A New Plumber in Town

Several months ago, our toilet started to leak. From all appearances, it looked like a large rubber washer between the input hose and the tank was causing the problem. I took the shank apparatus apart, ran down to the local Ace hardware for a replacement, and put everything back together again. The leak was less obvious but didn't stop. I told myself it would get better if we gave it some time. I should know better. Plumbing leaks never heal.

It had again reached intolerable levels last week but I explained to Carolyn that in the meantime my body has reached new levels of non-flexibility. We talked about who we could call for this minor plumbing job. Then Carolyn asked if she could fix it. I ventured to say that she could. After all they're making the fixtures with excellent instructions now.



I instructed Carolyn how to dismantle the toilet column. Of course the first thing you do with any plumbing job is turn off the water and the second thing is to make sure you have lots of absorbent towels available. She had to empty the tank and found that flushing doesn't completely do the job. A small towel or large sponge does the trick. While taking out the column, water valve, floater fixture we broke a small tube which meant we had to get the whole assembly. It was only $5 more than the rubber washer I had purchased before.



A quick trip to Home Depot and we had the part in hand. It was even easier to put back in than to take out. When she turned the water back on -- no leak! No drip! Made us wonder why we waited so long. And we both thought, "One more thing we share the knowledge of in case one of us dies before the other."