Flood at the outhouse

Just about everyone knows the sinking feeling of walking into their house or apartment and finding unexpected water all over the floor. Man, you know there’s going to be a problem. The only questions are, “Where is the issue?” and “How bad is it?”

Well, that’s what I walked into when I came into the office to film an episode of my podcast: water all over the hallway and into the kitchen.

Now I’d been told there was a toilet that started leaking, but we turned the water off to stop the leak. Turns out, it was more than just a crack in the toilet tank. The angle stop where we turned off the water was also leaking.

After draining and removing the toilet, I needed to address the angle stop before replacing the toilet. When I removed the old angle stop, there were two pretty big issues. The first was there wasn’t a washer present. Either it was never there, or it was cheap and had completely dissolved.

Second, the person who soldered on the old angle stop didn’t to a very good job. In fact, I’m surprised it lasted as long as it did.

Now I know a lot of people will ask why I didn’t use compression or push fittings to replace the angle stop. I know when I sweat this on, and do it right, I’m not going to have any problems with it. It may take a little more work, but I know it’s going to last.

Now when it comes to setting the toilet, I do it just a little bit different from other plumbers. Most plumbers will set the new wax ring on the floor, then place the toilet on top. I like to put the wax ring directly on the toilet, then place it. Then all you have to do is line up the bolts and push it into place.

Now you just need to get it bolted down the right way, turn the water back on, check for leaks, and you’re good to go. Replacing a toilet really isn’t a hard thing to do. With a little know how, this is something just about anyone can do.

And in very little time at all we’ve replaced a leaky angle stop and a cracked toilet, and this bathroom here at the Outhouse is good to go.