Hi all

am helping a friend remodel his downstairs bathroom, and as a result
have had to mess with the plumbing. Two valves in his laundry room were
dripping when I noticed them; one being the cold water shutoff for the
washing machine, and the other being the main shutoff for the house. I
tightened down the packing nuts on both and of course the one for the
washer is now fine, but the one for the main is still seeping.

I'm having a hard time visualizing, probably because I've been up late
every night this week either playing with power tools or huffing flux
fumes. On a typical older stop and waste valve, if I shut the valve off,
can I remove the packing nut and shove some more packing in there
without having the water shut off *prior* to that valve? Obviously that
is one valve that I'm not going to offer to replace for him because of
the possibility of Things Going Badly (I don't even know where the
street shutoff is...)

On the upside, my soldering skills have improved dramatically what with
all the practice. I (touch wood) didn't have a single leaky joint...

thanks

nate

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