Potty Mouth Toilet Talk

Is this a whole post about a toilet? Yes, it is. Sadly (fortunately?), I didn’t take many pictures to illustrate the story, so I’ll be using gifs to express how I felt during the ordeal to get this plumbing working again.

Our toilet saga started with installing a new closet flange because the original flange was cracked. Removing the flange was awful. The builders installed it with the flange’s neck on the exterior of the pipe, meaning we couldn’t really get in to cut it out. Not to mention it was primed and cemented in, making it virtually impossible to remove.

We ended up buying a slightly smaller closet flange that fit on the inside of the PVC piping (aka the poop chute – official term used in the plumbing biz). I added a flange extender kit as well (to raise it up and accommodate the new tile floor height).

I did a test run with the toilet without a wax ring to make sure it fit. Success! Except one tiny/huge problem: I made a mistake with tiling and didn’t fill in enough behind the toilet!

See the space uncovered by backerboard? I followed along the builder’s subfloor layout. But it wasn’t enough. The builder, yet again, betrayed me! Should have traced the toilet outline on the floor. Oh well.

This delayed toilet installation since I had to go back and fill a very small space (seriously, it took like 10 tiles).

Once the new tile was grouted and sealed, I carefully slid the toilet in place and secured it. I attached the tank to the bowl and went to connect the water when I realized that, with the floor slightly raising the toilet, the hose to the tank no longer reached the water inlet.

At this point, I didn’t think anything else could go wrong. Hahah. So silly of me.

I installed a dual flush kit (which we have in our master bathroom and love, plus installing is painless), got a new, longer hose, secured everything in place and filled the tank with water. No leaks! Until I flushed.

WHAT IS HAPPENING. Water came dribbling out between the bowl and tank.

So I took everything apart for the umpteenth time to locate the leak’s source. Culprit? The spongey gasket between the tank and bowl was basically dry-rotted. I guess drying out for the past two months did it in. That was a cheap fix though.

So. New flange. Flange extender. Wax Ring. More tile. New hose connection. Dual flush. Gasket. Tank to bowl bolts. The plumbing people at Lowe’s now know my name. (It wasn’t that expensive, but it added up)

The results, however, were worth it. We have a second toilet! It feels so great to have a hole in the floor covered up, finally.

And for posterity, Ryan’s going to crawl under the house to make sure nothing is dripping or leaking. That’s my worst fear – have an unknown leak that rots the wood and have my bathroom fall in. Haha.

There was a lot of radio silence last week, all toilet plumbing induced. We couldn’t post anything because we were wrapped up with this jerk! I have a post coming that will detail hanging a couple of things on the wall, and after that, it’s time for a big bathroom reveal. Aw yeah.

Have you ever worked on a project were little things just kept going wrong? Nothing major – just little thing after little thing. Tell me your stories! You can read about my good plumbing experience with the bathroom sink here.