toilet

Worked on the toilet yesterday, due it sounding like the water was always running. It had been like that for weeks now. Replaced the fill valve, and replaced the wax ring and the caulk around the base too while I was at it. I hope it wasn't illegal, as in only a licensed plumber was supposed to do that. It was kinda difficult removing the old caulk without damaging the vinyl flooring. In fact, I did tear a part of the flooring, but caulked over it in the end.

Instructions for the wax ring was to apply it to the toilet and then place the toilet over the hole. Not much luck with that. So I put the wax ring over the hole and then placed the toilet over its mounting holes and that worked better, or at least I think it did. There is no way to inspect. I probably need to replace the mounting stuff between the tank and the bowl, but I'll wait until it actually leaks.

A slight miscalculation in tightening the feeder pipe sent water spraying up when I turned it back on. Tightened the bottom connection, turned on the water, and now it sprayed to the floor (top connection needs tightening). Tightened it and it seemed okay, except that there seems to be a slight drip on the bottom connection. Drain the tank again, disconnect the feeder tube at the bottom, applied the magical Teflon tape to the male threads, reinstalled, and that seemed to fix the problem.

I may have been a little too agressive with the caulk. A light touch in forming the seal with the finger is better. Finger needs to be wet. A wet rag nearby for clean up is essential. Rinse the rag often. I think the gap between the bowl and floor is a bit on the big side, requiring alot of caulk and hence a bit more difficult to make a clean looking seal. But it's ok. It looks better than the dingy old caulk.