Since moving to a new home last February, the one thing that needed the most work for repairs has been our three toilets. I had to change out the fill valves, the flappers and the supply hoses on each toilet.
When our first toilet started exhibiting signs of issues of water running constantly, I looked under the tank cover and was surprised to see that the previous owner of the home tried to "repair" the problem by using plastic ziplock bags to stop the water valve from gushing out water! This was done on all three toilets! I couldn't believe that someone would think this was a good fix!
I immediately went to Home Depot and purchased a Fluidmaster PerforMAX fill valve for each toilet. I also decided to switch out the water supply hoses too since they were the old solid copper tubes rather than flex tubes.
Several months later, we found that the toilet on the main floor was leaking. The fix for this was to remove the toilet and replace the wax seal. Instead of just changing out the wax, I decided to get a Fluidmaster "Better Than Wax Universal Toilet Seal" which is made of rubber and foam. Overall, it looked like a better solution although many times more expensive than the cheap $1.42 wax ring.
I had fixed our two toilets in our previous home when we decided to remodel each bathroom ourselves, so I had previous experience with repairing toilets. But in those cases, I just replaced the wax ring. This time, due to the leakage, I felt a better seal would be worth the $7.98 per toilet.
The problem using the new seal however, was the fact that after installation, the toilet was a little taller in the center where the drain was than in the past so that made the toilets rock on the floor. I didn't know what to do! But with the help of YouTube videos, I found that plastic shims under the toilet was the answer. Putting in four shims on the lower level toilet made it totally solid! You can find these shims if you search "Toilet Shims" on the Home Depot website. The upper level toilets did not need shims.
Originally, we were going to have a plumber do the job of replacing the wax seals, but he never showed up to do the work! We had hired him for two jobs for our previous home, but for some reason he didn't show up for this job. We have found that many contractors that we have called over the years are just not reliable and simply do not show up to appointments! After three text messages and a voicemail message to him to see if he was ever planning on coming, he had an assistant call back seven hours later to see if we wanted him still to do the job the next day. No Way!! This is what prompted me to just do the entire job myself.
I wouldn't say I'm an expert in toilet repair, but I've done enough now that I think I'm getting pretty good at fixing these kinds of problems. I just hope I don't need to do any more work on these toilets for a long time to come!
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