LESLIE: Mary in New Jersey is dealing with some loud noises with the water. What’s going on?
MARY: Well, we have bathrooms on three levels in this house and in the basement shower, when you turn the water up a little bit to get a little pressure there, there’s this terrible screeching sound. Can you give me any idea what it could be?
TOM: Yeah. This happens when you turn the water on in the basement?
MARY: Yes.
TOM: It’s the valve. And – the valve’s just making a lot of noise. If you replace that faucet, that will go silent again. I wouldn’t worry too much about it. It’s really just the noise that the valve is making because it’s old and it’s worn and it’s making that terrible screechy sound. And because it sort of echoes through all the plumbing, it sounds a lot worse than it is.
MARY: Oh, OK, alright. Well, I’ll call my plumbers for that. I just didn’t want him to give me a snow job (Tom and Leslie chuckle) and tell me he had to rip out all those tiles and bah-bah-bah. So alright. That’s fine.
TOM: No, and in fact, if it’s a typical shower valve, there’s something called a cartridge where it can be replaced. Basically, the guts of the valve can be replaced without tearing into the tile whatsoever.
MARY: OK. Thank you so very much.
TOM: Alright, Mary. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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