Leaky Tub Spout

During this past week, our tub spout started leaking. It wasn't a steady drip kind of leak, it was the kind where you turn on the water and instead of spraying down into the tub, the water also shoots out horizontally from the sides of the aerator (I learned all the parts of a tub faucet this week too). At first, I was filled with a sense of dread about it. I mean, we're looking at the last 65 days of living here. Of course, something major would break! It's Murphy's Law after all.

So, I spent a bit of time on the internet researching potential causes of our problem. I found there could be a number of causes, the most likely (luckily) was also the easiest and cheapest to fix - unclogging the aerator.

So, this morning I tackled the problem. I have to say that I could not have done this without some essential tools, given to me by my dear mother. The wrenches and the pliers were instrumental in fixing this little problem (and yes, it is now confirmed to have been the littlest of the potential problems).

It is also fairly obvious that this is not the first time this problem has occurred. Or, rather, this is still the first time the problem occurred, but it wasn't really fixed the first time it happened. As I was removing the aerator and inspecting the tub spout I noticed some light brown stuff shoved up in the tub spout. Bits of it were falling and coming apart. It looked as though someone had crunched up some light cardboard and filled in around the aerator to stop any leaking problems. Now that the cardboard had been thoroughly soaked for at least three years, it was starting to disintegrate and the spraying was again becoming apparent. Anyway, I cleaned it all out and put it all back together again and it's working fine. It didn't cost us a penny. However, I still think we should make it a point to replace the washer there since it is quite obviously on its last legs of molecular coherence and could crumble away at any moment. Plus, from what I understand a simple washer doesn't cost a lot anyway, so we may as well fix it.