Chipped Sink and Water Flow
Bathroom Repair Questions
Answered by Beth Hodge

Q. I have 2 chips in the porcelain bathroom sink. What do I need to fixed and how can I do it?

A: Small chips are able to be repaired. There is a bottle of treatment (looks like nail polish) that you can fill and cover cracks and chips with. You can usually find it in the paint or plumbing section.

Q.My name is Lisa and I am currently in the process of redecorating my bathroom. The one area that I am having problems with is: I have pink plastic tiles glued onto half of the wall. I would like to remove them but they are glued onto the gyprock, with the glue still being tacky.

I want to paint my bathroom and I do not know how to get the glue off. I have tried using a scraper and it just moves the glue around.

Any suggestions on how to get rid of the glue on the walls would be very much appreciated. Thank you for your time.

A: Lisa, I don't have any good news for you, sorry. I had glued tiles in an old house that I tried to remove and I ended up tearing the entire wall surface off and replacing with new drywall.

Other options are to live with another covering, like paneling or tile. There is also a drywall that is only 1/4 of an inch thick that is meant for just that, going over something you need to hide but want to have a flat surface to paint.

Q. Our bathtub water flow has been reduced to almost a trickle. It's not the showerhead because the bath tub water is very slow and weak too. The sink has plenty of pressure.

Also, the tub seems to drain very slowly too - not sure if that is related or not. Thanks.

A: Try turning the water off to the bath and removing the bath tub spout. Clean out the inside of the pipe. It sounds like dirt or something (even small) inside the pipe is causing your trouble which would also effect the shower head.