My house has two bathrooms – one in the basement and one on the second floor – and I noticed a leak around the toilet in the upstairs bathroom after a flush.<\/p>\n
It wasn’t a lot of water, but any leak is a problem and I knew I had to fix it.<\/p>\n
I cleaned the toilet thoroughly and then didn’t use that toilet for a few days while I worked up the courage to tackle the project.<\/p>\n
See, my dad is really handy. He can build huge projects and tackle all kinds of home-improvement tasks and I’ve learned a lot from him over the years. But, he’s always had a dislike for plumbing. I think mostly because it’s so imprecise. You can measure boards and if you’re careful, they will always line up. With plumbing, you can over tighten or under tighten and you’ve got a leak. It’s too random.<\/p>\n
I bought a wax ring and figured that was the issue based on where the leak was – then I watched a Youtube video on how to change it out.<\/p>\n
So:
\nWater off and one last flush
\nScoop the rest of the water from the tank and bowl
\nRemove the nuts and washers and lift off the bowl<\/p>\n
The wax ring was in bad shape and I scraped it off with a putty knife and cleaned up the area. I had some help in getting the bowl back on and lined up with the new ring. When everything was back in place, I turned on the water and let the tank fill up.<\/p>\n
And then I flushed.<\/p>\n
No.<\/p>\n
Leaks.<\/p>\n
I mean, none. It worked perfectly. I was, frankly, a little scared to say anything in front of the toilet since I didn’t want to tempt fate – but it’s working great.<\/p>\n
I got the bathroom cleaned up and washed my hands for about an hour – even with gloves on that wax ring was pretty foul – but then I was done and my bathroom was fine.<\/p>\n
Huh. I guess this home-owner thing isn’t too bad.<\/p>\n
I called my dad to tell him the news and his response was to jokingly suggest he now knows who to call if he has a plumbing problem. I laughed and said I should have kept it to myself.<\/p>\n
So, I fixed a sump pump last year and now a toilet’s wax ring. I’ve been asked to maybe help put in a sink – we’ll have to see about that.<\/p>\n
Not too shabby for a geek – though I’m not looking for a new profession.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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