My brother in law just bought an old house, from the 50's. As they were installing the new washer they noticed the old cold water hose was rusted on to the vavle. After numerous attempts with WD40 two pipe wrenches and two guys the thing still has not budged. In an attempt to possibly screw off the valve head, we cut the hose (it was old anyway). It is the kind of hookup that is between two sheetrocked walls (in the kitchen no less) so access to the pipe is not easy. We were able to peer between a slight gap in the sheetrock and the plastic thing fitting around the two valves and the drain pipe to see that it is PVC (size unkown). Since it's PVC every time we try to loosen the hose connector the valve just bends and flexes. Now the valve leaks, is broken, and there is a brass hose connector still rusted to it. I imagine we need to replace the vavle. How do we go about doing it? That was too broad of a question, let me rephrase. Does the vavle head screw off or will we need to cut into the dry wall? Bottom line is, I can't see to how the valve is connected with the plastic thing in the way, but I can't get the plastic thing off because the valve head is on. What am I missing here?

Thanks, we sure did make a mess, but oh was it fun! - Josh

My guess is that the valve is cemented on. If it screwed on, likely in trying to remove the hose, you would have turned it. If you can see a hex on the valve, likely that does mean it does screw off. Just work harder at turning it. Once out, you can just screw in another. Otherwise, it means cutting the drywall. May as well make room to work, a big hole isn't much harder to patch than a small one. Or make a big hole and put in a modern laundry outlet. PVC is easy to work with and almost fool proof if you follow the directions and clean and prime the pipe before cementing.