I was at my sister in law’s place today doing some handyman stuff and getting the house ready for tenants. One of the jobs involved changing over the vanity basins in the bathrooms – relatively simple you’d think – but not if the fittings are hard to get…

To get the basin off I needed to remove taps and spout. To get the spout off I had to wrench very hard on the poly nut holding it in place, breaking it in the process. No big deal I figured. I’ll get another one from Bunnings… A ‘5/8’ nut would be easy to find you’d think.

So I went to Bunnings…

One of the shop assistants took a look and said ‘nope, never seen one of those. If we have one it’d be in that area there.’ He pointed me to an aisle and then did an about turn. Thanks a heap…

So I went to Reece…

‘Nope. They stopped using them about 9 years ago mate. Can’t help you.’

So I went to Galvins…

‘Nope. Can’t help you mate.’

That was it.

I went back and did some more work and then thought I’d try Quinns Hardware. These guys sometimes have odd stuff, or if they haven’t got it they can find it somewhere.

Sure enough. A woman in her 20’s answered the phone.

‘Ok, I know what you mean but I’m not sure if we have one. You’d have to come in, but I think we can help. I’ll leave a few out and we can see if they fit.

I went in and one of the nuts she had there was perfect. And then she looked up her suppliers book and ordered me another one (for the other basin…)

So what does it say about the 3 ‘big guys’? Honestly to me it simply says ‘we don’t care and can’t be bothered.’ What does it say about the little guy?…

A heap!

After removing the