What if your toilet cost you $10,000 (or more)? I don’t mean a golden throne. I mean an absolute nightmare just waiting to happen in your bathroom that ruins a good portion of your house. And this happens with clean water!
Picture this
You’re walking downstairs to get the mail. You go out the door and bam! It hits you. But you won’t know until it’s too late. No, you didn’t just lock yourself out. This isn’t a locksmith’s site! You collect your mail and turn to walk inside and you hear a strange sound. It sounds like a slight dripping but getting bigger. Is the TV on? “Did I leave the water on?” you think as you get closer to the kitchen. But as you look at the sink that is clearly turned off, you see the water running down the wall and coming from the ceiling…
Oh Nooooo!
As you run upstairs, you look at the water rushing out the door and try to find the source. You look at the sink, nope. The shower, nope. then you see water jetting out from behind the toilet. You struggle to get down beside the toilet and reach the valve to turn off the water.
This happened recently
A customer of mine called me crying when her toilet supply line broke. She was fortunate enough that she got the water stopped in time before any major damage happened. But a close friend of mine involved in building maintenance in the past wasn’t so lucky. His damages totaled well over $20,000.
Water damage is expensive
There’s no getting around it. You have to remove sections of wall covering (plaster, drywall, etc.) to dry out the framing. This is not always limited to just the portions of wall covering that were directly water damaged. Water goes through all of the cracks and crevices before coming through the wall covering.
If you don’t dry out the interior of the structure before covering it up (or worse, just letting it go), mold can grow inside your walls. Mold in homes has been recognized as the cause of health problems and even death.
How to prevent it
The toilet supply line should be rubber with a braided stainless steel reinforcing jacket. If yours is anything but braided stainless, it should be replaced immediately. Even the braided stainless line should be replaced every 5 years and always when a new toilet is installed. It’s cheap insurance.
Don’t let this happen to you
While this is not an everyday occurrence, it often happens enough you need to be aware of it. It’s a simple fix, that with some skill and the right tools you can do yourself. Although if you just don’t want to face your toilet, have Vince do it for you. Click to have Vince replace your old toilet supply line.
