Guy at the Travis St hardware counter saved me $200 with one question about my tub
Ngl I walked into the hardware store near Travis St ready to drop $200 on a whole new tub surround because mine had a crack near the drain. The older guy behind the counter looked at my phone picture and asked if I had pulled off the overflow plate yet to check behind it. Turned out the leak was just a dried out gasket back there, and he sold me a $4 replacement instead of the surround kit. I felt kind of dumb standing there with my big plan. Has anyone else had a store employee talk them out of a huge project like that?
Read a thread on a plumbing forum where a master plumber said the overflow gasket is one of the most missed leak spots on tubs. He said people rip out whole surrounds all the time when the real fix is a rubber ring that costs a few bucks. That old guy at the counter basically did the same thing a $150 service call would do, just by asking one question. Honestly more stores should have people like that working the floor instead of just pointing you to the aisle. You saved $200 and learned something, that is a win no matter how dumb you felt.