How to Solve a SERIOUS Leak Problem Using Tools You Already Have | HANK - THE MAKER

What year was your house built, and where does yours leak? Mine's a 1924 foursquare in Ohio. Tell me below. My book: If It Broke, We Fixed It — https://hankdorsey.gumroad.com/l/if-it-broke In 1987 a widow had a brown stain on her dining room ceiling and a roofer who wanted four thousand dollars for a new roof. The leak was fourteen feet away, and the fix took a butter knife and a six-dollar tube of caulk. Here's how I find and fix the ten most common leaks in an old house with the tools you already have, in the order that saves the most money. In this video: the water meter test: do you even have a leak? the food coloring test for a running toilet, and the $5 flapper the old two-handle faucet: a new washer, not a tighter handle the leak under the sink: hand tight plus a quarter turn the weeping shutoff valve: one eighth of a turn on the packing nut water around the toilet: sweat, loose bolts or the wax ring the tub and shower caulk joint (where the 14-foot leak came from) a pinhole in old galvanized pipe: the weekend patch the window that leaks in the rain: caulk the top, never the bottom the roof: the stain is never under the hole I'm a handyman, not a plumber or a roofer. If you smell gas, get out and call the gas company from outside. Water near wiring goes to an electrician, a main valve that won't close goes to the water company or a plumber, and anything on the roof goes to a roofer. CHAPTERS 0:00 The stain 14 feet from the leak 0:44 The tools you already have 1:02 1. Shutoffs and the water meter test 3:05 2. The toilet that runs by itself 4:44 3. The dripping old faucet 6:27 4. The leak under the sink 7:59 5. The shutoff valve that weeps 9:30 6. Water around the toilet 11:17 7. The tub and the shower 12:54 8. A pinhole in an old pipe 14:46 9. The window that leaks in the rain 16:35 10. The roof 18:15 The right order 19:07 Watch this one next If it broke, we fixed it. Still do.