My dad used to be a plumber. And he still can plumb and fix just about anything. So my affinity towards the functioning of water bearing devices could be said to be genetic. I have a strong memory of being eleven years old and going to summer camp for the first time. I came into the girls bathroom to find the camp coordinator and the girls hall head counselor starting at a toilet spinning round and round and round with a complete dumbfounded-ness. At first I wasn’t really sure what I was observing and until the first ones eye’s met mine I was thoroughly confused.
I then suddenly realized that they had no idea what to do to make the toilet stop filling. I introduced myself, pulled the back of the toilet off and removed the excess chain that was stuck underneath the flapper. Pure glee and relief filled both of their faces as I was hugged firmly and declared the official toilet helper of the camp, while quite in shock still.
And so for that entire week I was summoned off and on by them for assistance. I suppose it should have felt strange and that I should have questioned why they didn’t just fix it themselves or call the maintenance man, but for some reason I remember just obliging them and accepting their over the top praise.
After tackling the kitchen sink plumbing I was getting back in my groove. Flash forward to today. We have an old toilet. It’s been an obnoxious problem ever since we moved in and it happens just irregularly enough that neither Kevin nor I have gotten around to fixing it. It would get stuck and decide not to refill itself after you flushed, leaving the next person out of luck and stuck lifting the lid off, pressing the refill button til it started and waiting for the tank to fill.
Talk about aggravating. I’ve had the part for weeks and again….put it off.
Finally the flapper broke too so I decided to dig into it one afternoon while mom was here. I drained the tank and sopped up the excess water and released the bottom hose.
Mmm. Gotta love Georgia clay infusions everywhere the water touches. I’ve tried cleaning this stuff…..it’s impossible to remove.
Pulled out the old Fluid Master valve.
Oh, I forgot to mention I was being supervised while doing this:
Plumbing runs in the family son. You may need to be a second generation camp toilet fixer. You never know.
The seals are actually inside of each other which utterly confused me for a minute. The center one has to be popped out of the other one.
And the large seal placed over the end. Like so.
Finally I measured them to each other to raise the new one to the proper height by twisting the base.
And tightened her in good and tight and reconnected the hose and we were back in working order. The flapper’s chain had also broken off inside the flapper and simply needed to have the broken piece removed and be reattached. Pretty cool considering the one I bought from Home Depot didn’t fit at all.
Toilet refilling. Flapper Fixed. All is good in the Meyer bathroom.
Time: 30 minutes including clean up tops
Cost: Little over $5
Not having to lift up the back of the toilet anymore or explain process to our guests: Priceless
Why do we put off such easy little tasks? If you touch something everyday and it irritates you everyday thats bad for your health! Do something about it!
Well done!
[...] been pretty much 100% been focused on the kitchen and the garden. Other than occasional bouts of fixing toilets, hatching duck eggs, making old window hanging organizers and about a million other things of [...]