To draw a bath, part 2

A subterranean shot behind and under the Jacuzzi tub showing the overflowing catch basin. This view does not show the pumps and plumbing that trapped the bowl in this position.

I had previously declared the Jacuzzi tub portion of the renovation to be successful, but the other day I noticed a couple damp spots on the carpet (why does anyone put carpet in a bathroom?)   I thought I had spilled or splashed something, but when it didn’t dry off in a few hours, and in fact another spot showed up, I became curious.  The likely culprit was the plumbing under the tub.

There was an access port the size of a heating vent (Inspector 7 had noted it was inadequately sized).  After a session with a flashlight I saw a bowl that had been installed at a strategic position to catch a slow drip forming under the faucet (to his credit, so had Inspector7, but through willful denial of the evidence, I seemed to have ignored it).

Evidently this was the solution to a leak discovered after the tub was installed.  Let it drip into a catch bowl and it would evaporate away.  This solution worked for almost twenty years, but now the leak had worsened, and the drip rate now exceeded the evaporation rate.  The bowl filled up and now was overflowing onto the floor and seeping under the carpet.  I’m now wondering if I should have avoided using the tub.  Nobody told me it was just for show, and that the plumbing seals were fragile.

I looked for the shutoff valves that one finds at every sink, tub or toilet.  Finding none, I went to the basement to look for the main valves.  There had been a set controlling the pipes to the second floor (for when it was a duplex).  They also turned off the master bathroom water supply.  Everything except the hot water to the tub.  I had to locate some other valve to turn that one off.  It seemed odd that everything in that room would be controlled by the shutoff except for one connection, but I am becoming inured to such anomalies.

The drip didn’t seem to stop, despite the upstream cutoff.  Perhaps there was water in the pipes still providing gravity feed to it.

My next problem was how to empty the drip basin so I could stop the flow under the carpet.  The bowl was out of reach.  I enlarged the access port from a few inches to a full foot square so that I could insert an arm and head to explore the bowels of the Jacuzzi.  I enlarged it further, but no opening would be large enough for me to reach that bowl.  No, I needed some way of extending my reach without exceeding my grasp.

I now came to a sudden understanding for the existence of a tool that I had always ridiculed.  I could not understand the use for a “reach extender”, a gadget with a clamp that was a foot or more away from the handgrip.  Squeeze the handle and the clamp closed.  These things are popular with older people, but I never knew quite why.

Well, now I know.  It is for reaching in to the plumbing under a Jacuzzi tub in order to pull the drip bucket close enough to be able to bail it out.  Note that I could not actually pull the bowl out—there were pumps and drains and other plumbing obstacles.  But I could get it close enough to manually dip a sponge into it and transport some water to my bucket.  After enough repetitions, the bowl was nearly empty and I could return it to its post for drip catching.  The “Pikstick” was essential for this task.  I would use it morning and night for the next several days until the spa service professional could come and assess the situation.

The PikStik, an essential tool for Jacuzzi tub owners, at least those owners of tubs-installed-by-amateurs.

He didn’t show up the morning he was scheduled. He arrived the next  day.  I learned about the fall rush of spa clients, all needing winterizing, and how service calls needed to fit into the scheduling.

He was a day late, but at least he could assess the situation.  The water feed to the Rainbow Spout needed to be replaced.  To do so required that the tub be decoupled, and disconnected from the water and drain, and then lifted up and out to access the plumbing.  The supply pipe would be replaced, and then the whole unit re-installed.

Ok.  That seemed like a big job.  What was the price of a Jacuzzi tub anyway?

Now that the work has been identified, it must now be scheduled.  The bathroom will be out of order until then.  I’ll have a posting a few weeks from now with an update.  At least I hope it will be only a few weeks.