old black water, keep on rollin

[rmd]

well, the annoying leak has been upgraded to icky leak. seems the toilet on the second floor is seeping with every flush. and has been for a while.

and if doubling up on the wax ring doesn't fix it, then that will mean it's the drain. which... boy howdy, that will be a whole pile of i-love-home-ownership right there.

Comments

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

You let me know if you need a hand.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

i'm still trying to figure out what to do. i'll need plumbers to come in and do the actual drain stack work, which will involve ripping holes in the walls in the first floor unit as well as pulling up part of the floor in the bathroom here.

given that, i may just turn it into a bathroom remodel, but i'll have to figure out what that will involve.

[pale-chartreuse.livejournal.com]

If you go with the remodel, I have a guy in Maynard that I like a lot. I'll give you his name if you need it.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

cool. the plumber does GC, tho, so I'll probably have him do all the contractor work for it. i'm trying to figure out how much DIY i'm willing to do for the remodel.

i mean, i'm happy to do a lot of the DIY, but i don't want to live with my only bathroom as a construction zone for three years until i finally lay something on top of the subfloor and fix the walls. NOT THAT THAT WOULD EVER HAPPEN TO ME.

[frotz.livejournal.com]

The plumber who recently installed our shiny new toilet and sink finally had a chance to glue in the sink's drainpipe, which was marked by the same plumber as unglued, with said marking dated 2002. Three years would be lightning-fast by comparison!

[rmd.livejournal.com]

yeah, but you've got a second bathroom. :)

ETA: maybe i should install a second bathroom, *then* renovate the existing one.

[frotz.livejournal.com]

I'm curious, why do you assume that doubling up on the wax ring will do it if it's not a stack problem? I've recently had cause to learn that toilets have approximately a zillion different failure modes, and in particular a cracked base is not uncommon and could be doing it. (Look very carefully around the outlet when you redo the ring.) Also look for seepage at flush time around the mail tank gasket, if you have one.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

well, doubling up on the wax ring didn't help, but also we found out that the leak happens when the tub is draining as well as when the toilet is flushed. we had looked around the tub to see if it was leaking, but the leak is somewhere after the two drain paths merge.

(i cheated and had an actual plumber in here doing leak-hunting. my initial attempts had failed to figure it out, so i brought in ringers.)

[rmd.livejournal.com]

of course, post-wax-ring, it seems to have wedged on the first solid matter pass-through event.

i hope this doesn't bode ill for it.

ETA: COMRADE, I AM PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE GLORIOUS VICTORY OVER THE FORCES OF DRAIN CLOGGERY. (the tactic for victory was time, a whole bunch of plunging, application of very hot water and dish soap (safer than caustics), and several inept amateur attempts at using a drain snake)

[muffyjo]

The idea for the second bathroom seems a lot better than the port-a-potty idea. If you need manual labor that's just manual labor and will work for a meal, I'm happy to pitch in.

[kjc.livejournal.com]

Me too.

[whitebird.livejournal.com]

Refrain from the giving into the temptation of, "Hey! I bet I can clean this off with a really good fire!"