Grab a beer and learn how to fix your clogged, running, leaking, or otherwise jacked-up toilet. We’ll talk you through identifying the problem and fixing it — and knowing when to quit and call in the pros. (Podcast Download)
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5 Responses to One Beer Projects: Fixing Your Toilet
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Its all crap.(Joke)
How about doing a one beer on visiting a junkyard. I’ve never done it. How does it work?
After I had just listened to the fixing your toilet episode this morning, I almost created a case of beer project for myself. I was putting up some moulding in the kitchen on the wall shared with the bathroom. I started nailing up a piece with my finish nailer and after 3 or 4 nails I hear a ring, like somebody had struck a bell. I asked my wife weather she had heard it too, or if I had just imagined it. Unfortunately she had. So I dug up my tape measure, went to the basement and figured out where my drain stack was. Then I came back upstairs and measured to exactly where I sunk the last nail. I swore a little and broke for some lunch.
After lunch, I cut a whole in the wall to see how bad the damage was. I was very lucky, the nail bent right where it had struck the stack. I pulled off the moulding and removed the nail and there was a little gouge in the copper pipe where the nail hit, but it was still intact.
Two things saved me: My house is old enough, or the builder was feeling rich enough to use copper instead of PVC for the drain stack. Two I didn’t hit the pipe dead on. Even though I was above where the toilet came in, I was only about a foot above right at floor level. It still could have been bad.
Moral of the story: Always know where your drain stack is when you are doing anything in a 10 foot radius .
My dad has been a professional plumber for 25 years and between this OBP and the Fixing a leaky faucet you have covered 50% of his work. Now you just need to cover a unclogging a sink / tub drain which I also a One Beer Project and you’ll have 75%.
I think you made changing a wax ring sound a little harder than it is. Its pretty straight forward just a little time consuming. Cleaning the old wax and making sure its set and not still leaking isn’t quick but its not bad.
I have been told by more than one plumber that you should NEVER use Liquid Plumber or Draino in a clogged toilet. The chemical reaction that it uses to unclog a drain can crack a porcelain toilet and that would put you up shit’s creek, literally. If the plunger doesn’t work call a pro.
One more thing, a good tip for getting the last bit of water out of a tank or toilet is to use a shop vac. I would empty the canister on the vac first and remove the paper filter but it works much better than a sponge and is easier than cleaning water up off the floor.
Maybe the reason the plumbers don’t want you using Drano/Liquid Plum’r to clear a clog is that it works. If the plunger/snake won’t cut it and you don’t have a compressed air system to clear the pipe with, chemicals are a good last resort. A good bit of the time, paying to have a “pro” come out just involves them pouring professional strength chemicals to accomplish the same thing.