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Saturday, August 10, 2013

One Turn Too Many

Not too much excitement going on here in South Carolina.  When you’re not rolling down the road, things can get pretty boring.

Of course we did have some visitors, Marti’s sister Gail flew down from Rhode Island to explore South Carolina, seeking to possibly relocate to a state where you don’t have to shovel much snow in the winter.

My dad also stopped by in his shiny Mazda Miata convertible for a short visit.  He certainly is getting a lot of use out of his little sports car, even if rain kept the top up for most of his driving.

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What else?  A movie with the boys (Turbo), cute.

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And a project to do at the boy’s house.

Seems one of the bathroom toilets in the house had finally died and was deemed non-repairable. Off to Lowe’s Heather and I went and selected a new unit.  Because SIL Brian has a real job working long hours, I stepped up to do the installation, assisted by my two helpers, Andrew and Owie.  A learning experience for them, too.

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I split the tasks between the boys, one got to loosen one floor bolt, then the other got to do the same thing on the bolt on the other  side, and so on and so on.  We heaved the old toilet off together and drained it into the bathtub.

Opening the box with the new toilet, we assembled the wax ring and placed the toilet bowl over the two floor studs that bolt the toilet to the floor.

Next the tank went on, again sharing the “one-boy-one bolt” turns and got it all in place.  Lastly, the new seat was attached, the water turned on and we had a perfect flush.

I checked all around for leaks and found none and I decided to give the floor mounting nuts one last little turn because I wanted to ensure the boys had tightened them enough.  Using my little 7/16th inch wrench I turned the one side nut a half turn, it was good.  Gave the other side nut a little turn and SNAP! 

The stud on the floor broke free.  NUTS!!!  One turn too many.

Off with the new toilet.  Drain into bath tub. Spilled some water on floor.  Cleaned up spilled water.  Inspection of the stud revealed the plastic mounting flange broke.  Okay, I’ll replace that. No big deal.

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Nope.  It was glued to the PVC drain pipe.  Uh Oh! 

After looking at the problem for a while, I figured out if I drilled holes on either side of the break and put screws in I could re-install the stud and all should be good.  Off to Lowe’s for screws.

I decided to take a look at the floor flanges while I was at Lowe’s just to get an idea if my plan would, in fact, work.  I was surprised to see several different repair kits and plates to fix broken flanges.

How cool.  I bought one and realized I ‘m not the only one to break a toilet mounting flange.  I immediately felt much smarter…

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Long story made short, fixed flange, reinstalled new toilet, carefully tightened the nuts and had a perfect flush.

My helpers?  They didn’t help me do the reinstall.  They were having too much fun flying their new spaceship they made out of the box the toilet came in.

There you have it.  “Fun” even when we’re not rolling to have fun.  :c)

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Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

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17 comments:

  1. Those boys are going to grow up pretty handy, just like their grandpa.
    They'll also grow up telling the story of how Grandpa just had to follow behind them and tighten that bolt just a little bit more :)

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  2. My, all that fun with the toilet has certainly aged you! I think maybe a haircut is in order also. ;)

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  3. It was great for the boys to get a valuable lesson on home repairs.

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  4. When I read the title I said oppps he broke something by tightening it too much. But then everything seemed to go along so well until you tried to improve upon your helpers' work. That will teach you now won't it?? Next problem, just get the boys to fix it!

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  5. It's a guy thing... If 3 turns is enough, then four must be better;o(( Can't tell you how many times Bill has 'adjusted' things and then OOPS!!! But it always works out ;o)) Now enough of this Potty Talk!!!

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  6. Like my dad used to say...if it doesn't work just get a bigger hammer. Yup, definitely a guy thing. ;)

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  7. Sounds like one of my projects, well heck, all of my projects. I usually spend more time fixing the stuff I broke than what I started out to fix. Good to see it happens to the pro's too.

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  8. Whoops - I guess your find at Lowe's proves you guys always have to overtighten things... Glad you got it fixed!

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  9. Heck, nothing's ever easy. I want low water usage toilets in the house, but the current ones just won't bread. It's funny how water conscious you become after traveling in an RV.

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  10. Those boys will be handy with all the training they are getting from you.

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  11. how lucky to have two great helpers. Can you bring them to DPN my contractor seems to be needing some help.

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  12. A home repair fix wouldn't be normal for me unless I spent more money on gas going back and forth to the hardware store than I did on the replacement. Then, like you, there's the cost of the 'fixes' to fix the new stuff we just broke.

    Let's just say "Einstein's we ain't".

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  13. I'm thinking you're going to start getting lots of repair calls. Have your helpers and tools ready.

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  14. Glad your toilet repair went well. I guess glueing those flanges down is pretty common.

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  15. Sounds like Murphy was lurking again.

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