You went to the big town about 50 miles away to buy $25 worth of glaucoma meds, and came back with $200 worth of building materials including a new toilet? WTF?
I did, I truly did. In my defense it was all in the budget, just not on the schedule. I got up and rushed around early yesterday to meet my ride to the big town, not even taking the time to light a fire. I did, however, take the time to notice that it was no longer my imagination, my freeby Craigslist toilet was indeed leaking all over the bathroom floor and not from the supply hose.
This coming season’s big Lair project is to finally tile the floor. I have all the materials I need to do that (if I’m doing full disclosure today, I’ve had it for a couple of years) except some cementboard. I knew I was going to buy the cementboard, just not exactly when. And I ran hot and cold on replacing the toilet, with which I’ve never been completely happy but it was free.
So when all that water seeped out around the pedestal, fortuitously on the very day I was heading for a town with a Lowe’s, it seemed like a sign.
Unfortunately I also bought a fast-food meal which did not sit right in my stomach at all, and so all that stuff is still stacked at D&L’s because when I got back to the Gulch all I wanted was to sit, gulp down Alka-Seltzer and grumble. Feel much better this morning, though I haven’t yet had breakfast. I’m off to go get the stuff as soon as the frost thaws a bit more.
Speaking of that, yesterday was the most gorgeous day we’ve seen around here since sometime in September, and it’s supposed to stay like this for days. So it’s Outdoor Laundry Day! Boring, but nevertheless a definite Whoo Hoo.
Oh yeah! Great timing. Having that old potty leak AFTER the new stuff was installed would have been a major ugly. Now you can start out with everything clean. Way to go!
But what “fast food” did you get hold of? Sounds like you’d best pack a lunch next time. 🙂 I can’t eat that stuff anymore either.
Cheeseburger at Wendy’s. I’m not suggesting it was bad, I’m usually on the ragged edge of digestive problems any time I go so far off my solitary routine as a trip to a big town, and rich food is prone to tip me over the edge.
I occasionally eat that 99-cent Wendy’s cheeseburger (washed down with a free Senior drink). It’s the cheapest lunch in town, and certainly no health food, but I’ve not yet suffered any noticeable ill effects.
Since you built that place yourself I’m sure that you know what you are doing, but in my experience a leak around the base is seldom the fault of the toilet itself.
On the plus side, water saving toilets (unlike the early versions) really work these days. Whoooosshhhh!
Yes, I know – except in this case – cracked pedestal – it actually might be the toilet’s fault. Also I’ve just never been impressed with the way this one works – once I got over the joy of having a flush toilet that worked at all.
A few alternative ideas before you commit to a tile floor – given where you live and the potential for unexpected challenges to your home maintenance skills, IMHO a good quality thick sheet flooring would be much more practical in the event replacement or repairs are needed, and a very important addition would be the flooring insulation underlayment available at Lowe’s (at least where I live) and Home Depot that would give you a warmer floor in winter. It comes in rolls and different thicknesses and is in the sheet flooring aisle where I live. With the toilet out, sheet flooring installation is soooooo easy. Put paper down on the floor (I like 3 foot wide brown wrapping paper best) to cover it, overlapping and taping the paper where necessary, and hold it down with rocks or pots or something to keep it in place temporarily and cutting along edges and around the toilet hole and other holes to fit. Then cut smallish size (2 inch or so) triangles in it in enough places to keep it flat – you’ll put the paper pattern on your sheet flooring and use the cut out triangles to hold the pattern down on the flooring with something like masking tape or duct tape while you cut it out. Sometimes scissors are OK for cutting flooring but my favorite is my Husky folding box knife which has blades sharp enough to do surgery with. Change blades often. Then there’s no need to wrestle with a piece of flooring, trying to cut it in place. You’ll be done before beer o’clock. And if the floor gets damaged you just cut out the damaged part, cut a new piece to fit from your leftovers, and use double sided carpet tape to hold it in place. Tile is lovely but what a hassle if you have to cut, repair or replace it. Just saying.
Oh, and if you apply a nice thick bead of clear caulk along the edges and around any holes, if you do have a water leak the water won’t be able to leak down underneath the flooring. That little extra effort has saved me many hours of very unpleasant repair work. If I could only convince professional installers to take the time to do those little anticipatory extras…things leak, that’s just the way of the universe, may as well prepare for it as best you can.