One of many
trip reports under the
SilGro home page for Alan Silverstein and Cathie
Grow.
Email me at
ajs@frii.com.
Last update: March 29, 2024
(Previous trip report: 2007_0131_SnowingAgain.htm)
This is not your typical outdoor adventure trip report... It took place indoors during the gloomy SAD (seasonal affective disorder) months.
Either you can read the following shaggy story, possibly find it amusing, but then wonder why I bothered to tell the tale; or you can hit the executive summary and skip the rest.
Key revelations:
The sorry details...
Five years ago: Moved into 11-year-old house with four bathrooms but pretty decent plumbing fixtures. Hoped there wouldn't be much need to fix anything, like frequently changing faucet washers... So far this was largely true. I did pre-emptively replace a lot of gray polybutyl (rupture risk) plumbing parts in my wife Cathie Grow's house next door, and my dishwasher hose too, just to be safe.
Anyway my conservative habit was to turn off the water pressure in the house whenever I was gone overnight. So far I hadn't worn out the main valve in the basement (whew), which was provided by the city. (There was another identical valve below the water meter as a backup.)
About two years ago: Upon coming home and turning the pressure back on, noticed that 4-5 gallons ran before it stopped, and heard the sound of water going down the drainpipe... That was odd. Over time, sought out the source. (Must remember to check around the house before turning on the water!) Eventually observed that the main level toilet holding tank was empty after I'd been gone for a week... Yup, that was odd.
Case closed? The flapper valve was open (not sealing), right? Well yeah, but then I should have heard the toilet refilling occasionally. But it never did... So that couldn't be the problem... Must be something else.
A month prior: My city water bill showed "estimated" because due to the cold weather, the ground had frozen and heaved under the fence gate, and the meter reader didn't know to lift it a little to sneak around. (Despite taking a circular saw to the gate's pickets a while back when it first hung up. Ground must have heaved more.) This was of mild concern because, here in River City (Fort Collins, Colorado), your "winter quarter average" set your wastewater rate for the next year. If you went over 3000 gallons in three months, effectively you'd pay ~6x the normal rate for the extra water.
(Actually ~12x! Later I looked it up. The cost for wastewater per extra 1000 gal of WQA water was now about the same as the cost per 1000 gal for fresh water year-round.)
In my testosterone-driven world it wasn't the extra cost, it was beating the system that mattered. There was no reason to go over 3000 gallons and pay more. And I hadn't had that problem in years.
(Later I discovered that the city's documentation was terribly ambiguous. You were allowed 3000 gal average per month for three months, or really 9000 gal over the three month period!)
That month: New bill came in with accurate reading, and it said: 2300 gallons in two months. Oops, that was a problem. Weird too, since I was over at Cathie's house so much.
Two days prior: Out to dinner with Cathie, shopped afterward, including Home Depot for other stuff. "What else do I need? Can't think of anything. I'm sure I'll be back soon, but who can predict the future?"
Then: Did an experiment, turned off the pressure to the main level toilet. Hey a little water dripped out of the shutoff valve. Must have needed new valve stem packing, disassembled and did that... Within a few hours the tank was empty. Ouch! Fixing this just became Priority One.
(Never mind that there were three other toilets in the house, they were on different levels, grin.)
Installed new flapper valve (I had a spare in the house). Repeated experiment... No joy. Dang! Needed a new "flush valve". That was major, it required taking the tank off the seal. I could never figure out why the hard plastic flapper valve seat on the flush valve went bad, either.
Previous day: Returned to Home Depot. Bought flush valve ($6) plus bolt/gasket package ($4). Took apart toilet, admired massively corroded brass bolt heads on old tank-to-bowl bolts. Observed that shutoff valve no longer shut the water all the way off... Sigh. Worked with it dripping. "I know what I'm doing, I've done this before, be careful, hopefully it will all seal right up just fine when I'm done." Reassembled. Pressurized.
But water leaked from the fill valve connection... Dang! Disassembled, applied teflon paste, reassembled, no joy, still leaked. Tank was now full, and also leaking from the new flush valve seal... Dang! Emptied tank, turned off valve. Seemed to really shut all the way off -- this time. Whew, I could leave it overnight.
That day: Turned off house water, pulled shutoff valve core. Cheap plastic, but the washer looked OK, dunno why it was sloppy. Out to breakfast, then a third pilgrimage to Home Depot, second time to the plumbing department. Bought new shutoff valve ($6), 9" hose ($4), and while I was at it, a new fill valve ($6?) to replace the old float-style one that didn't give me any audible warnings. And bought a second shutoff valve of a different type 'cause I wasn't sure which kind I needed! One went back.
(Taking back merchandise for a refund felt like male incompetence. Planning ahead to do so, moreso. But a little age and wisdom said this was smarter than getting home and finding you bought the wrong part, period.)
Back home: Went through the whole process again methodically. Old shutoff valve body hard to remove, but eventually free. Installed new valve, turned on house pressure, no leaks, yay. Mind melded with toilet tank, all parts and seals, reassembled completely. Turned it on... And it worked. So far. (grin)
Toilet was happy, owner was relieved. Toilet should be happy, everything but the flush handle and seat was new. Owner could only hope it stayed happy.
Epilogue: One year later toilet was still happy, owner was relieved.
(Next trip report: 2007_0930-1007_LakePowell.htm)