Prevent Toilets From Flooding Your Home With These Simple Tips
- By Rachel Yoshida
- Published 07/21/2008
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Rachel Yoshida
Rachel Yoshida is a writer of many topics, visit some of her sites, like Water Damage Miami and Water Damage Orlando .
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If there is one necessity in any home it would have to be the toilet. Before the turn of the twentieth century having a toilet in the home was a convenience that not everyone had. Even years after the turn of the last century many folks in rural areas still had outhouses as there toilet facility. It did not take long for the toilet to become an absolute necessity. Once you ever had the privilege of using an indoor toilet, no one wanted to have to tramp through the dark in the middle of the night to use the bathroom.
In our day it is not uncommon for the average home to have two or more toilets. As the years have gone by, having one toilet was not enough. People decided that certain members of the home, if not, everyone, deserved their own personal toilet. With the addition of extra toilets in houses, also comes the extra risk of overflowing and leakage. As with any other item in the home that gets used on a daily basis, a toilet will need maintenance from time to time.
If the sewer line that your toilet is connected to has a tendency to stop up often, especially in older homes, you might need to use a product that you can flush down it to help remove residue
that can build up in the pipes over time. These line cleaning products have live enzymes that eat away all of the built up residue and help clear the line and keep it that way if used regularly. These products are not very expensive and simple to use. You just pour it into the toilet bowl, flush, and forget about it. This might help stop toilet lines from becoming clogged so easily.
Another thing that has to be maintained on a toilet that has the potential to cause water damage to the floor area around the toilet is the seal. The seal is a wax ring that the toilet bowl base is placed on when the toilet is installed. Over time as the toilet is sat on time and time again, this wax seal may become misaligned or damaged from the movement of the toilet. To replace a wax seal that is causing the toilet to leak around the base, you must take the toilet up, remove the old seal, and put in a new one. The toilet must be centered carefully in order for the seal to work properly. This is a job that most home owners can do themselves.
To help prevent damage to the wax seal, make sure that the bolts that attach the toilet to the floor are kept tight. This will help prevent unnecessary toilet movement, thus reducing the risk of breaking and damaging the seal.
In our day it is not uncommon for the average home to have two or more toilets. As the years have gone by, having one toilet was not enough. People decided that certain members of the home, if not, everyone, deserved their own personal toilet. With the addition of extra toilets in houses, also comes the extra risk of overflowing and leakage. As with any other item in the home that gets used on a daily basis, a toilet will need maintenance from time to time.
If the sewer line that your toilet is connected to has a tendency to stop up often, especially in older homes, you might need to use a product that you can flush down it to help remove residue
Another thing that has to be maintained on a toilet that has the potential to cause water damage to the floor area around the toilet is the seal. The seal is a wax ring that the toilet bowl base is placed on when the toilet is installed. Over time as the toilet is sat on time and time again, this wax seal may become misaligned or damaged from the movement of the toilet. To replace a wax seal that is causing the toilet to leak around the base, you must take the toilet up, remove the old seal, and put in a new one. The toilet must be centered carefully in order for the seal to work properly. This is a job that most home owners can do themselves.
To help prevent damage to the wax seal, make sure that the bolts that attach the toilet to the floor are kept tight. This will help prevent unnecessary toilet movement, thus reducing the risk of breaking and damaging the seal.