Worn-Out Faucet Valves Can Get Bathers Into Hot Water

Question: We’re experiencing an unusual problem with the plumbing in our townhouse. In the bathroom faucet upstairs, when the cold water tap is turned on, hot water flows out. This doesn’t happen all the time, and usually occurs only when the faucet hasn’t been turned on for a while. Why would this happen?

H. M.

Santa Ana

Answer: “I’ll bet that you have a single-handed shower valve, which is causing the problem,” says Rod Albright of Albright Plumbing & Heating Supplies in Los Alamitos.

“Once the cartridge in the shower valve wears out, the hot water transfers into the cold water pipes because it’s under more pressure, and since the bathroom sink is close to it, you’ll notice the transfer there. The farther it travels in the cold water pipes, the cooler the water becomes. You’ll have to replace the cartridge in that shower valve.”

Q: I picked up a used Toro lawn mower at a garage sale. It seems to be in pretty good shape, and it gets the job done on the lawn, but since I don’t have an owner’s manual, what’s a good rule of thumb regarding tuneups and oil changes?

G. A.

Fullerton

A: “You should probably change the oil and the air filter every 25 hours of use,” says Randy Allen of Orange Lawnmower. “And you’ll probably want to do that more often if you’re working in dirty or dusty conditions. As far as tuneups go, if it’s running rough or it’s hard-starting, it’s worth having it checked.

“The same goes with blade sharpening. Once you see a difference in performance, it may be time to service the blade, but you don’t have to stick to any time period.”

Q: We recently moved into a house built in the 1940s that has beautiful crown molding around the living room. We’d like to take it off and move it into the family room, but I was wondering if there’s some kind of tool I could use to get it off without breaking it?

L. T.

Anaheim

A: “There’s a special pry bar you should get before attempting the job. It’s short and has a wide edge with a ‘V’ cut into it, and it’s available at most hardware stores,” says Jamie O’Connor of World of Moulding in Santa Ana.

“You have to very carefully find where each nail is, insert the V at that point and pull down very carefully. Generally, professionals will try to get molding off with a pry bar first, but if that’s not working, they’ll try using a nail punch and hammer the nails all the way through the molding, then fill in the holes when it’s re-installed.”

Q: My father-in-law in Northern California swears by this rubber constricting valve he attaches to his garden hoses and then drops into a drain trap to get rid of clogs. I can’t believe something like this won’t hurt your pipes. Are they safe for plumbing?

E. Y.

Brea

A: “They’re really popular and very safe,” says Chuck Fields of Yorba Linda Hardware. “You screw them onto the hose and push it down into the trap as far as it will go, then turn on the water. There’s a constriction there that forces water out at high speed, and also causes water to back up into the valve, making it expand and creating a seal. If the pressure became too great, the valve would break long before the pipe would.”

Q: I want to do some rearranging in my living room and move the TV from one side to the other. Is it safe for me to run the TV cable under the carpet?

P. C.

Westminster

A: “It’s really not much of an electrical danger because cable generally runs on very low voltage,” says Lee Field of Orvac Electronics in Fullerton. “If the cable did wear down, the only thing that would happen is your reception would be bad. It’s not an easy job to do. You’ll have to pull the carpet up at the tack board and remove it where you want the cable laid, then use a kicker to re-tighten the carpet.”