Toilet Trials

[Cloudbringer]

Ok, so I've got a house built by a good builder who was a bit cheap on the frills and VERY basic on the basics.. as in the one time I had a plumber in for a leak in the upstairs toilet tank (bad gasket) he just shook his head at the brand name and when I asked how bad it was he smiled and said not terribly, just not top of the line. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Well, all along I've not liked the way the downstairs one flushed. You had to hang onto the handle for ages or it stopped abruptly. Then it takes eons to refill and if any of you have the new 'low flow toilets (out there in the US I think many will, but not sure outside the States what the state of Plumbing is!), you know that sometimes you just gotta flush that thing a bit more than once to get it to do what is SHOULD do the first time. [img]tongue.gif[/img] Ack.. don't get me started.. I can rant on the low flow versus 'water wasting' issue for hours.. LOL [img]graemlins/laugh2.gif[/img]

Ahem.. well where was I? Well, yesterday I got home and utilized the facilities and as is my wont and custom, did in fact push the lever on the tank to cause a flush to occur... only CRACK! the handle snapped off in my hand as I did. [img]graemlins/1disgust.gif[/img]

Oh JOY! I thought... just what I need...and I promptly moved the little cow in a dress (covers the air freshener... ok.. ok..laugh, but it's cute.. and my grandmother made it... [img]smile.gif[/img] ) and the air freshener and took the tank top off, set it down and reached in to pull the lever up and flush manually. Mission accomplished, I put the tank top on and replaces MS. Cow and her freshener, a lovely Apple Spice fragrance, which will become a LIME non-aersol spray soon. So now I go off about my business, posting and reading mail and making dinner......and of course, inevitably, must utilize said facilities once more....and ACK! Darn handle is still broken...take MS Cow off, remove CAT who found his way to back of toilet to direct my actions there, remove air freshener.... ok.. so by now... you got the picture.. and at 2:00 am when I'm half awake...sigh..folks, it AIN'T PURRTY! [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/toilet.gif[/img]

Today my delightfully helpful roomate brought me a present. A "Handle Repair Kit" to play with! Yippee! Calooo! Callay! I promptly run off to do battle.. err repair my toilet handle. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Remove MS Cow, air freshener, [img]graemlins/kitty2.gif[/img] and cover of tank. I get pliers and try to remove washer/nut from bolt on broken piece of handle. Hmmm.. my hand is not quite big enough to do that one-handed, so I have to place the pliers on with two hands and then have no way to hold the broken piece so it won't spin too... [img]tongue.gif[/img] Ok.. call for roomie who then realizes I'm turning the nut the wrong way...duh.. well it IS in backwards, the way the handles go... (I plead acceptable ignorance.. I'm female ! HAHAHAH.. well and no plumber! )

Throughout all this my cat, Merlin, sat in the sink and peered over my shoulder. He was truly fascinated and when I went off for tools he'd hop onto the seat and peer in to be sure no monsters came out.

Ok, so NOW we are getting somewhere... the nut is off, the broken part removed and I take the lever off the stopper chain. Now I say chain but it's really a piece of green rubber with little 'teeth' that catch in the lever. I promptly slide the new handle/lever in and put the chain on and ..oops.. can't slide the washer over that.. gotta remove the chain, put washer on... test, shorten the chain, put top on, try again.. ok, now I realize the lever is too long.. instructions say.. get a hacksaw. AAAAAAAAACK! I have't got one! [img]graemlins/wow.gif[/img] So I used a razorblade/widget and then broke it off.

Put all that back and got the washer tight and voila! I now have a toilet that flushes and much better than it used to!

Anyone wanna fund my plumbers lessons?

Cloudy, putting a notch in her "Homeowner's list of things you never had to do before in your life but do now" belt.

[ 06-15-2002, 10:23 PM: Message edited by: Cloudbringer ]

[Cloudbringer]

PS, anyone else got a good Home Repair story?

CB

[Ladyzekke]

LOL! Merlin kept guard, watching out for any toilet intruders!

Fortunately Cloudy, people are realizing that the low flows are actually causing people to use MORE water than regular ones (due to multiple flush sessions) and are relaxing the regulations. A case where a good idea had no basis in the real world [img]smile.gif[/img] or maybe more of us should be vegan and not eat so much bulk [img]smile.gif[/img] hehehehe what a topic [img]smile.gif[/img] Im planning on making a trip to canada to smuggle some REAL toilets back for my home [img]smile.gif[/img] The kind where you have to not stand too close when you flush them or you may get sucked in [img]smile.gif[/img]

[SomeGuy]

I wish i had a cat that could live in the house but sadly my other cat died.

Cloudy [img]smile.gif[/img] Im seriously glad you lived through your experience with the razor knife [img]smile.gif[/img] A lady friend of mine who is also the industrious home owner sort tried to use it for a similar function and turned a simple home repair job into a 12 stitch finger repair job too [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Cloudbringer]

Originally posted by MagiK: Cloudy [img]smile.gif[/img] Im seriously glad you lived through your experience with the razor knife [img]smile.gif[/img] A lady friend of mine who is also the industrious home owner sort tried to use it for a similar function and turned a simple home repair job into a 12 stitch finger repair job too [img]smile.gif[/img]

OUCH! Well, I just scored it on both sides then snapped it.

I really hated to call a plumber to do this little job! [img]tongue.gif[/img] I mean paying someone that much an hour to do what took about half an hour for me? Nah! Now, if it had been a leak or something more ominous.. I'd have called that Plumber in an instant!

Maybe I need a hacksaw....LOL

[Scholarcs]

Cloudy, I am right in the middle of a similar story! Anyway our dishwasher is broken really badly, and the man who came to fix it couldnt pull it out to see what was wrong with it because the leaking water had swollen the floorboards beneath it. So now we have a broken diswasher that can't be taken out to fix, cant be used, and I have to clean and dry the dishes for my whole family!

Any suggestions anyone?

Originally posted by Cloudbringer: PS, anyone else got a good Home Repair story? CB

Oh dare you ask! (Great job with the toilet there btw!!) [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

You do need a hacksaw! Tools are the single gal's friend! (the engaged gal's too...the wife's too lol)
Anyway, here's one of mine...
My house in Tucson was old...really old...and the guy I bought it from was the handyman from hell...caulking and duct tape repaired a lot of stuff that was easy to tear out and replace but when I went to put new tile in the bathroom I noticed (while I was down there taking measurements, and mind you, I'm still new to the house) I noticed that the existing tile felt squishy...pulling up the old tile, the floor (wood over concrete) was pulp...well the wood part anyway. It seemed to be the worse around the sink so I checked everything I could out there and nothing leaked but it was too wet for it to be old.
So I walked into the bedroom behind the bathroom and pulled a big framed mirror off the wall....voila'! A hole in the wall!
Voila again! A pipe in between the two walls!
Oh my freaking goodness...the pipe had been cut and repaired with electrical tape! He must have bee4n out of duct tape lol.
Seems when he installed a new vent into the plumbing, he installed it towards the kitchen and thought he could just cut the old one out.
NOT!
I had to wriggle my arm in between the walls and cut out more pipe with just a hacksaw blade (attached to the saw, it didn't fit into the space) and then found out that the plumbing was so old that there weren't any pipes or PVC that I could use to fix it.
*this is where the light bulb went off*
I measured the pipe and went to the auto-parts store where I found a short radiator hose to a Datsun or a Nissan that would fit it perfectly.
A couple of hose clamps and wrenching my wrist to get them tight enough within the confines of the space between two walls and the leak was stopped.
I tore the whole bathroom out from the ceiling to the floor and rebuilt it...tub out in the yard, toilet and sink out in the trash lol...it took me two months to do it alone and work a full time job at the same time (not to mention daily duties like cooking, eating cleaning, laundry, etc). Lucky for me, I had a good friend 2 doors down who would let us use his bathroom for showers and natures calls.
It was beautiful when I was finished. [img]smile.gif[/img] I kinda miss that place.

[ 06-16-2002, 01:52 AM: Message edited by: Moni ]

Originally posted by Scholarcs: Cloudy, I am right in the middle of a similar story! Anyway our dishwasher is broken really badly, and the man who came to fix it couldnt pull it out to see what was wrong with it because the leaking water had swollen the floorboards beneath it. So now we have a broken diswasher that can't be taken out to fix, cant be used, and I have to clean and dry the dishes for my whole family! Any suggestions anyone?

Focus a fan on the floor around your dishwasher and turn it on high...the floor should recede as it dries out.
Good Luck with that dishwasher! I know firsthand what pains they can be!!