Toilet Problem - Possible to rebuild myself?

[aphex]

So the toilets in our house flush horribly bad... (the one downstairs can be a triple flusher on occation even with minimal amt of TP)

We had a guy out to check everything out... He cleaned our sink drains (which were draining slowly) and got those working great. However, i didn't let him proceed with rebuilding the toilets (new flusher, value, etc..) as he wanted $300/toilet... I called my dad after and he said it was a rip off since the parts cost a max of $15...

#1. Was my dad right?
#2. Can i rebuild these myself?

 

[aphex]

Oh, if this helps... When i was looking at the toilet, the amt of water flowing into the center tube when the toilet flushed was tiny, almost nothing at all....

 

[skyking]

If the drain is OK, just replace the toilet. The nicest tall kohler is only about 300.

Drain testing procedure:
5 gallon bucket of water.
Flush toilet, and them immediately pour in the 5 gallons.
If it all goes down quickly, then the drain is fine.

 

[aphex]

so pour the water in while the toilet is flushing?

 

[mrrman]

its easy to just replace the whole unit and reasonable especially if its an old style model

 

[glenn1]

Why would you rebuild an old toilet? If you replaced all the typical consumables (flapper, ballcock, etc) on a toilet that doesn't flush well, all you'll have is a toilet that doesn't leak water in between flushes that still doesn't work well. From the sounds of it you probably have an old contractor grade toilet with a trapway barely large enough to flush a grape. Go buy a new one - a Kohler Cimmaron cost $199 at Lowe's or Home Depot and unless you just have plenty of spare time on your hands I'd say the hassle factor of that was less than spending hours working on a project with limited chances of success.

 

[skyking]

Originally posted by: aphex
so pour the water in while the toilet is flushing?

yup. if the drain is an issue, the bowl would fill up and drain slowly. If not, it will take that other 5 quickly.

 

[funboy6942]

Sure they are easy to repair BUT he may not of been talking about just the toilets. There may be an abundance of build up inside the pipes like your draines and wanted to rebuild that maybe. If it is really that bad to flush there really isnt going to be a problem with the toilet I would think. All it is is a hole that lets water through. Unless it comes out into the bowl really solw or dribbles then your toilet may have alot of calcium deposits blocking the drain ports of the bowl at which point a new set up is needed (tank and bowl) which can be had at the depot for under $100 if you wanna go cheap.

But if it is flowing nicely from the tank to the bowl but not going down fast you got some blockage in the pipes under the bowl that needs to be taken care of. And $300 to mess with your ****** pipes isnt that bad. I wouldnt want to do it if it were my pipes
Using the snake and poop and paper flying everywhere as the snake spins and god if I had my mouth open and a good chuck come flying out into my mouth and I swallow it

 

[aphex]

Hmmm, ok ill go do the drain test right now...

On a side note, what does Home Depot charge to install a toilet? Or is that something i can do myself as well?

 

[aphex]

Originally posted by: funboy42
Sure they are easy to repair BUT he may not of been talking about just the toilets. There may be an abundance of build up inside the pipes like your draines and wanted to rebuild that maybe. If it is really that bad to flush there really isnt going to be a problem with the toilet I would think. All it is is a hole that lets water through. Unless it comes out into the bowl really solw or dribbles then your toilet may have alot of calcium deposits blocking the drain ports of the bowl at which point a new set up is needed (tank and bowl) which can be had at the depot for under $100 if you wanna go cheap.

But if it is flowing nicely from the tank to the bowl but not going down fast you got some blockage in the pipes under the bowl that needs to be taken care of. And $300 to mess with your ****** pipes isnt that bad. I wouldnt want to do it if it were my pipes
Using the snake and poop and paper flying everywhere as the snake spins and god if I had my mouth open and a good chuck come flying out into my mouth and I swallow it

$300 would be fine, but he wanted $300/toilet.

 

[skyking]

After you test toilet, let it fill, and then turn off that little valve that is behind/under the back. That turns off the water supply. Flush again.
If absolutely no water flows under the top lid <take it off and verify>, then changing the toilet is an easy job.
If it leaks at that valve, you will have a lot of monkeying around shutting off the whole house, etc.

 

[aphex]

On a side note again, this place is only 3 years old, but its all builders model stuff....

 

[glenn1]

$125 around here for a simple replacement, $130 at Lowes (if you find out what company they use and call 'em yourself, you can probably get it done for $100 or maybe a touch less). Don't know if it's a project you want to tackle yourself if you've not done it before though - it's not really that hard, but you can crack the toilet tightening the tank to the bowl, and tightening the bolts and getting the bowl level can be tricky. Again, it depends on how much you value your time. If you know what you're doing you can probably do it in 30-40 minutes, if not 4 hours. Plus you have to dispose of the old rig if you DIY.

 

[MrBond]

Toilet install is pretty easy. The hard part is setting it down evenly over the two floor bolts. If you decide to go that route yourself, buy a spare wax ring.

Replace them one at a time too. There is nothing worse than a house with zero functioning toilets - stuff like that makes you do crazy things like call a 24hr (rape you in the wallet) plumber.

 

[glenn1]

Toilet install is pretty easy. The hard part is setting it down evenly over the two floor bolts. If you decide to go that route yourself, buy a spare wax ring.

IMHO, if you're going to replace more than one, it's worthwhile to hire a professional to install the first one. After you see how it's supposed to be done if you want to try it on your own then go for it - just a warning, they'll make it look really easy - since you don't install 6 or 7 of them a week it's not going to be as easy the first go around but you shouldn't have any problems

 

[boomerang]

Your home is the victim of low consumption toilets. This is a federal mandate to reduce water consumption. Double and triple flushing is common. It's your government looking to protect our resources and environment.

 

[Muadib]

Originally posted by: boomerang
Your home is the victim of low consumption toilets. This is a federal mandate to reduce water consumption. Double and triple flushing is common. It's your government looking to protect our resources and environment.

I agree with boomerang. The bucket of water test will confirm that the drains are fine. Since your place is pretty much new, low consumption toilets is the only thing that makes sense. You might need pressure assist toilets.

 

[aphex]

passed the bucket of water test w/ flying colors...

 

[skyking]

Originally posted by: Muadib

Originally posted by: boomerang
Your home is the victim of low consumption toilets. This is a federal mandate to reduce water consumption. Double and triple flushing is common. It's your government looking to protect our resources and environment.

I agree with boomerang. The bucket of water test will confirm that the drains are fine. Since your place is pretty much new, low consumption toilets is the only thing that makes sense. You might need pressure assist toilets.

Low consumption + cheap toilet = problems.

A good brand of 1.6 toilet flushes fine. I replaced our cheap toilet with a kohler tall one, and that thing never plugs up under normal use. It is not power assisted, but it has a HUGE flapper. It flushes very quickly, and is engineered to make the most of the 1.6 gallon rule.

 

[WW]

Originally posted by: aphex
On a side note again, this place is only 3 years old, but its all builders model stuff....

First make sure the water is at the top of the overflow pipe when it completes filling. If not, adjust the float to make sure it does.

then you can 'overclock' it Sometimes the overflow pipe is too short (or cut short to save water).
You can add an extender to get a few more inches of water in the tank. Measure the tube and buy a $2 fitting that attaches to the pipe. Make sure the lid can still sit properly.

Extending it a few inches seemed to do the trick for ours.

 

[zanieladie]

Originally posted by: aphex
Hmmm, ok ill go do the drain test right now...

On a side note, what does Home Depot charge to install a toilet? Or is that something i can do myself as well?

I installed mine by myself...it's not that big of a deal. You can even search on the internet for directions.