TIFU by pretending I understood my landlord’s repair instructions and flooding my bathroom

Obligatory this happened yesterday, but I’m still dealing with the aftermath.

I rent a small apartment and my bathroom sink has been draining slowly for about two weeks. Not fully clogged, just slow enough to be annoying. I texted my landlord about it and he said he could come by next week, but if I wanted to try the “easy fix,” I could loosen the little trap pipe under the sink and clear it out.

He sent me a short video. It looked simple. Too simple, actually. Guy in the video puts a bowl under the pipe, twists two plastic rings, removes some gross hair, puts it back together. Done.

My landlord asked if I was comfortable doing that or if I’d rather wait. For some reason, my stupid pride took control and I said, “yeah no problem, I’ve done this before.”

I had not done this before.

I put a cereal bowl under the pipe because apparently I thought plumbing problems produce soup portions of water. I loosened the first ring. Nothing happened. I loosened the second one and the whole pipe dropped faster than I expected, dumping dark sink water directly into the cabinet, then onto the floor.

I panicked and tried to shove the pipe back on while water kept coming out. In the panic, I knocked the bowl over, slipped on the water, and grabbed the shower curtain for balance. The shower curtain did not agree to be part of this rescue mission and ripped half off the wall.

Then I realized the water was still running because I had left the faucet on to “test the drain” before taking the pipe off.

By the time I turned it off, the cabinet was soaked, the bath mat was floating like a sad little raft, and my downstairs neighbor was knocking because water had started dripping through their ceiling vent.

My Fuck Up

I lied about knowing how to do basic plumbing, used a cereal bowl as flood prevention, and forgot to turn the faucet off before removing part of the sink.

The landlord came over later. He fixed the pipe in five minutes, then stared at the ripped shower curtain rod like he was trying not to laugh.

TL;DR: Pretended I knew how to fix a slow sink drain, removed the wrong pipe setup with the faucet still on, flooded my bathroom, and introduced my downstairs neighbor to indoor rain.