Yet Another Toilet Repair

Written by Nickel - 6 Comments

Last summer I made the claim that few things in life suck more than fixing a leaky toilet on a Friday night. Well, I’ve now found something that sucks just about as much… Having ‘toilet issues’ less than two weeks before close (on Mother’s Day, no less) and therefore having to fix what will soon be someone else’s toilet. This time it was a bad ballcock (what a great word) that was causing the water to run continually.

Once I realized what was going on, I simply shut off the water as a temporary workaround. I then picked up a new ballcock for about seven bucks at Lowe’s when we were out and about later in the day. I then grabbed my wrench and set to work. All in all, the repair took just 12 minutes, including the time it took to run back down to the garage to grab the right wrench (yes, I’ve actually been reduced to timing things like this for amusement).

While it was a pretty easy fix, it was frustrating just the same — after all, I’m now in the mode of trying to figure out how I can make it from now until we vacate with just a single mowing, so I really don’t want to be fixing stuff around the house… Oh well, at least I didn’t have to call a plumber! Let’s just hope I don’t have to re-repair it this time around.

Published on May 16th, 2006 - 6 Comments
Filed under: House & Home
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About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!

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Comments (scroll down to add your own):

  1. Houses know when you’re selling them and they get even by breaking down in places that have run for decades without a problem. ;-)

    Comment by FMF — May 16th 2006 @ 12:55 pm

  2. I had to keep repairing the toilet at my old apartment. Man, am I glad to not live there anymore.

    Comment by Blaine Moore — May 16th 2006 @ 1:00 pm

  3. Less than a month after we moved into our previous house, our sewer line broke, causing sewage to backup into both our bathrooms on NEW YEAR’S EVE (of all times). And not just into the toilets, but all over the floor of one of the bathrooms.) Finding someone thrilled to come out and clean up raw sewage on New Year’s Eve was not fun. And since we were in the house less than a month, we could not have been more frustrated! The bathroom cabinets and flooring had to all be replaced – thank heavens for homeowners insurance.

    Comment by Lisa — May 17th 2006 @ 8:50 am

  4. Lisa — Yikes!!! Here’s hoping Nickel doesn’t have to deal with something like this!!!

    Comment by FMF — May 18th 2006 @ 1:42 pm

  5. I used to work for a company that sold toilets. This is an unreal toilet…

    Check out the Niagara Flapperless

    http://www.niagaraconservation.com :)

    Comment by old emp — May 18th 2006 @ 2:42 pm

  6. I just spent the evening repairing the inlet pipe on my toilet. The problem started with the shutoff valve. After about a half hour of thinking to myself… “gee that’s been running a little long” I realized that there might be something wrong. So I go up and jiggle the “ball-cock”… hehehehe Ahem. Anyways, disappointly the valve doesn’t shut off the flow. At about this time I’m thinking it’s 8:30pm– just enough time to grab some dinner (3 pieces of honey mustard chicken and some cheesey mashed potatoes) and high-tail it to home depot to fetch a replacement shutoff valve. I get home with one said shutoff valve slash “ball-cock” ehehehe Ahem assembly. 20 minutes later its installed and water flowing and thats when I notice a problem. A leak! Right around the blasted manual shut-off valve where the brass pipe connects. After about 10 minutes of cursing while eating a popscicle its now 9:00pm. The hardware store is closed and I am now limited to a long trip out to walmart (a 20 minute drive) to fetch a replacement pipe. This is the key to this highly inappropriante language free rant. What I’m getting at is that whenever you replace a cutoff valve. It is very likely that after a few years the seals on the pipe leading from the manual valve to the tank valve has rotted a little bit and when installing said new tank valve you will unavoidably disturb this pipe and cause a small amount of leakage. So… when you purchase the tank valve, grab a new intake pipe too or you will be spending around 20-40 minutes of cursing, driving and walking the isles of your nearest plumbing hardware vendor.

    Comment by Joel B. — Apr 1st 2007 @ 1:00 am

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