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monsterzero posted:It seemed like the easiest thing for us to have hosed up, but now that you mentioned it it has continued to leak when not flushed... and the toilet/wax/flange should be ‘dry’ then, right? Hmm. Get a flashlight and a couple rags, then crawl under the toilet as best you can. Check the supply line to make sure that it isn't leaking. If that isn't the leak, check the underside of the tank. If it's leaking from the fasteners, replace them. If it's leaking from a hairline crack in the porcelain, you'll need to replace the toilet.
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Feb 22, 2018 02:34
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monsterzero posted:It seemed like the easiest thing for us to have hosed up, but now that you mentioned it it has continued to leak when not flushed... and the toilet/wax/flange should be ‘dry’ then, right? Hmm. As stated above, I had a leak that I thought was wax ring related because that was where the water became visible. Reality was it was just a really really slow leak from the bolts that hold the tank to the throne.
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Feb 22, 2018 03:28
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Yeah I mean I’ve only seated a couple of toilets but it wasn’t super involved - just used one of those green neoprene rings and had a spotter underneath to make sure it’s relatively lined up and then plop her down. If it’s still leaking after several attempts my guess is something is up with the toilet itself.
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Feb 22, 2018 04:14
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Thanks for the advice. My friend had already removed the toilet by the time I got there, but I’m pretty sure we just tweaked the tank bolt gaskets manhandling the toilet during the remodel. We replaced the gaskets and reassembled. Everything was dry through a beer, hopefully it’s still dry in the morning.
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Feb 22, 2018 07:24
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Boys who love boys
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If you are still having a problem with wax rings, I really like the Danco Hydroseat. It's a flange replacement that has the toilet bolts already fixed at the correct height, all you have to do is put a single wax ring under it and screw down the Hydroseat and you are done. I have also installed it with a single wax ring on top, as well as on the bottom in my uneven patio bathroom. https://www.danco.com/product/hydroseat-flange-repair/
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Feb 22, 2018 11:49
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kid sinister posted:You don't need to use teflon tape with compression fittings. With those, the ferrule deforms as you tighten the nut down, making the water tight seal. It was from the bottom, underneath the ferrule. I put some epoxy under it and everything is okay now. Thanks for the info though.
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Feb 22, 2018 15:42
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I've got a 15 year old electric water heater that's started acting up - hot water at any tap is almost scalding, but runs out very quickly. We've had a couple instances in the past year where the circuit protection on the thermostat has engaged. Is this something that I can fix by replacing the elements and/or thermostat, or am I better off replacing the whole drat thing?
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Mar 2, 2018 16:20
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It could be a couple things. You might have a thermostat (or both) going out. At least one heating element still works. As for having only a little bit of hot water, it might be full of sediment. The magnetic field from the elements on electric heaters pulls sediment out of the water. Over time, it collects together into sand and gravel in the bottom of the tank, taking up space for hot water. You can drain your tank, then unscrew the drain valve out and open up the cold valve up top every now and then to flush it all out. Stick a big screwdriver in the hole to bust up the big pieces whenever it gets slow. In fact, even if you do end up replacing your heater, you will want to empty the sediment out of the old heater just to make it lighter. Very useful if you have to go up or down steps with it.
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Mar 2, 2018 20:06
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ihafarm posted:I've got a 15 year old electric water heater that's started acting up - hot water at any tap is almost scalding, but runs out very quickly. We've had a couple instances in the past year where the circuit protection on the thermostat has engaged. Is this something that I can fix by replacing the elements and/or thermostat, or am I better off replacing the whole drat thing? If it's that old with those problems you'd be best to replace it. At that age it's smack dab in the middle of a bunch of bad dip tubes that were supplied to a bunch of manufacturers and it has probably broken off inside the tank. With a missing or broken dip tube cold water enters the tank and stays at the top to be delivered as hot even though it's not. In this situation you'd have hot water for 30 seconds or so, then it would turn cold pretty fast. If you have a bad thermostat on the upper element it could produce scalding hot water at the top of the tank. Also, with a heater this old you're probably either at the end of the sacrificial anode's life or its already gone. Once corrosion gets started in the tank it will fail spectacularly at some point in the near future.
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Mar 4, 2018 02:58
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My house was built in 1956 and has a cast iron tub. Are the positions of the drain and overflow relative to each other standard or will I need to measure and customize?
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Mar 8, 2018 02:37
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GWBBQ posted:My house was built in 1956 and has a cast iron tub. Are the positions of the drain and overflow relative to each other standard or will I need to measure and customize? Tub drains anymore are all adjustable.
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Mar 8, 2018 05:14
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Question about shower diverters. We have a 3 knob setup where the middle knob controls flow up to the shower head or down to the tub spout, and the stem is an old Sayco that's slightly broken/missing a piece in the back so that water doesn't fully go up to the shower head when it's closed and it also leaks out through the front by the knob. If we leave it fully open, water comes through the spout fine with no leaks, so we installed a spout diverter. However, when water comes out the spout, a little bit also comes out the shower head, and we think this is because the water pressure in this particular bathroom is super high (it blasts out the 2 sink faucets); FYI, water pressure is fine elsewhere in the house including the adjacent bathroom. I know a knob diverter will actually block flow up to the shower head when its set to come out the spout, but does a spout diverter do the same or is it relying on gravity? What I’ve read seems to say it doesn’t block and thus must rely on gravity. We've tried replacing the diverter stem but the part is so old that we can't find a replacement. It would be great if we could just plug the opening where the diverter stem goes, put a cover over the hole in the tile, and just use the spout diverter, but then we have this issue of water coming out the shower, and the super knowledgeable old guy at the local hardware store said finding a plug would be near impossible because Sayco threading is uncommon. If the only way to stop water from coming out the shower is to use a knob diverter because of the high water pressure, that means we have to install new valves since we can't find a stem that fits, and that is apparently an $800+ job that involves cutting out the valves and welding in a new one, which we'd obviously prefer to avoid. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xtk5ZxkyQVw Josh Lyman fucked around with this message at 17:17 on Mar 15, 2018 |
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Mar 14, 2018 21:39
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Toilet question: For a few weeks now it seems I've been needing to flush twice to actually get the bowl to empty. First attempt kinda takes out half the contents but the other half just sits and spins. After the tank fills attempt number 2 fully empties. It doesn't overflow on the first flush, and the water level in the bowl doesn't even rise noticeably at all. On the second flush, it's swift and normal, which seems to indicate I don't have a clog. I don't get what could be making the first flush nearly useless with a second one a minute later acting normal.
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Mar 17, 2018 04:19
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metallicaeg posted:Toilet question: Take off the tank lid. Is there a float on your flapper chain?
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Mar 17, 2018 05:06
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metallicaeg posted:Toilet question:
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Mar 17, 2018 09:32
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metallicaeg posted:Toilet question: I have a Koehler Cimmaron, which was advertised as this awesome water-saver that could flush 24-golf balls or something. It blows goats in the flushing dept. It behaves like a dual flush but actually is not...although the only way to get solids to flush reliably is to hold the handle down. After four years it got gradually worse until it took several flushes to take everything out & then a full bowl-brush out was required. It was doing the same thing: behaving as though the drain line was clogged, which it wasn’t (I replaced the stack myself with 4” PVC seven years ago) The last thing I tried in desperation was to shut off the supply and fill the tank with the hottest water (tub —>bucket —> tank) and flush. After doing this 6-8 times in rapid succession, including holding the valve body open (it doesn’t have a flapper) and blasting bucket-fuls straight down the tank opening, a ton of solid crap came blowing out of the under-rim channel. It improved flushing substantially, enough to put off replacing it with a pressure-flush unit for awhile. PainterofCrap fucked around with this message at 14:25 on Mar 17, 2018 |
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Mar 17, 2018 14:19
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PainterofCrap posted:I have a Koehler Cimmaron, which was advertised as this awesome water-saver that could flush 24-golf balls or something. It blows goats in the flushing dept. It behaves like a dual flush but actually is not...although the only way to get solids to flush reliably is to hold the handle down. Do you have hard water? Because this sounds like the kind of thing that happened before I got a water softener.
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Mar 17, 2018 16:28
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Anyone familiar with the Schluter kerdi drain and shower base system? I'm replacing a fiberglass shower unit on a concrete basement floor. The existing drain is cast iron cut flush with the floor. The old fiberglass unit just had a plastic sleeve that fit loosely into the cast iron. I'm now switching over to the Schluter shower base and the Kerdi drain - Is there a smarter way to tie into the existing drain than just sticking the Kerdi drain into the cast iron? The instructions that come with it assume you will be connecting to abs or pvc. Just plopping it in seems.... not good. I mean, it all gets pretty well embedded in thin-set, which I suppose might be water-tightish in case of a backup/slow drain, but... yeah.
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Mar 18, 2018 01:15
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Motronic posted:Do you have hard water? Because this sounds like the kind of thing that happened before I got a water softener. No...actually, soft water, and the crap that came out had the consistency of jell-o...like there were enormous colonies of bacteria festering in the bowl channel.
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Mar 18, 2018 03:37
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I need to tie into some old under slab cast iron drain pipe in my basement. Seems like the outside of the pipe has some serious scale on it. My plan was to cut it out to the left of the hub shown here: https://imgur.com/i88E9rV Looking from the top down: https://imgur.com/gRaHgvk Would I run into problems using a fernco no hub coupling because the surface of the pipe is in such rough shape? My other option I guess is to melt out the lead from the hub and clean it out enough so I could use a donut style coupling. Would this be easier?
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Mar 18, 2018 20:33
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I'm having the floor re-done in the front half of my house later this week, and I have just realised that I will need to move my (gas) oven. Do I need to get a plumber in to disconnect it and blank off the line before I move it? I haven't looked behind it at all, so I can't answer any real questions at this stage.
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Mar 19, 2018 02:19
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kid sinister posted:Take off the tank lid. Is there a float on your flapper chain? No float on the chain GWBBQ posted:You have a dual flush toilet so you can just hit the lever for #1 and use less water or hold it down to fully empty the tank for #2. Not sure if this is the case, as when I have the tank lid off and press the lever as opposed to hold it down it appears to empty to the same level. Also, I've been holding it down when this issue started and it hasn't made a difference. PainterofCrap posted:
I'll give this a shot and see what happens metallicaeg fucked around with this message at 02:33 on Mar 19, 2018 |
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Mar 19, 2018 02:29
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Slugworth posted:Anyone familiar with the Schluter kerdi drain and shower base system? I'm replacing a fiberglass shower unit on a concrete basement floor. The existing drain is cast iron cut flush with the floor. The old fiberglass unit just had a plastic sleeve that fit loosely into the cast iron. Used the standard kit a couple months back and I remembered seeing this. Would that work?
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Mar 19, 2018 03:26
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stupid puma posted:Used the standard kit a couple months back and I remembered seeing this.
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Mar 19, 2018 03:44
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Bummer. Yeah just setting it in there would probably not be up to code I would assume? I admittedly don’t know plumbing code very well. Regardless I’d be worried if your drain ever backed up that it would go under your shower pan and royally gently caress your poo poo up if there’s no seal there.
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Mar 19, 2018 03:58
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Memento posted:I'm having the floor re-done in the front half of my house later this week, and I have just realised that I will need to move my (gas) oven. Do I need to get a plumber in to disconnect it and blank off the line before I move it? I haven't looked behind it at all, so I can't answer any real questions at this stage. You mean temporarily? In any sane installation there should be a valve to shut off gas to the appliance, so you should be okay. Of course, there's some insane poo poo out there.
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Mar 19, 2018 12:02
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Josh Lyman posted:I know a knob diverter will actually block flow up to the shower head when its set to come out the spout, but does a spout diverter do the same or is it relying on gravity? Gravity. If it's real annoying a cheap fix would be to put a ball valve inline with the shower head and use that in combination with the diverter to choose between shower/tub.
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Mar 19, 2018 16:24
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Motronic posted:Do you have hard water? Because this sounds like the kind of thing that happened before I got a water softener. Did your water softener affect the taste/smell of your water? I saw an episode of This Old House where the plumber installed a whole house water softener to improve taste/smell, but what I've read online seems to be that it doesn't really affect that? My house's water tastes horrid (to me, kids drink it fine), and our clothes smell meh after going through the wash, and the towels especially smell terrible shortly after use. I've deep cleaned the washer and it helped quite a lot, but that lingering bad smell is still there. I'm guessing it's the odor of the water itself. e: I just looked it up and turns out it was a whole house water filter. https://www.thisoldhouse.com/watch/ask-toh-water-filter-fire-pit It still seems to be really hit or miss and subjective as to whether it will improve the taste of the water. I've lived all over Boston, and never once had an issue with drinking tap water. This water is goddamn terrible, though. SouthShoreSamurai fucked around with this message at 22:03 on Mar 19, 2018 |
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Mar 19, 2018 21:23
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SouthShoreSamurai posted:Did your water softener affect the taste/smell of your water? I saw an episode of This Old House where the plumber installed a whole house water softener to improve taste/smell, but what I've read online seems to be that it doesn't really affect that? Well or city?
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Mar 19, 2018 22:43
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City.
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Mar 19, 2018 23:49
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Well, you could always call the city and complain, then get a whole house filter like you thought.
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Mar 20, 2018 00:32
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Crosspost from Crappy Construction thread, because I realized you'd like it too:effika posted:I tasked my husband to remove or replace the garbage disposal (it was leaking out the electrical cord exit) because he had time to do it this week and I don't think I should have let him, as he hired some random guy from Thumbtack.
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Mar 20, 2018 01:31
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glynnenstein posted:You mean temporarily? In any sane installation there should be a valve to shut off gas to the appliance, so you should be okay. Of course, there's some insane poo poo out there. There's not, I look down behind it last night. I'm getting a plumber to come cap it off for me because I'm not comfortable loving with gas supplies myself.
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Mar 20, 2018 03:19
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Memento posted:There's not, I look down behind it last night. I'm getting a plumber to come cap it off for me because I'm not comfortable loving with gas supplies myself. Get him to put in a shutoff instead, so you can reattach the stove without calling a plumber back out.
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Mar 20, 2018 13:39
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devicenull posted:Get him to put in a shutoff instead, so you can reattach the stove without calling a plumber back out. You still need to check for leaks after reconnecting even with a shutoff, and not every homeowner is comfortable with that.
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Mar 20, 2018 14:58
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This got no love in the Fix it thread, so trying here. It's a battery issue, but for Sump Pumps. I have a battery back up system for my auxiliary sump pump. It has two deep cycle batteries, Glentronics Pro Series B-2200. Here is the owner's manual in PDF: https://www.stopflooding.com/assets/2/6/Manual_Pro_Battery_Inst_sheet_08_(Cur).pdf And here is the Amazon listing: https://www.amazon.com/PHCC-B-2200-2400-Battery-Backup/dp/B00DPF8LIK/ $200 a piece, without any acid. My sump pump company wants $300 for them filled and ready to go. Ouch. The manual very clearly states to never add more acid to the batteries, only to top off with distilled water. Which I've been dutifully doing for the last few years. The controller/charger unit is telling me one of the batteries is dead, and needs to be replaced... Is there any reason I can't just check the acid level with a battery acid tester, and then adjust the acid level? You know, like we used to do with car batteries? I have a hard time believing that the battery is already completely dead, they just haven't seen a lot of use.
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Mar 21, 2018 03:06
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Watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic5R4C5HRUg There's also a zeroth rule to troubleshooting that AvE talks about in other videos: If it's already hosed, you can't gently caress 'er more, so have at it.
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Mar 21, 2018 03:22
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Squashy Nipples posted:This got no love in the Fix it thread, so trying here. It's a battery issue, but for Sump Pumps. That's a little expensive for a deep cycle battery... You know, I'd ask over in the quick question thread in Automotive Insanity. I got a feeling that they'd know best about battery maintenance.
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Mar 21, 2018 03:39
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Crossposting from house chat thread since didn't see this thread before making first post.Zerilan posted:Hot water heater in the house recently started whistling, sometimes in real loud bursts. I don't really know poo poo about hot water heaters and home owner is out on vacation. Couldn't see any temperature gauges on it when I could look (I'm fat and hard to really get to all of the area around it.
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Mar 21, 2018 10:05
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Zerilan posted:Crossposting from house chat thread since didn't see this thread before making first post. Yes both are very safe. In fact, turning off all the water before you leave on vacation is always a safe move while turning off the breaker will save money during the time you're away. As for the whistling, is there any water coming out of the bottom of the tube on the side of it?
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Mar 21, 2018 17:26
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