Well now, originally the plan for Sunday was for a couple of the guys to come over and help me haul out some old junk to the sidewalk for the monthly scheduled bulk trash pickup. That plan took a detour when dad pointed out that there was something wrong with the toilet. Every time it was used, the ground around it would get a little wet. This was on Saturday, I took a look at the toilet. It didn’t look like the water inlet fittings or the tank was leaking. I figured the gunky gasket thing around the base at the poopy outlet was failing. Bleah. Shouldn’t be a terribly difficult repair, but kinda icky, and assistance would be good to lift and install the toilet on the drain. The call went out late Saturday.
This morning got up relatively early. Used the other toilet. Looked for some bleach to put in, hm, we don’t seem to have any. I dug up some blue food coloring and put a couple drops into the bowl, then did a slow flush by pouring some water in, and waited a bit. Sure enough, some blue showed up on a paper towel placed around the base. The wax poop gasket is leaking. Off to the hardware store I go and I get the wax gasket, the nut & bolts for the toilet base, and a new ss flex hose fitting for the water inlet. As I’m leaving, get in touch with J and leave a message with Fab. J’s on his way, Fab is unknown. Get back home and get started and immediately run into a problem, the bolts holding the tank to the base of the toilet have corroded to nothing and snap off. The gaskets between the tank and toilet are also old, and the ss hose I bought has wrong size fittings. Nuts. About set to take the toilet off the drain, as J rolls in. Decide not to move it yet and let the possible poopy fumes free. Make another run to the hardware store. This time get the correct hose, get a tank to base kit, and I decide to replace the fill valve with a newer style one without the ball float and long wire arm. Alright, we’re all set!
Or so I thought. We get back, pull the toilet off the drain, replace the gloppy poop seal, replace the bolts, and drop the toilet back on, and bolt the base down. So far so good. I break open the tank to base kit install the bolts and washers, and then get to the drain fitting gaskets. Hey, it’s only got the outside one. Hmm, guess we can reuse the old inside gasket. Install the tank, install the new fill valve assembly, hook up the water hose, and it looks like we’re good to go. Start filling the water and watch the underside. Dang, I see some leakage. We tighten the bolts some more, still leaking. Curses, looks like we need to change that other gasket that was not included with the kit. Sheesh. It’s off to City Mill for a third time for that one gasket, and we get sidetracked when I tell him about the cordless powered staple gun in the add pasted up. He ends up buying a corded one that should help him with his work of hanging canvases.
Fab is hanging out in my garage when we get back. We take the tank off again, take the tank drain apart, replace that gasket, then put everything back again. Thinking this should really all be good now, I fill the water with some vigor and check for leaks. Aw damn! It’s leaking even worse! The heck?! Take the tank off yet again, take the drain off, and make sure the gasket is centered, and this time we really crank it down when we tighten it. Fill tank with some water before installing on the toilet to check the seal. Looks good. There appears to be a leak from the flapper seal, but the tank itself looks tight now. Reinstall good and tight, and fill. Aaah, no leaks, except the flapper now…. Can live with that for now, that just means the toilet will run on, but it’s a pretty easy fix that can be taken care of anytime.
We need to take care of the original plan, which was to drag out an old fridge and oven to the curbside. With J, Fab, myself and a handtruck, its done in no time. And we rescue a pair of mid seventies vintage Hawaii liscence plates and my skateboard from a bit later! In good condition too! With the hard stuff done, J takes off. I’m pretty famished having not had lunch yet and its coming close to 5:00. Fab and I head out to find a bite and decide to swing by City Mill one more time to see if they’re still open. For the fourth and final time of the day I go in and get a new flapper vavle assembly. This really will be the last time, since they’re closing soon.
Spin by Burger King and get a six pack “Burget Shots”. I guess this mini burger “sliders” thing is the new fad. BK’s six pack version is made like a perforated sheet of burger if you will. Two by three array of mini buns that are still joined like when you buy a pack from the grocery store, and a matching two by three matrix of hamburger, a pickle in each cell, slathered with yellow mustard and ketchup and cheese. It’s not bad, but I by far prefer the Jack in the Box mini sirloin burgers, not that I’m a big fast food burger fan. We upgraded to o-rings, and the counter girl confused me with her heavily accented query of whether I wanted onion ring sauce. Huh? Oh… Ok…. Getting back and eating the o-rings with the “Zesty” sauce was nothing special. I could detect a hint of horseradish. I think both Fab and I would concur that plain ketchup is just as good. Anyway, the end of the day is arriving and after some more jaw jacking, Fab takes off.
So in conclusion I’d have to say, that even with the advent of the Internet, which is great for looking up info on these kind of repairs and work, depending on your priorities, there is something to be said for having a professional do work. For what had taken us most of the day with four trips to the hardware store, paying a pro to do the same it would have been done in a hour. People complain about the high cost of calling in a pro, and sure you could do it yourself, but as this day has gone to show, what you are paying for is his experience and expertise of having done this many times before and knowing what to expect and having the tools and supplies at hand to do the job efficiently. Now having had gone through this once, I know what to expect and if I had to do it again, I’m sure I could do it faster. Having the luxury of time and no big pressure to get it done, doing this myself (with help) today was no problem and worth the effort. But for others under different circumstances, don’t feel bad about calling in a pro, it is money well spent.
Shout out to J and Fab for their assistance. It’s always good to have buddies helping out, it keeps the cursing and frustration level down and the mood lighter than when you’re wrestling with things alone. Thanks, and there’s space of the lanai floor that hasn’t seen light for many years till now!
D.I.Y.!!!! A lot of the times I’ve deferred to a so called “Pro”, they’ve done just the hackest, half-ass job. It really is hard to find good help. Just sucks when you don’t have the time or skills to pull stuff off on your own.
Car stuff I like to DIY as much as possible. Most operations their objective is to get in as much repairs as possible in shortest time. So even if the mechanic is top notch, they’re under time pressure. And they’ll usually have to order in parts same as me so don’t save much time with that either. With plumbing it’s mostly standardized parts so they carry most of what would be needed and can do the repair one time.