Toilet trouble



We have two bathrooms in our house. One of them has a toilet that has a tendency to overflow every couple of weeks. We (ok, my husband!) plunge it, and then it’s fine for a while again. But that’s getting old. There isn’t any obvious reason why the toilet might be doing this, so I finally broke down and called a plumber. They said that we need a new toilet. I was surprised by this, since I assumed that probably they’d just snake it, but I went ahead and took their estimate anyway.

Then we hit up Home Depot to see how much just a plain old toilet was. Apparently they range from $45 for the tank & base on the cheap end to $500 on the high end. Then you have to buy the seat, and of course the little wax thing for the base. We found a model that looks pretty good for just under $200 total. The plumber’s estimate was around $290 for a toilet + install, so depending on what sort of toilet they had in mind that might be a pretty good deal. Especially since they promised that they would not damage the floor while installing it, which I’m a little bit worried about. (We have a very uneven floor, and the grout goes right up next to the toilet.)

So…

- Buy a toilet & install it ourselves? (We’ve removed & reinstalled toilets several times before with no issues)
- Have the plumber do it for an extra hundred or so? (So I don’t have to worry about the floor?)
- Or try snaking it just in case?

I guess I have some research to do first. But I’m happy that there’s one question we don’t have to ask, which is “how will we pay for it?”. This is one of the reasons we have an appliance fund, which we deposit $40 to every month. Maybe I need to think about renaming the fund to “appliances & household repairs”, since that’s probably more accurate.

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Posted in Spending money on Oct 12, 2007

3 Responses to “ Toilet trouble ”

  1. # 1 Bas Says:
    October 12th, 2007 at 6:19 am

    Personally, I am of the opinion that people who are experts at something have a better chance of doing something right the first time than myself. The last thing I would want to happen is to say later on “I wish I’d called a plumber right away.”
    To me, that’s worth the extra money. But then, I value my time more than my money so mileage may vary :)

  2. # 2 bluntmoney Says:
    October 12th, 2007 at 6:23 am

    Hm, but it only takes 5-10 minutes to change out a toilet.

  3. # 3 Tread Softly Says:
    October 12th, 2007 at 8:24 am

    I’d suggest doing it yourself, simply because I have an ingrained distrust of plumbers, mechanics, and refrigerator-repair people. Nothing ever seems to be done right the first time, on time, for the expected price. Then again, at least if a hired worker hurts your floors the company might pay for the repairs.

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