Home repair
Oct. 29th, 2008 05:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gazerwolfHad one of THOSE projects Sunday.
Ben came upstairs after his lunch and told Tracy that a pipe was dripping downstairs.
I was dozing on the couch and figured one of the boys had been climbing again and had pulled something loose...and that I'd check it later.
About 15 minutes later I couldn't doze anymore because I was worrying about the leak so I figured I'd check it out.
Good news was that they hadn't pulled anything loose. I also figured out pretty quick that it wasn't the connection where the upstairs toilet met the main sewer line...but that the water was dripping down the toilet pipe.
So I trudge back upstairs, hoping it's not leaking where the toilet meets the floor.
It wasn't. The tank on the back had developed a leak around one of the bolts holding it to the rest of the toilet. So I try tightening....no change in the drip...I examine it closer...the rubber seal looks fine....so I figure I may have a hairline crack near the bolt (since it was apparently loose enough to rock once in a great while.)
It hasn't been flushing right for a while anyway...I figured partially from the tilt of the floor and partially due to a bad design.
So I trudged into the living room and talked to Tracy. We both figured it was too much trouble to fix it...partially because we were going to replace it eventually (the flushing problem) partially because we needed to fix the floor under it (the tilting problem) and partially because I figured that I was more likely to break it worse trying to fix it due to it's age.
So Off I go to Lowes to get a new toilet and all the parts...plus some wood for the floor.
Find what I need fairly easily...I get two pieces of thin wood figuring that since I don't know the thickness of the wood I could always stack them (crossgrain) if I needed thicker.
Get back home and start moving things out so I can work. drain the toilet. unbolt it, and remove it...no problems there.
I had noticed a small drip from the shut off valve when I turned off the water to the toilet so one of the things I got was a new shut off valve....which turned out to be a compression fitting type and I needed a screw on type...(first sign that it is one of THOSE projects.)
I figure...oh well I can replace it later and start looking at the floor...take up the tile first...and start ripping out rotted wood....then I get to the wood around the toilet flange...and the flange rocks up when I pull up a piece of wood from under it;s edge..."wait a minute....isn't that supposed to stay flat?" I think to myself staring at the flange sitting at a 10 degree angle....
Turns out that the flange had cracked where it connected to the pipe...probably from the floor tilt.
So I go back into the living room and tell Tracy I have to go back to get a flange to replace the old one, and mention I got the wrong valve and that I should return that too..it was then that Tracy noticed that one of my pieces of wood cost $17...the other was $4.
We looked at the wood and they both looked the same...except that one of them had two barcodes on it (one on one side, one on the other) One barcode matched the other piece of wood.
So off to Lowes I go again...with a valve and two pieced of wood to return...(I figured I would need to show them which wood I intended to buy...but by the time I got there I was thinking I should get thicker wood anyway since I now knew from tearing up floor that I would need it)
Returned it all no problem and went to look at shut off valves...found very few that would screw on and silly me hadn't measured the pipe size anyway...so I decided to skip that for another time.
So I went over to look at flanges...found one that was designed to slip into the pipe with a rubber gasket and bolt to the floor...perfect. So I grab a 4 inch one stupidly thinking that that referred to the opening towards the toilet.
Got my thicker wood (again two pieces...cause by this point I wasn't sure one 2x2 square would be enough.)
Got home and decided to see if the flange would fit before I did anything else (since Lowes would close soon and I'd be stuck if it didn't) and nope...3 inch pipe don't take no 4 inch flange.
So I figure another trip to Lowes I might as well get the valve too...so I shut off the water take off the old valve and take the thing with me.
I have a little trouble finding the valve I need but that's because nobody puts things back where they go...grab the 3 inch flange and book for home.
Get home check flang to see if it will fit. Yep. Pull the plug I put in the pipe to keep it from dripping while I was gone...get drenched from the pressure (I turned off the water and shoved the plug in with in minutes and didn't bleed any pressure off anywhere else)
Put the new valve on, and proceed to finish ripping up the floor. After a while I get a nice 2x2 section of rotted floor (some good but a lot rotten) and lay my square of wood down.....hmm how am I gonna know where to put the hole for the pipe....pick it up look down and realize I can see the basement pretty well...so I lay the wood back down and grab a sharpie, go down stairs and trace around the pipe on the underside of the board.
Cut my hole....lay the wood in...and realize that because it was slats before that there is a 1/2 gap on the tub side...tiling over that would suck....well that piece next to the tup is pretty rotten...and I got the extra wood...I'll just fill in the whole area. So off to measure and cut I go...
It took me a LOT of tries to get anything close to the curve of the tub that would fit in that space...I'd cut, go try to place it, come back out, shave some off, try again...over and over.
Finally got it done.
Then I put the flang in the pipe, wiggling it back and forth like the instructions said.
Went to get the new toilet, put the wax ring on...put the bolts through the flange...put the toilet on the flange. Wiggeled the toilet back and forth to seat the wax ring...started tighening the bolts....hmmm this is moving a lot....why isn't it getting tighter to the floor?
Turns out I had forgotten to bolt the flange to the floor...so all that was holding the flange in the pipe was friction...and here I am pulling it up towards the toilet.
So i pull the toilet off...gather all the wax ring parts (since it doesn't seperate all in one piece) and bolt the flange down.
Rebuild the wax ring and wiggle the toilet into place...tighten it to the floor and hey it actually tightened to the floor...fancy that.
Put the tank on and tighten it up, connect the water supply line, yell "Smoke test" only to have Tracy tell me that if it smokes we have bigger problems. Turn on the water.
It fills up. No water leaking from the supply line, the valve, the tank, or anywhere else.
Tah Dah!
Ben came upstairs after his lunch and told Tracy that a pipe was dripping downstairs.
I was dozing on the couch and figured one of the boys had been climbing again and had pulled something loose...and that I'd check it later.
About 15 minutes later I couldn't doze anymore because I was worrying about the leak so I figured I'd check it out.
Good news was that they hadn't pulled anything loose. I also figured out pretty quick that it wasn't the connection where the upstairs toilet met the main sewer line...but that the water was dripping down the toilet pipe.
So I trudge back upstairs, hoping it's not leaking where the toilet meets the floor.
It wasn't. The tank on the back had developed a leak around one of the bolts holding it to the rest of the toilet. So I try tightening....no change in the drip...I examine it closer...the rubber seal looks fine....so I figure I may have a hairline crack near the bolt (since it was apparently loose enough to rock once in a great while.)
It hasn't been flushing right for a while anyway...I figured partially from the tilt of the floor and partially due to a bad design.
So I trudged into the living room and talked to Tracy. We both figured it was too much trouble to fix it...partially because we were going to replace it eventually (the flushing problem) partially because we needed to fix the floor under it (the tilting problem) and partially because I figured that I was more likely to break it worse trying to fix it due to it's age.
So Off I go to Lowes to get a new toilet and all the parts...plus some wood for the floor.
Find what I need fairly easily...I get two pieces of thin wood figuring that since I don't know the thickness of the wood I could always stack them (crossgrain) if I needed thicker.
Get back home and start moving things out so I can work. drain the toilet. unbolt it, and remove it...no problems there.
I had noticed a small drip from the shut off valve when I turned off the water to the toilet so one of the things I got was a new shut off valve....which turned out to be a compression fitting type and I needed a screw on type...(first sign that it is one of THOSE projects.)
I figure...oh well I can replace it later and start looking at the floor...take up the tile first...and start ripping out rotted wood....then I get to the wood around the toilet flange...and the flange rocks up when I pull up a piece of wood from under it;s edge..."wait a minute....isn't that supposed to stay flat?" I think to myself staring at the flange sitting at a 10 degree angle....
Turns out that the flange had cracked where it connected to the pipe...probably from the floor tilt.
So I go back into the living room and tell Tracy I have to go back to get a flange to replace the old one, and mention I got the wrong valve and that I should return that too..it was then that Tracy noticed that one of my pieces of wood cost $17...the other was $4.
We looked at the wood and they both looked the same...except that one of them had two barcodes on it (one on one side, one on the other) One barcode matched the other piece of wood.
So off to Lowes I go again...with a valve and two pieced of wood to return...(I figured I would need to show them which wood I intended to buy...but by the time I got there I was thinking I should get thicker wood anyway since I now knew from tearing up floor that I would need it)
Returned it all no problem and went to look at shut off valves...found very few that would screw on and silly me hadn't measured the pipe size anyway...so I decided to skip that for another time.
So I went over to look at flanges...found one that was designed to slip into the pipe with a rubber gasket and bolt to the floor...perfect. So I grab a 4 inch one stupidly thinking that that referred to the opening towards the toilet.
Got my thicker wood (again two pieces...cause by this point I wasn't sure one 2x2 square would be enough.)
Got home and decided to see if the flange would fit before I did anything else (since Lowes would close soon and I'd be stuck if it didn't) and nope...3 inch pipe don't take no 4 inch flange.
So I figure another trip to Lowes I might as well get the valve too...so I shut off the water take off the old valve and take the thing with me.
I have a little trouble finding the valve I need but that's because nobody puts things back where they go...grab the 3 inch flange and book for home.
Get home check flang to see if it will fit. Yep. Pull the plug I put in the pipe to keep it from dripping while I was gone...get drenched from the pressure (I turned off the water and shoved the plug in with in minutes and didn't bleed any pressure off anywhere else)
Put the new valve on, and proceed to finish ripping up the floor. After a while I get a nice 2x2 section of rotted floor (some good but a lot rotten) and lay my square of wood down.....hmm how am I gonna know where to put the hole for the pipe....pick it up look down and realize I can see the basement pretty well...so I lay the wood back down and grab a sharpie, go down stairs and trace around the pipe on the underside of the board.
Cut my hole....lay the wood in...and realize that because it was slats before that there is a 1/2 gap on the tub side...tiling over that would suck....well that piece next to the tup is pretty rotten...and I got the extra wood...I'll just fill in the whole area. So off to measure and cut I go...
It took me a LOT of tries to get anything close to the curve of the tub that would fit in that space...I'd cut, go try to place it, come back out, shave some off, try again...over and over.
Finally got it done.
Then I put the flang in the pipe, wiggling it back and forth like the instructions said.
Went to get the new toilet, put the wax ring on...put the bolts through the flange...put the toilet on the flange. Wiggeled the toilet back and forth to seat the wax ring...started tighening the bolts....hmmm this is moving a lot....why isn't it getting tighter to the floor?
Turns out I had forgotten to bolt the flange to the floor...so all that was holding the flange in the pipe was friction...and here I am pulling it up towards the toilet.
So i pull the toilet off...gather all the wax ring parts (since it doesn't seperate all in one piece) and bolt the flange down.
Rebuild the wax ring and wiggle the toilet into place...tighten it to the floor and hey it actually tightened to the floor...fancy that.
Put the tank on and tighten it up, connect the water supply line, yell "Smoke test" only to have Tracy tell me that if it smokes we have bigger problems. Turn on the water.
It fills up. No water leaking from the supply line, the valve, the tank, or anywhere else.
Tah Dah!
