Knowing Where to Tap

I love the story about the owner of a broken machine who called an expert to fix it. The expert showed up, took out a small hammer, and tapped a piece of the machine back into place. Just like that, the machine was fixed! The owner was overjoyed until he saw a bill for $1000. “This is outrageous! All you did was tap one part into place! I want this itemized!” The expert calmly wrote it out for him: “Tapping part: $5. Knowing where to tap: $995.”

I found a plumber online to fix the faucet. He showed up Tuesday afternoon, on-time, and assessed the situation. Then he pulled off the top of the faucet (just like I’d tried to do and failed), changed out the $0.25 washer that I’d been trying to reach, and put it back together. Problem solved. The actual work took maybe 3-4 minutes. Then he helped me pull off the faucet handle I’d broken so I could replace it myself. Total bill: $39 just for coming out plus $80 for “rebuilding the hose bib” for a total of $119. He left off the $9.95 fuel surcharge that his company wanted him to collect.

Morals of this story: 1) Learning home improvement techniques can save you a lot of money. 2) It’s a darn good thing that there are people who know more than I do about many different topics. 3) One way to make a good living and improve job security is by knowing where to tap.

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