Tip of The Week

June 9, 2007

This week’s tip comes from our “Tell-Tale Toilet Paper” file.

We had a caller a couple weeks ago that complained of water around the base of her toilet.  She knew she had a leak but she was not sure of its origin.  We eliminated tank condensation as a source and we suspected the tank bolt washers had deteriorated but, like the caller, we couldn’t be sure.

To get to the source we had the caller wrap the tank bolts (the ones that protrude from the bottom of the tank and hold the tank to the bowl) with toilet paper.  After a couple hours she went back to see if the paper was wet.

This simple trick is great for more than toilet leaks.  After doing a basic plumbing repair it is sometimes difficult to detect a slow leak at a joint or coupling.  If you dry off the pipes and fittings and then wrap them in toilet paper (just one or two layers) you can quickly tell if the joint is leaking or not.

I guess the old adage about no job being complete until the paper work is done is true.

Thanks for visiting Ask John and Dave.com and we’ll see you on the air,

John and Dave

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