TIPS & HINTS

FLAPPERS

The house is quiet, you’re reading, or perhaps asleep, when the toilet goes on all by itself. A moment later it stops and all is quiet again. From once a night, to several times an hour, your toilet is said to be “running”. Running is when your toilet is letting water through the different areas without your permission. Most of the time, this is remedied with a fresh flapper.

The flapper on most toilets is a rubbery device at the bottom of the toilet tank that pivots open or closed when you use the flush handle. The reasons for the flapper to let water past it even in the down position are usually in the neighborhood of debris, or maybe a film has built up, or possibly the flapper is so old, it’s shrunk. A common cause for leakage is that people throw in those tank cleaners, which may contain chlorine, which in turn waffles the flapper worse as time goes by, and wastes HUGE amounts of water. In general, flappers are inexpensive, mostly generic in dimensions, and easy for regular people to install, just follow instructions. There are some makers of toilets, that use a very specific flapper for their toilet, and it may even change with model names, and from year to year. For those, the local hardware store may not have it. Sometimes, it’ll be necessary to bring it to your supplier, to get the right one.

When you have your new flapper to put in, it’s also a good idea to clean off the little surface it sits on. Now let’s say you’ve installed your new flapper, and cleaned the sitting surface for it, and the flapper has the same pivot radius as the original, and it still leaks. There’s one more thing to check before calling in a professional. But first let me explain the pivot radius. One side of this measurement is the little “dog-ears” the flapper hinges on. The other side is the center of the round part of the flapper. That’s it. If you’ve installed the flapper and the center of the flapper body is directly over the center of the flush hole, that’s all you need. For nearly all off-the-shelf generics, they’ll go right on, no problem.

O.K. here’s that one last check. You’ve installed your flapper and the fit is good, but it has a constant running noise. Do this; with a flashlight, look into the overflow tube in the center of the tank. With everything in the closed position and no water is supposed to be running, that little tube that goes into the center overflow may be pissing water. If it is, you’ll need to shorten that little tube so that it ends above the water level outside the overflow tube.

The reason is that it’s siphoning and shortening the tube will stop that. Cutting off this invisible thief will save you lots in money and water, and maybe even a plumbers’ fee.

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VINEGAR– It's not just for salads!
YES! — it really does work.

Vinegar penetrates calcium and softens it. You can soak a rag in vinegar, and wrap a faucet that’s been coated for years. After 30 minutes or so, come back, remove the vinegar rag, and wipe off the faucet with just a hot soapy cloth. Don’t rub it to death, don’t scratch it, just wipe off the vinegar. What you’ve done in 30 minutes is wipe away a layer of calcium that took months to get there. Of course, you may have a layer that’s been building up for years, so you have some more applications to go. Little by little, the vinegar will get to all of this layer, even in the deepest corners, impossible to get without damaging the fixture. You don’t need to do a lot of work on this, the vinegar will do it. Now here’s a little bad news; some water will have not only the calcium in it, but also compounds that may be acidic. On a day to day basis, we wouldn’t notice this, but it’s a possibility that over time this compound may etch it’s way through the finish surface of your fixture, and no amount of vinegar, or anything else will bring that back.Here’s another use for vinegar. For people with a noticeable build-up of hard water in the toilets, try this: at the end of the day, flush your toilet one last time for the night, and while it’s filling, put about a half gallon into the tank, and the rest of the gallon into the bowl, and let this rich mixture soak over night. You’ll probably want to shut the bathroom door, if this is the master bath, because of the smell. In the morning, with the toilet brush, just a quick couple of passes, 3 seconds, maybe, and flush. If you do this once a week, for only one month, much of the layer of calcium will have been dissolved, or at least softened. Then just an occasional dose, much milder, even, will get the rest. Little by little, these deposits will largely lose hold and leave on their own, so you won’t have had to do hard scrubbing on it. There’s an additional benefit too; the vinegar can get to places in the toilet that NOBODY can get to. On those toilets with a siphon-jet-hole, there are two layers of china there. They are separated by about a half inch of space, this inner and outer layer. During a flush, the water rushes through there at high speed, to get out the siphon jet hole, to help with the flush. However, in-between flushes, water will just sit there, at the same level as the water in the bowl that you CAN see. A build-up of minerals in these tight quarters will certainly affect the strength of the flush. Transversely, getting rid of the deposits will breathe new life into the old beast. MAN !! I’ve got to stop this, I’m saving you guys too much money. Shame on me !!One little side note: vinegar is jealous and won’t share space with other chemicals, so get those out first. Also, while I was writing this, I was remembering some of the toilets I’ve dealt with that were so choked, the siphon-jet-hole was completely shut off. You could almost hear this thing wheeze. So you could probably cut the dosage way down. As great as vinegar is, we who have treated water simply won’t need it, except as a wipe-on, wipe-off finish enhancer.

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FINISHED ???

I don’t do much snaking of drain lines any more, but I’ve had plenty experience with them; main lines and single fixtures. On main lines, a clog can happen suddenly, or build up to a clog. The build-up type are more common, although most people will think that their clog happened suddenly. A sudden clog is when the grand kids are playing and wash mud down the drains in big enough quantities to gather at a single point and create a clog. A sudden clog is when a relative is trying to be helpful in the kitchen and pours an entire coffee can of grease down the sink, where, within 15 feet it will gel, stick, and PRESTO !! one instant clog !! Those pipes are otherwise clear and free, but for the area of offending material. You call the plumber, he snakes it, frees it, and you’re back in business, except for educating the relatives. Build-up clogs are different, they can take years to get to a point of nuisance, and action. You see, every drain line, big or small, is going to get a layer, a film, on the inside. That’s O.K. really, think of it as getting a head-start on the break-down process of the flushed material, it’s supposed to be there. In time, depending on individual habits, and the material the pipe is made of, the length of the pipe, and time, this film can get pretty thick; possibly thick enough to get sticky on the material that’s going by, and hold it there. Sometimes, as the pipe leaves the area under the house, and heads towards the street, it can be invaded by roots. Roots can “smell” water and once inside, can slow things down. You may not notice this for quite a while, because it’ll take time for the roots to be big enough or catch enough debris to slow the flow of “water” as it heads to the street. With a big knot of debris in the pipe, the “water” has to go slower to escape. The slower “water” lets more of a film build up and then it’s just a matter of time. Little by little, the backup goes up and down everyday until you finally notice it. It’ll be things like the shower stall is fine for the first half of the shower, then water starts to build up in there. Or, at a different time of day, almost the entire load of laundry water goes down just fine, but you’ll notice the tub gurgling when you do the wash. And maybe, if you also use the toilet at that same time, THEN it may get really high, and get into the tub, or cause the toilet to run-over. This is NOT a good time to flush again, just to make sure. The piping of your house is designed and sized to accept full blast from all fixtures at once, without any kind of problem whatsoever. If one fixture in your house is affecting another, it could be drainage problems developing. A plumber with plenty experience with snaking will be able to find out what it is. A plumber can determine where your problem exists, and if it’s roots, will “root” them out; so you’ll be back in business again, except now you know you’ve got roots. There are a few “flush-it-down” type of chemical products that are made to help with roots, at the hardware store; and they’ll buy you quite a bit of time, to save up, to get the piping replaced. For the smaller, fixture piping, I have a suggestion that will save you time, money, and grief. It’s simply this: everyday, or nearly everyday when you’re finished in the kitchen, the last thing you do in there is to fill both sink basins full of nice, hot water; or, as hot as you can stick your hands in. When almost full, shoot in a little dish soap, so now you’ve got a bunch of HOT, SOAPY, WATER. Once that’s done, pull the plugs on both of them at the same time, and with your hands no-longer in water, quickly switch ON the disposal. It will work like a pump while the water is in that basin. The effect is that lots of water, at high speed, is going through those pipes. HOT, SOAPY, WATER, sweeping away both the film and any little particles stuck there ! ! I’ve known people who’ve NEVER had to snake a line; probably in part due to this habit, and it may stretch out time for you too. Getting to a different subject, sort of; having to do with minor, or not-so-minor expenses. I’ve known people who’ll call occasionally for this or that pretty minor maintenance item. I’ve also met people who’re knee-deep in major expenses, such as wood-rot, termites, rotted studs, and buckled flooring, in addition to the minor maintenance item. What’s the difference, and how can I tell ? Both are good, hard working people, and one is spending a fortune and the other is not, why ? The one pays attention, while the other thinks he’s too busy to. Paying a little bit of attention can save you lots of money. Not paying attention until you’re walking through water is an expensive way to go through life. All this lead-up just for this; please, every 4 or 6 six months, go through the house and check the condition of the various parts. Things like the areas under sinks, look, smell, feel for dampness, use a flashlight to see droplets of water, test with a paper towel, just set a paper towel under a suspect area; if it gets wet, you’ll know. Paper towels can be your “spies”, working for you when you can’t be there. Something similar for the water heater, and the wash machine area. Finding and replacing bad wash machine valves and hoses costs maybe $ 300.00. Finding and replacing bad wash machine valves and hoses plus sheetrock, vinyl, carpet, electrical items, all after an event, can cost many times that, 15-30 thousands. So, paying a little attention can be a good thing, and with the money you save, well, send me a post-card then.

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PACKING NUTS
“When I use this outside yard valve, it leaks all over”

NO plumber really wants to drive to somebody’s leak, just to find that it’s only a loose packing nut. It makes it difficult to charge most of a hundred dollars for a service call, when you’ve spent all of 30 seconds tightening a loose nut. When any tradesman arrives at your doorstep, it’s a whole lot more than a vehicle that got him there. Look at the vehicle, probably not something you’d drive everyday, but it fits his needs. He’ll be arriving with most everything he needs to take care of you, there in that truck; parts, and tools, years of experience, lots of know-how and common-sense. And of course, insurance in two to four layers, his support team, the advertising, his suppliers, many expenses that you don’t see arrive with him. Sometimes, it’s possible to save him a trip, and yourself some money. Read on :…Nearly all valves have rotating shafts, on top of which sits a handle. You turn the handle, the water comes out, turn the handle back, it stops. Now, look closer, at the first thing under the handle, as the shaft goes down into the valve. That first piece is nearly always a six-sided cap, even with very rounded corners, it’s still a six-sided cap, with a hole, top-center, to let the shaft through. If water’s been escaping that center hole, there’s a good chance that just tightening the packing under it will stop the leaking. When tightening ANYTHING in the world of plumbing, always, ALWAYS use a second tool to prevent unintended things from turning, and creating a bigger mess. With one tool, secure a hold on the valve itself to prevent damage, and then use the second tool to turn the packing nut. Turning the packing nut clock-wise will tighten it, and you won’t need several turns, maybe not even one whole turn, to stop the leaking. If you make it too tight, you won’t be able to turn the handle, so it’s a compromise between too tight and the leak. Test, tighten, test, tighten, test, loosen, test, there. You should know, though, that there are some valves out there that do not have the nut, or any packing under it. These instead use an O-ring to seal in the water, so when this type fails, it’s time to get a fresh one. If you’re in a situation where you’re too unsure to attempt this, don’t be embarrassed to call on the help of a friendly neighbor or family member, as the highest chances are that they’d love to help you, and this, this they can do. And of course, you can call your friendly neighborhood plumber too, where you know it’ll get done right, with a service charge.

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By the way, my number is 925-325-3235!
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