The illusive clogged toilet
The week started off great, a couple on Capitol Hill saw one of my fliers posted on a telephone pole near their condo building and gave me a call. They had two bathroom sinks that were draining slow, two toilets whose flush wasn’t as powerful as they would like, and a busted garbage disposal. The bathroom sinks were pretty straight forward, there was buildup from hair, toothpaste, and lotion on the sink stopper (aka the pop-up assembly). Cleaning them up was fairly gross, but quick to do.
On to the toilets, one just needed a quick auger to clear a partial blockage. The other wasn’t filling properly or flushing properly. I replaced the fill valve and flapper, then pulled the toilet to replace the wax ring. Occasionally the wax ring, which creates a proper seal between the toilet and the floor (via the toilet flange), moves out of place. After replacing the wax ring, I reset the toilet with a fresh set of closet bolts.
Moving into the kitchen, I replaced their garbage disposal that had broken. I’ve replaced a few of these in the last couple weeks so I always keep a couple on the truck to avoid having to run out to a hardware store. There are a few tricks to replacing the garbage disposal properly. One I put to good use this time was to make sure that the discharge of the garbage disposal is going to line up with the current drain configuration BEFORE tightening the drain assembly to the sink. Garbage disposals spin into place on these assemblies so it’s important to be mindful of where the discharge hole is going to end up before firming these bolts up.
Later in the week, I was finishing up my day when a call came in from Phinney Ridge. Someone had seen my flier in Herkimer Coffee while waiting in line, incredible! While I was packing up to head their way, another person called with a clogged toilet in Westlake. Ahh, the illusive clogged toilet. Honestly, over 90% of my calls are for clogged sinks and tubs. It is very rare I get a clogged toilet. Maybe it’s because the bigger companies come to mind first? Maybe people are too embarrassed to call a local plumber such as myself, someone they might see around the neighborhood, who then knows they take huge dumps? I don’t know.
Both calls were super friendly, but Phinney Ridge called first so I made my way out there. The tenants were incredibly nice and they’d even tried taking the P Trap off themselves. 10/10 effort, truly. A quick snake down their drain and they were back in business.
Parking in Westlake was a little tight, but we made it work. The person who called answered the door already laughing. They had hosted a New Years Eve party the night before and someone at the party had inflicted a little too much damage on the toilet. Nothing a toilet auger can’t handle, though. A few minutes later we were joking around about how excited their family was to use the toilet.
All in all a great week.
Casey