the Way of the Turtle

PLUMBING TURTLE
Tuesday, August 27, 2019

If you only have one bathroom in your house and you need to work on the toilet, start work in the morning so you'll have plenty of time to run back and forth to the store to pick up parts you didn't anticipate needing.

I actually remember thinking that when I rehabbed the toilet in my old apartment down in Hillsdale, about 100 years ago. I seem to remember starting work on a Saturday night and then having to wait until the hardware store opened Sunday morning before I could finish.

Tonight I managed to just barely squeak it all in. The flapper valve has been leaking, and I don't remember ever replacing the parts inside the tank, so I picked up a full rebuild kit after yesterday's walk. Unfortunately, when I tried to take everything apart, all the rubber bits were disintegrating and the bolts were so badly corroded that I wasn't able to remove the tank, even after various attempts to cut them. So that left me with the option of replacing the whole thing.

Another trip to Lowes and I was killing myself hauling the box with the new toilet in it up my front steps. Removed the old one, and installed the new one - except the old water supply line was too short. 9:15 PM, so I had barely enough time to hustle to Lowes and pick up a longer supply line.

The good news is once I had everything assembled and hooked up, it worked fine and is more water efficient than the old one. I also lucked out in that tonight was trash night, so I hauled the old one down to the curb to be taken away with the rest of the week's trash.

Best of all, no more leaks and no more tapping as the tank fills (I think the latter was due to mineral deposits in the water supply line.)

JMH