SIGforum.com    Main Page  Hop To Forum Categories  What's Your Deal!    Le Toilet
Go
New
Find
Notify
Tools
Reply
  
Le Toilet Login/Join 
Knows too little
about too much
Picture of rduckwor
posted
I bumped the tank on the upstairs toilet yesterday morning and one of the 11 year old tank bolts gave up the ghost and the tank began leaking.

Now, on a scale of home repairs, this is about 2/10.

I go to the HRS and get the gasket kit I think I need and a flex supply line. Get home, unbolt the tank, break the supply line connection and lift the empty (mostly) tank. Whoops, I bought the wrong gasket. Who knew "universal" wasn't?

Throne requires an "Elijay" type gasket. Back to the HRS, get the gasket. Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that I broke the overflow tube inside the tank sticking my XXL mit in there to hold a bolt head. Of course, the plumbing section guy is AWOL and no one can find anything to replace the overflow tube. Fukit, I will figure something out.

Get back, put the gasket on, mount the tank and snug the bolts. Now in large letters on the gasket package "DO NOT OVER TIGHTEN BOLTS." Yeah, its porcelain, I get that you can break it. So I judiciously tighten the tank bolts and fill the tank. Whoops! Forgot about the broken overflow tube. Let's see, what do I have to replace it. NOTHING! that I can find. So I chip the broken piece out with my knife, flip the remainder of the over flow tube and stuff it into place. Fill the tank. Leaks from the bolt holes. Tighten bolts. Leaks from the gasket.

Break the whole thing down and redo it. AHHH! No leaks. Sit down for a bit of "reading". Finish up and flush the john.

FUCK! Leaks from the gasket.

In short, I must have demounted/remounted that damn tank five times now.

I think I have it sealed up.

Problem:

I'm afraid to use that toilet ever again in my life.

RMD




TL Davis: “The Second Amendment is special, not because it protects guns, but because its violation signals a government with the intention to oppress its people…”
Remember: After the first one, the rest are free.
 
Posts: 20303 | Location: L.A. - Lower Alabama | Registered: April 06, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
That sounds really shitty . . .
 
Posts: 1546 | Registered: October 30, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Step by step walk the thousand mile road
Picture of Sig2340
posted Hide Post
I never walk into a place I don't know how to walk out of.





Nice is overrated

"It's every freedom-loving individual's duty to lie to the government."
Airsoftguy, June 29, 2018
 
Posts: 31385 | Location: Loudoun County, Virginia | Registered: May 17, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
A Grateful American
Picture of sigmonkey
posted Hide Post
This is how anal retentiveness begins...




"the meaning of life, is to give life meaning" Ani Yehudi אני יהודי Le'olam lo shuv לעולם לא שוב!
 
Posts: 43810 | Location: ...... I am thrice divorced, and I live in a van DOWN BY THE RIVER!!! (in Arkansas) | Registered: December 20, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Ice age heat wave,
cant complain.
Picture of MikeGLI
posted Hide Post
Prefontaine is the SME in this department.




NRA Life Member
Steak: Rare. Coffee: Black. Bourbon: Neat.
 
Posts: 9676 | Location: Orlando, Florida | Registered: July 12, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
There are a couple of things to remember about toilet repairs that will make it much easier. First, cells phone pics are incredibly useful. Take the lid off and take as many as you feel like to take to the store with you. Then, remember that one broken toilet part is always followed by the next, domino effect. When you take a toilet apart, you might as well replace all the guts, including the supply line. I did it this spring, the parts at Lowe's cost, in total, about 18 bucks. Lastly, if ya can, buy two sets. Stash the second in a nearby closet. Toilets never leak at a convenient time.
 
Posts: 17121 | Location: Lexington, KY | Registered: October 15, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Eating elephants
one bite at a time
Picture of ffips
posted Hide Post
And thus a turd herder was born. Smile

It is always frustrating that something so simple never is.
 
Posts: 3572 | Location: in the southwest Atlanta metro area | Registered: September 10, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Knows too little
about too much
Picture of rduckwor
posted Hide Post
This I truly believe.

RMD
quote:
Originally posted by Fredward:
There are a couple of things to remember about toilet repairs that will make it much easier. First, cells phone pics are incredibly useful. Take the lid off and take as many as you feel like to take to the store with you. Then, remember that one broken toilet part is always followed by the next, domino effect. When you take a toilet apart, you might as well replace all the guts, including the supply line. I did it this spring, the parts at Lowe's cost, in total, about 18 bucks. Lastly, if ya can, buy two sets. Stash the second in a nearby closet. Toilets never leak at a convenient time.




TL Davis: “The Second Amendment is special, not because it protects guns, but because its violation signals a government with the intention to oppress its people…”
Remember: After the first one, the rest are free.
 
Posts: 20303 | Location: L.A. - Lower Alabama | Registered: April 06, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of vthoky
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by rduckwor:
In short, I must have demounted/remounted that damn tank five times now.


Once I finally got mine to stop leaking, I found that it's crooked.

Three years later... it's still crooked. I'm not about to take that darned thing apart again until I have to!




God bless America.
 
Posts: 13428 | Location: The mountainous part of Hokie Nation! | Registered: July 15, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
member
Picture of henryaz
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by rduckwor:
I think I have it sealed up.

Problem:

I'm afraid to use that toilet ever again in my life.

I recently went through this with our three toilets (installed 15 years ago). After #1, I learned to get every single gasket that goes in there, plus the flush valve, plus tank to bowl gasket, plus refill tube to tank gasket, and I was finally done. The worst is when it leaks internally (through the tank to bowl gasket). You don't see any water on the outside, but you hear the damn thing refilling every 2 hours or so.
 
And, yes, you can easily crack the porcelain on the tank by overtightening the bolts. I know this from experience. Rubber washers at every point on the tank.
 
 
Posts: 10778 | Location: South Congress AZ | Registered: May 27, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
It's not you,
it's me.
Picture of RAMIUS
posted Hide Post
I swear that plumbing guy is NEVER available in the big box stores.
 
Posts: 7016 | Location: Right outside Philly | Registered: September 08, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
I had the same problem with tank bolts leaking. I could have wrote this exact same post several years ago. I ended up calling a damn plumber. Felt like a real idiot.


 
Posts: 5406 | Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA | Registered: February 27, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
Standard refrain: I HATE PLUMBING



I should be tall and rich too; That ain't gonna happen either
 
Posts: 358 | Location: NW NJ | Registered: December 07, 2015Reply With QuoteReport This Post
semi-reformed sailor
Picture of MikeinNC
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Fredward:
There are a couple of things to remember about toilet repairs that will make it much easier. First, cells phone pics are incredibly useful. Take the lid off and take as many as you feel like to take to the store with you. Then, remember that one broken toilet part is always followed by the next, domino effect. When you take a toilet apart, you might as well replace all the guts, including the supply line. I did it this spring, the parts at Lowe's cost, in total, about 18 bucks. Lastly, if ya can, buy two sets. Stash the second in a nearby closet. Toilets never leak at a convenient time.


This needs to be repeated.

My dad is a plumber, and he always replaced everything in whatever he is working on...because he said that if it's old enough to break,tear,leak..all the other parts are too...

He is the cheapestperson I know. And he will spend money on toilets, sinks, showers....



"Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor.” Robert A. Heinlein

“You may beat me, but you will never win.” sigmonkey-2020

“A single round of buckshot to the torso almost always results in an immediate change of behavior.” Chris Baker
 
Posts: 11247 | Location: Temple, Texas! | Registered: October 07, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
  Powered by Social Strata  
 

SIGforum.com    Main Page  Hop To Forum Categories  What's Your Deal!    Le Toilet

© SIGforum 2024