We had a seriously leaky outdoor faucet (it worked last summer but when we reconnected the hose this spring it was gushing out water at the top). I considered calling a plumber, but for obviou$ reason$ balked at the idea.
I had never touched a faucet to fix it in my life, so had no idea of the parts. To make matters worse, this one is located under the deck, a very inconvenient place with almost no room to move and no room to really get a good look at it.
I felt inspired and resourceful today, so first I used my phone to take a picture of the thing where I couldn't see, to give me an idea of what I was dealing with. Bingo, that revealed the model number. A quick Google search yielded an instructional video by the maker of the faucet on how to install a repair kit. At the very end of the video, another bingo. The name of the top part and how to replace that (vacuum breaker float kit).
The hardware store only had the entire repair kit for sale, no float kit sold separately. It set me back $30. I went home, and started to work on it.
Tools used: pliers, screwdriver, phone for pictures, many expletives to get the old parts lose and out, and finally, calling wife for her chewed chewing gum for holding a part in place while screwing another one in pretty much blindly. No worries, I didn't actually use the gum to stop the leak. ;)
IT WORKED! Some post-operation research showed a call to the plumber would have cost me $170 with parts. $140 saved, not bad.
Proud of my first-time faucet fix and my McGyverish ways. :)
