LESLIE: Now we’ve got Joe in Illinois on the line with a plumbing question. How can we help you today?
JOE: We just got through renovating the kitchen or – well, we’re almost through with renovating the kitchen. And the brass fitting inside the wall, when they put everything together, the galvanized nipple was cross-threaded into it.
TOM: OK.
JOE: And so when I went down – and I mean I cleaned out an unbelievable amount of corrosion. Had to use naval jelly to get all the rust out and finally got the threads cleaned up real good. And got the galvanized pipe and doped it up and went to screw it in and it would only go so far. When I backed it out, cleaned it back up again and took a look, it’s cross-threated, because that brass is softer.
TOM: Huh. Right.
JOE: And what I wanted to find out, is there any kind of a thread repair tool that I can get? I’m fairly adept with construction stuff. My dad was a general contractor and he didn’t like giving kids money but he’d let you earn all you wanted to. So, as a consequence, I got a little bit of working knowledge.
TOM: Well, look, if you were a plumber, you would probably have a tap that was big enough to clean that up, but that’s a pretty expensive piece of equipment. Now, you’re trying to connect a piece of galvanized to a piece of brass and you can’t thread them together, so the other option that comes to mind is a Fernco, which is like a rubber boot with two radiator clamps on either side. And a lot of times, when you’re using – when you’re trying to attach dissimilar drain pipes like that, you can use a Fernco. You get them together as best you can using a Fernco around the outside and strap them up and that keeps it nice and tight and it’s really easy to do.
JOE: Is that a readily available – and how permanent is that?
TOM: It’s very permanent. I would go not to a home center for that but I would go to a plumbing supply center and explain the situation. And make sure you measure the pipes, because they come different sizes based on what you’re trying to connect.
JOE: I do appreciate the advice, sir.
TOM: Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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