01-03-2007, 05:06 AM
When I bought this house back in September, I inherited 3 pretty dodgy toilets. The mechanisms in them all had issues of one sort or another. I am certainly no toilet plumber, so I pretty much let them be and just dealt with it. Our main floor toilet in particular was the worst offender. It ran every 15 minutes or so. Something was leaky in there, but I didn't know what. All I knew was that it was getting worse as time went on. I had my brother-in-law replace something called a "flapper", but that was apparently not the issue because the sucker still ran. Today I got hit with a water bill that was $20 higher than last month, so it was time to act.
Let me go into this by saying that I know absolutely nothing about fixing leaky toilets. The extent of my knowledge is "jiggle the handle a little bit and see if that works".
With my wife by my side giving me not-so-gentle encouragement, I went to work. I opened up the lid and assessed the situation. I had no idea what I was looking at so I figured a complete format and reinstall was in order. I was going to rip the guts out of this bastard and insert new ones. The first thing I did was turn the water off to the toilet. As I was doing this, I noticed a little drip coming from the water supply valve. In the toilet plumbing industry, this is known as a "bad thing". It wasn't a bad drip and it stopped when I closed the valve completely, but it was an omen of things to come.
So after I drained the water from the tank, I set about removing the old stuff. I could tell that someone tried to fix it because none of the little parts fit right. The looks of it screamed spare parts and "oh god I hope this works". I got the old float mechanism dealie out without too much trouble, but I noticed that to replace the thingie that houses the flapper I would have to separate the tank from the bowl. This concerned me a bit because I was fairly sure the two were supposed to be hermetically sealed to each other, and I had no confidence in my ability to secure them back together. I expressed my concerns to my wife, who plainly stated, "Go for it. What's the worst that can happen?". I said, "I screw this up and we have to call a plumber to fix it.". That's when I saw how right she was. If I didn't make an all-out attempt to fix this toilet and succeed, we would have to call a plumber anyways. I really had nothing to lose, so I disassembled the whole shebang.
It took me way too long to remove the flapper assembly from the tank. I ended up having to break the plastic nut and tear the sucker off. I was getting angry at my toilet, but in a good "I'm gonna kick your ass" way. I was going to beat this toilet into submission. I was very careful about not damaging the porcelain though. Replacing the guts of a toilet is one thing, but replacing the whole toilet itself is quite another. While I was removing the parts, bits of it were just sloughing off. All manner of what used to be rubber seals and washers were only held on by a hope and a prayer. This reinforced my decision to just pull it all apart and start from scratch. The date stamped into the lid of my toilet read 1962, which is when my house was built.
With old parts in hand, we sped off to Home Depot in search of replacement. This was my first trip there tonight.
There was a fairly helpful grey mustachioed fellow named Steve in the toilet aisle. He saw our old and busted parts and showed us what new stuff we'd need to replace it. We picked up a new flapper and overflow assembly and a new inlet valve doohickey that vaguely resembled what we had. Home Depot had a pretty informative cutaway toilet showing how these things worked and I studied it. Steve walked me through removing the old stuff (what the heck? I already removed it and the proof is in the form of the dirty old corroded toilet guts I am showing you) and how to install the new stuff. Apparently I just hand-tighten it all in and it works. Awesome! We walk out of there $30 poorer but bearing toilet trinkets.
When we got home I set about installing these plastic toilet oddities. The flapper and overflow valve went in just fine. The other bit with the float dealie also went in just fine. I did this all while the tank was still separated from the bowl. When I thought about how I was going to re-seat the tank on the bowl, I knew I screwed up. One of the bits that disintegrated during disassembly was the rubber gasket that seals the tank to the bowl. I was getting angrier and wished I could pour a shot or two of the single malt scotch I got for Christmas, but I had some driving to do.
Back to Home Depot for trip number two.
I studied the replacement gasket selection for about 30 minutes before I settled on one. Nothing looked exactly what I removed, but I (apparently correctly) figured that the inside diameter of the gasket should equal the outside diameter of the new flapper assembly I just installed. The gasket was about $6.
I got the new gasket on without incident, so I settled the tank on the bowl. The gasket looked good and looked like it might make a watertight seal to the bowl. I then looked at the bolt holes, and the old bolts. It was then that I realized I needed to make another trip to Home Depot. The old bolt holes had bits of old rubber washer stuck to them, and the bolts had the other bits of old rubber washer. I needed new rubber washers or there was going to be a torrent of water in my bathroom.
Back to Home Depot for trip number three.
I found the correct sized washers, but I had to buy them in a package with new brass bolts and corresponding hardware. That was okay by me, because I was dead-set on just making everything but the tank and bowl new. This hardware package cost me $5.
When I got home I set about re-reading the installation instructions. Every other line screamed out "DO NOT OVER-TIGHTEN! DO NOT OVER-TIGHTEN!" so I was very conservative about how much I cranked down on the nuts that secured that tank to the bowl. The LAST thing I wanted to do was crack the tank or bowl.
After I got everything secured down as tight as I was comfortable making it, I turned on the water and prayed to [insert god-of-choice here]. The first thing I noticed was water streaming out of the water supply valve, and the second thing I noticed was water pouring out of the bottom of the tank, right where one of the bolts secured the tank to the bowl. In my mind, this was "WORST CASE SCENARIO". I had two leaks, and one of them was from the water supply valve. The only way I could shut it off was to shut the water off completely to my house. In my panic I fiddled with the water supply enough to slow it to a slow drip. I didn't let it run long enough to fill the toilet tank so I just stuck a milk jug behind the toilet to catch the water leaking out from back there.
I was utterly defeated. I followed all of the instructions and was as careful as I could be, but I turned a slow toilet leak into two separate floods. That was it for me. I was not going to touch that toilet again. I got angry at it and gave it my all, but I was a complete failure.
My wife took pity on my poor pathetic emasculated self and called a friend of hers. She poured me a drink, because I sure needed one. I was envisioning the outrageous bill I would surely receive from a plumber.
My wife called a friend of hers that is married to a handyman. His name is Herman, and I officially love Herman. He arrived at our house less than ten minutes after her call and set right to work. He asked me to shut the water off at the main house supply valve. After that was done, he extracted the valve cartridge from the toilet water supply and wrapped the threads with Teflon tape. That fixed the water supply leak. He turned on the water to the toilet and remarked that the everything looked good but I just didn't tighten down the bolts enough. He cranked them down harder, and now everything was awesome. The toilet on my main floor is as good as new.
Herman said that I did just fine with the toilet repair. The only thing I screwed up with was that I didn't tighten the bolts down hard enough to force an effective seal between the brass bolts and rubber washers. The water supply leak wasn't anything I did wrong, but now I know how to fix that kind of problem after watching Herman work.
I am honestly looking forward to replacing the guts of my other two toilets now. The one downstairs is talking smack about me and it needs a serious beatdown.
Let me go into this by saying that I know absolutely nothing about fixing leaky toilets. The extent of my knowledge is "jiggle the handle a little bit and see if that works".
With my wife by my side giving me not-so-gentle encouragement, I went to work. I opened up the lid and assessed the situation. I had no idea what I was looking at so I figured a complete format and reinstall was in order. I was going to rip the guts out of this bastard and insert new ones. The first thing I did was turn the water off to the toilet. As I was doing this, I noticed a little drip coming from the water supply valve. In the toilet plumbing industry, this is known as a "bad thing". It wasn't a bad drip and it stopped when I closed the valve completely, but it was an omen of things to come.
So after I drained the water from the tank, I set about removing the old stuff. I could tell that someone tried to fix it because none of the little parts fit right. The looks of it screamed spare parts and "oh god I hope this works". I got the old float mechanism dealie out without too much trouble, but I noticed that to replace the thingie that houses the flapper I would have to separate the tank from the bowl. This concerned me a bit because I was fairly sure the two were supposed to be hermetically sealed to each other, and I had no confidence in my ability to secure them back together. I expressed my concerns to my wife, who plainly stated, "Go for it. What's the worst that can happen?". I said, "I screw this up and we have to call a plumber to fix it.". That's when I saw how right she was. If I didn't make an all-out attempt to fix this toilet and succeed, we would have to call a plumber anyways. I really had nothing to lose, so I disassembled the whole shebang.
It took me way too long to remove the flapper assembly from the tank. I ended up having to break the plastic nut and tear the sucker off. I was getting angry at my toilet, but in a good "I'm gonna kick your ass" way. I was going to beat this toilet into submission. I was very careful about not damaging the porcelain though. Replacing the guts of a toilet is one thing, but replacing the whole toilet itself is quite another. While I was removing the parts, bits of it were just sloughing off. All manner of what used to be rubber seals and washers were only held on by a hope and a prayer. This reinforced my decision to just pull it all apart and start from scratch. The date stamped into the lid of my toilet read 1962, which is when my house was built.
With old parts in hand, we sped off to Home Depot in search of replacement. This was my first trip there tonight.
There was a fairly helpful grey mustachioed fellow named Steve in the toilet aisle. He saw our old and busted parts and showed us what new stuff we'd need to replace it. We picked up a new flapper and overflow assembly and a new inlet valve doohickey that vaguely resembled what we had. Home Depot had a pretty informative cutaway toilet showing how these things worked and I studied it. Steve walked me through removing the old stuff (what the heck? I already removed it and the proof is in the form of the dirty old corroded toilet guts I am showing you) and how to install the new stuff. Apparently I just hand-tighten it all in and it works. Awesome! We walk out of there $30 poorer but bearing toilet trinkets.
When we got home I set about installing these plastic toilet oddities. The flapper and overflow valve went in just fine. The other bit with the float dealie also went in just fine. I did this all while the tank was still separated from the bowl. When I thought about how I was going to re-seat the tank on the bowl, I knew I screwed up. One of the bits that disintegrated during disassembly was the rubber gasket that seals the tank to the bowl. I was getting angrier and wished I could pour a shot or two of the single malt scotch I got for Christmas, but I had some driving to do.
Back to Home Depot for trip number two.
I studied the replacement gasket selection for about 30 minutes before I settled on one. Nothing looked exactly what I removed, but I (apparently correctly) figured that the inside diameter of the gasket should equal the outside diameter of the new flapper assembly I just installed. The gasket was about $6.
I got the new gasket on without incident, so I settled the tank on the bowl. The gasket looked good and looked like it might make a watertight seal to the bowl. I then looked at the bolt holes, and the old bolts. It was then that I realized I needed to make another trip to Home Depot. The old bolt holes had bits of old rubber washer stuck to them, and the bolts had the other bits of old rubber washer. I needed new rubber washers or there was going to be a torrent of water in my bathroom.
Back to Home Depot for trip number three.
I found the correct sized washers, but I had to buy them in a package with new brass bolts and corresponding hardware. That was okay by me, because I was dead-set on just making everything but the tank and bowl new. This hardware package cost me $5.
When I got home I set about re-reading the installation instructions. Every other line screamed out "DO NOT OVER-TIGHTEN! DO NOT OVER-TIGHTEN!" so I was very conservative about how much I cranked down on the nuts that secured that tank to the bowl. The LAST thing I wanted to do was crack the tank or bowl.
After I got everything secured down as tight as I was comfortable making it, I turned on the water and prayed to [insert god-of-choice here]. The first thing I noticed was water streaming out of the water supply valve, and the second thing I noticed was water pouring out of the bottom of the tank, right where one of the bolts secured the tank to the bowl. In my mind, this was "WORST CASE SCENARIO". I had two leaks, and one of them was from the water supply valve. The only way I could shut it off was to shut the water off completely to my house. In my panic I fiddled with the water supply enough to slow it to a slow drip. I didn't let it run long enough to fill the toilet tank so I just stuck a milk jug behind the toilet to catch the water leaking out from back there.
I was utterly defeated. I followed all of the instructions and was as careful as I could be, but I turned a slow toilet leak into two separate floods. That was it for me. I was not going to touch that toilet again. I got angry at it and gave it my all, but I was a complete failure.
My wife took pity on my poor pathetic emasculated self and called a friend of hers. She poured me a drink, because I sure needed one. I was envisioning the outrageous bill I would surely receive from a plumber.
My wife called a friend of hers that is married to a handyman. His name is Herman, and I officially love Herman. He arrived at our house less than ten minutes after her call and set right to work. He asked me to shut the water off at the main house supply valve. After that was done, he extracted the valve cartridge from the toilet water supply and wrapped the threads with Teflon tape. That fixed the water supply leak. He turned on the water to the toilet and remarked that the everything looked good but I just didn't tighten down the bolts enough. He cranked them down harder, and now everything was awesome. The toilet on my main floor is as good as new.
Herman said that I did just fine with the toilet repair. The only thing I screwed up with was that I didn't tighten the bolts down hard enough to force an effective seal between the brass bolts and rubber washers. The water supply leak wasn't anything I did wrong, but now I know how to fix that kind of problem after watching Herman work.
I am honestly looking forward to replacing the guts of my other two toilets now. The one downstairs is talking smack about me and it needs a serious beatdown.