$165 later...

Hubby and I decided to replace our bathroom showerhead with a Waterpik Aquafall combo from BBB. Being DIY fans, we borrowed a pipe wrench from a friend and proceeded to take out the old showerhead. After all, how hard could it be ?

While trying to unscrew the old showerhead, the shower arm* (pictured on the left) broke off and a piece of its nipple (the threaded end) remained lodged inside the elbow joint behind the shower wall.

Cr*p.

We did some research and there were a lot of suggestions on how to deal with this. One suggestion was to get an internal pipe wrench to try and get the piece out. We rushed off to our local supplies store and got a cam-type internal pipe wrench. It's kind of cool, really. Except it didn't really bite into the pipe and didn't have enough traction to get the pipe off.

The other solution that we found was to get a hacksaw and try to saw off the remaining piece, taking care not to damage the elbow joint's threads. Cut some grooves, hammer it loose and then pry it off. We tried and couldn't do it.

Eventually, we decided to just get a plumber to come in. (Side comment: seems like it's easier to get a plumber to come in compared to an electrician. I started making calls yesterday and got 5 different plumbers who are available to drop by and give me an estimate. Last year, we tried for an electrician but couldn't get anyone to show up.)

Another factor that pushed us towards getting a plumber were horror stories - both online and from friends' personal experiences - of pipes behind the wall breaking off and water spraying/gushing all over the place.

Now, $165 + $59.99 (less 20%) later,

While all these was happening, we have to be thankful for a few things:

• ... that we have 2 full bathrooms and even with the master bath shower out, we still had another bathroom to take a bath/showers in.

• ... that our houseguest - hubby's brother - had already left when we decided to mess around with the shower head. We didn't have to line up for baths.

Now, we want to tackle the 2nd bath's fixtures but something tells me that we shouldn't. Not right away ;-)

and for the record, here's the little bugger that cost us $165.

* Shower arm picture taken from http://www.kitchenandpantry.com/
** Internal pipe wrench picture taken from toolmonger.com