• Home
  • about emily
  • before + after
  • HGTV + DIY Network
  • good press
  • contact
  • Let’s Organize These Posts:

    • Art Attack
    • Backyard
    • Barn
    • Basement
    • Bathroom
    • Beach
    • Bedrooms
    • Being Thrifty
    • Business-y
    • Buying and Renting and Selling
    • Casual Celebrations
    • Closets
    • Curb Appeal
    • Dainty Details
    • Deck
    • Decor
    • Dining Room
    • DIY
    • Dog-Related
    • Entryway
    • Flooring
    • For the Kids
    • Garage
    • Gardening
    • Helping The Economy
    • HGTV + DIY Network Projects
    • Holiday-Related Projects
    • Home Safety
    • Kitchen
    • Lighting
    • Living Room
    • Merry Travels
    • Office Space
    • Organized
    • Other Pads
    • Outdoor Living
    • Scooter Fun
    • Stairwell
    • Sunroom
    • Supporting Sponsors
    • The Art Room
    • Tools
    • Uncategorizable
    • Wedding
    • Windows
    • Work-pads
  • Search

  • Hi, I’m Emily

    Emily Fazio

    I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle.

    You can find me writing for HGTV and DIY Network, follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note if you'd like. I love notes.

    Thanks for visiting!

  • BROWSE POSTS BY CATEGORY:

    • Art Attack (7)
    • Backyard (92)
    • Barn (8)
    • Basement (27)
    • Bathroom (43)
    • Beach (13)
    • Bedrooms (73)
    • Being Thrifty (53)
    • Business-y (12)
    • Buying and Renting and Selling (23)
    • Casual Celebrations (36)
    • Closets (17)
    • Curb Appeal (44)
    • Dainty Details (8)
    • Deck (23)
    • Decor (286)
    • Dining Room (37)
    • DIY (577)
    • Dog-Related (24)
    • Entryway (59)
    • Flooring (58)
    • For the Kids (32)
    • Garage (17)
    • Gardening (70)
    • Helping The Economy (30)
    • HGTV + DIY Network Projects (283)
    • Holiday-Related Projects (80)
    • Home Safety (12)
    • Kitchen (83)
    • Lighting (31)
    • Living Room (77)
    • Merry Travels (21)
    • Office Space (21)
    • Organized (41)
    • Other Pads (14)
    • Outdoor Living (12)
    • Scooter Fun (8)
    • Stairwell (20)
    • Sunroom (22)
    • Supporting Sponsors (43)
    • The Art Room (3)
    • Tools (43)
    • Uncategorizable (1)
    • Wedding (28)
    • Windows (14)
    • Work-pads (10)
  • Search

  • Pages

    • blog
    • Merrypad Features
    • Privacy Policy
    • about emily
    • before + after
      • before + after, our current home
      • before + after, our first house
    • contact me
    • choose a badge and share the merrypad.com love
  • Home
  • about emily
  • before + after
  • HGTV + DIY Network
  • good press
  • contact

Toi-La, A DIY Toilet Repair

November 6, 2012

Toi-la… that’s kind of like, twa-la. A ballerina twirl. A fancy curtsy with enthusiastic jazz hands. Toilet repairs are usually a little daunting, at least in my experience, but repairing my toilet’s filled valve was easy-peasy, and you should know how to work it too.

We can’t put our finger on it, but something combusted within our toilet’s fill valve when I turned the water to the house off during kitchen sink removal. It was only off for about two hours, and sure, maybe the break was well-timed with the other project but completely unrelated, but we think that the water pressure change between turning the water on and off was enough to damage the toilet. You know when you turn the water off and then when you turn it on again it spurt-spurt-spurts from every faucet? Right, that’s probably what happened, but inside the old, weak valve.

All things considered, this repair was an inexpensive one. I knew immediately that something was wrong with the toilet when the fill valve didn’t trigger the water to stop coming into the tank. There are several things that can break in your toilet that would contribute to it running for any extended amount of time, but we were pretty sure that it had to do with the fill valve because when we manually lifted the broken valve (whether you already have a valve similar to ours or one of those big floating ballcocks in your tank – yes, get the snarking out of the way now) the water didn’t stop flowing in immediately. A healthy trigger would stop waterflow when prompted.

Fill valves don’t often live as long as people (even the universal model by Fluidmaster that we bought for $9 at Home Depot only has a 5-year warranty), so the chances of you needing to repair this in your home are probably significant. Here’s how it’s done.

1. Adjust to being totally not grossed out being in your toilet’s tank up to your forearms. Come’on, you’re not 6 anymore, and the water is clean.

2. Buy a fill valve. Right on.

When the time comes to replace the fill valve in your toilet, be happy: it's inexpensive.

3. Turn off the water to your toilet, and then flush, flush, flush until as much of the water is removed from the tank as possible. Use a big sponge or rag to absorb whatever water remains, and wring it right into your bathtub. Mine had about 1″ left in the tank, and it took about 35 seconds to clear out.

4. Unscrew the plumbing to your toilet. This water line goes straight into your fill tank. First disconnect the water line, and then unscrew the locknut that holds the fill tank in place.

Unscrew the water line after the water is turned off and tank is drained.

5. Lift out the broken fill tank. Straight out.

6. Take the new fill tank out of the packaging and lay it side by side with the old one. This is helpful from a height-marking standpoint; the new fill tank will need to be adjusted to fit the height of your existing plumbing, and the easiest way for me to do this was by matching the length to the existing one. If you’re still confused or you are replacing other important parts of your toilet (like the overflow pipe), there are instructions inside the packaging that will be much more help to you than this post. My replacement was simple.

Match the old fill tank height to the new fill tank height.

7. Lock that height adjustment into place. 

Lock the height of the fill valve into place.

8. Stick the new valve into place in the tank. Tighten it into place from underneath by hand, but do not overtighten. You’ll threaten breaking the tank itself, and that’s a much more extensive DIY repair. Side note: My worst nightmare is breaking the toilet tank by over-tightening during a simple repair.

Reattach the fill valve to the toilet.

9. Configure the black overflow hose to the overflow drain. My kit came with that little white clip to hold it in place. Keep a hand on the valve inside the tank so that it doesn’t swivel around in there while you’re working. Also push down gently on the base of the valve to ensure a really tight point of contact.

Configure the overflow hose.

10. Reattach the water supply to the valve. I wrapped the threads with PTFE tape and hand-tightened the connection.

Reattach the water supply to the toilet tank.

11. Turn the water on. All the way. Watch every dry connection for leaks, drips, and any sign of moisture outside of the tank where the water hookup is located. If it’s leaking, chances are that it just needs a quarter-turn to tighten it a bit more. Check it about 5 more times to be sure your toilet is reassembled wholly.

12. Watch the tank fill. It should now stop filling just below the overflow drain, and if your fill valve was adjusted to size precisely, you should see that the water fills to exactly the same point that it had before. Flush it and watch it again. And flush it and watch it again. Feel all around the plumbing for any moisture and leaks, and if it’s dry, consider yourself done. That’s the toi-la moment.

The toi-la moment where a girl learns how to replace a fill valve.

Now that you’ve seen the inner workings of a very, very private part of my home, any questions?

Share

Bathroom  / DIY

Emily
I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle. I've been a freelancer writer for 10+ years and you can find my work on popular home and garden sites, like HGTV.com. Follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note.

10 Comments


jb @BuildingMoxie
November 6, 2012 at 1:22 pm
Reply

“A fancy curtsy with enthusiastic jazz hands. …”

I had to do one of these recently and was just looking at the pics the other day. but here I am scooped! well done. E. thanks for sharing.



    Emily
    November 6, 2012 at 1:39 pm

    Haha, show yours too! Different toilets have different stories. In as least-gross a way as possible.

Katharine
November 6, 2012 at 1:55 pm
Reply

I wish my repair was this simple. The bolts are so tight on our old toilet that we can’t budge them. Any suggestions?



    Emily
    November 6, 2012 at 2:11 pm

    You might be able to get it if you have someone holding the inside of the tank while someone else wrenches on it. You’ve tried loosening the nut with a wrench or a Channel Lock?

Cait @ Hernando House
November 14, 2012 at 9:39 am
Reply

Nicely done! So glad that fixed the issue!

We recently had to replace the toilet in our hall bath after a new flapper failed to solve the issue we were having. The bolts holding that sucker to the floor had to be cut with a reciprocating saw. Not pleasant. Fortunately we had a brand new toilet sitting in the warehouse formerly known as our guest room. The new toilet does sort of make me want to do a fancy curtsy with enthusiastic jazz hands, too!

Once we finish up the shower valve replacement in the hall bath I have a feeling we’re going to pause briefly on our way back to the guest bathroom in order to figure out what the heck is going on in the laundry room. I suspect it was something like the issue with your toilet valve (or really well-timed). Problem is? We can’t tell where the water that squishes up when you step near the washer is coming from. The big freezer (which is actually on the other side of the room)? The water heater? The washer itself? Leaking in from outside?



    Cait @ Hernando House
    November 14, 2012 at 9:40 am

    Sorry about the short-novel of a comment. Can I claim I was taking part in NaNoWriMo?

    Emily
    November 14, 2012 at 9:42 am

    Ha! Funny. I wish I knew more about plumbing. Are you saying that water is squishing up from the floor?!

    Cait @ Hernando House
    November 14, 2012 at 10:04 am

    Yeah, I suppose could have been more clear. (But I haven’t finished my coffee yet!) It seems like the water is squishing up from the floor, but I’m not sure it’s possible considering that room is on slab as far as I know. Maybe it’s residual moisture in the seams of the cheap linoleum from a puddle we didn’t notice? I guess we’ll start clearing the room out and trying to decide by process of elimination? That’s one way to work on the laundry room, right? Haha

    Emily
    November 14, 2012 at 10:05 am

    Ugh, what a pain. Keep us updated!

    Cait @ Hernando House
    November 14, 2012 at 11:29 am

    Will do! (Though possibly through Twitter.)

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • HI, I’m Emily

    Emily Fazio

    I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle. Follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note if you'd like. I love notes.

    Thanks for visiting!

  • Instagram

    merrypad

    Merrypad by Emily Fazio
    Instagram post 17902304861708711 Instagram post 17902304861708711
    Highly recco mining those #herkimerdiamonds ✌️ Highly recco mining those #herkimerdiamonds ✌️
    Pt. 2: Well before Halloween, the last of the garl Pt. 2: Well before Halloween, the last of the garlic went into the home garden: 10 rows [L>R] 6 whole Nootka Rose as an experiment, 3x8 Mennonite-grown cloves from Aman’s, and 6x8 (and, I think, total 112? notes are cryptic) “normal.”
#gardennotes #growinggarlic #garden2023 #whatisnormal #merrypadathome
    Out of sight but [documented so it’s] not out of Out of sight but [documented so it’s] not out of mind! #garden2024 kicks off with my favorite biennial: elephant garlic! 15 cloves planted from small, to medium, to enormous. #gardennotes
    Annual garlic notes for #garden2023, pt. 1: this i Annual garlic notes for #garden2023, pt. 1: this is getting ooc, and I love it. 👩‍🌾🧑‍🌾

🧄 65% of the planting is in a new plot in the country. 🧄 Seeing if NR grows bigger with more sunlight. 🧄 Big @chasefarms cloves from 2021 were really productive in our home garden; can’t wait to see how they can show up next year in the new space. 🧄

Hand-turned a small bed, but big thanks to my sister, who rolled into town just in time to help me double its size (and did not complain once).
    One straggler from #garlic2021 debuted with 7 stal One straggler from #garlic2021 debuted with 7 stalks and 7 scapes, and I can’t wait to see this mammoth looks like when it’s pulled next month. #garlic2022 

Also, fierce springtime performance by parsley, chamomile, and self-seeded cilantro.
    Annual garlic notes #garden2022 ~315 cloves total Annual garlic notes #garden2022
~315 cloves total
50 in new, unfenced garden
Still need thick mulch on everything
Did a terrible job tracking varieties when I harvested, so it’s all a mix of hardneck now 😒
Added some big cloves from @chasefarms and look forward to adding some @fruition_seeds in #garden2023 when @porterfarmscsa delivers.
    Load More... follow emily: @merrypad



  • Like Us On Facebook

    Facebook Pagelike Widget



  • Popular Posts

    • How to fix an IKEA drawer. The Easy Fix For Broken IKEA Drawers 66.7k views
    • DIY sideboard rehab. 7 Steps for Restoring an Old Midcentury Sideboard Buffet 56.6k views
    • How to design and make a barn quilt. How to Make Your Own Barn Quilt 49.9k views
    • How to hang art on brick surfaces using specialty clips. The Easy Way to Hang Art on Brick or Stone 39.9k views
    • DIY driveway removal. The Driveway Rocks 35k views
    • Our DIY flagstone patio. Building a Flagstone Patio in One Day 32.7k views
    • Tips for dying pasta different colors, and a Halloween Recipe for the kids. How to Dye Pasta Different Colors (Halloween Recipe) 32.5k views
    • Goodbye, gold fireplace covering. Less Is More: How to Remove a Fireplace Surround 29.5k views
    • Fix an ikea dresser drawer. Life Support For An IKEA Dresser 29.4k views
    • After: Custom wooden garden fence. Designing a Durable Wooden Fence For Our Beautiful Backyard Garden 22.9k views



  • BROWSE POSTS BY CATEGORY:

    • Art Attack (7)
    • Backyard (92)
    • Barn (8)
    • Basement (27)
    • Bathroom (43)
    • Beach (13)
    • Bedrooms (73)
    • Being Thrifty (53)
    • Business-y (12)
    • Buying and Renting and Selling (23)
    • Casual Celebrations (36)
    • Closets (17)
    • Curb Appeal (44)
    • Dainty Details (8)
    • Deck (23)
    • Decor (286)
    • Dining Room (37)
    • DIY (577)
    • Dog-Related (24)
    • Entryway (59)
    • Flooring (58)
    • For the Kids (32)
    • Garage (17)
    • Gardening (70)
    • Helping The Economy (30)
    • HGTV + DIY Network Projects (283)
    • Holiday-Related Projects (80)
    • Home Safety (12)
    • Kitchen (83)
    • Lighting (31)
    • Living Room (77)
    • Merry Travels (21)
    • Office Space (21)
    • Organized (41)
    • Other Pads (14)
    • Outdoor Living (12)
    • Scooter Fun (8)
    • Stairwell (20)
    • Sunroom (22)
    • Supporting Sponsors (43)
    • The Art Room (3)
    • Tools (43)
    • Uncategorizable (1)
    • Wedding (28)
    • Windows (14)
    • Work-pads (10)





  • a little bit of everything, friends, DIY, and inspiration

    • Dadand.com < My husband and his BFF
    • DIY Network
    • HGTV
  • Some Legal

    Merrypad incorporates the occasional affiliate link to Amazon.com and Minted; we link to many other websites and products, but if it is in context of a paid sponsorship, it is always noted as such. Please review the privacy policy and contact me if you have any additional questions.

    Theme customized by Pete Fazio Creative, the guy from dadand.com.


© Copyright Merrypad