We had a roof project scheduled for last weekend (putting a new roof on the office back porch). As if that wasn’t enough, I was in the office basement last week and I heard something dripping. After a little investigation, I found that the leak was coming from the bathroom toilet–there’s a crack in the cast iron pipe.
Since this is a bigger plumbing project than we’d like to take on, Brian called our usual plumber. But, he wasn’t interested in the job because he does mostly heating and cooling nowadays. He wouldn’t refer us to another plumber either, so Brian checked with our Moxham neighbor who does handyman work. He’s probably going to take on the job, but is busy for the next few weeks.
I did a little research on cast iron pipes and found that a temporary repair can be made with fiberglass tape. So, while we were at Lowe’s buying roofing supplies last week, I found some of said tape. Yesterday, while Brian continued to work on the roof, I decided to tackle the pipe. The pipe is near the ceiling and I noticed that the ceiling was all spongy. After ripping a few chunks of the ceiling out, I found that the toilet was also leaking at the flange. Great.
When we installed the toilet, we used one of those wax rings. We had an issue with one of them at our house, too, and ended up buying a waxless gasket. I bought the same thing for this toilet and we installed it this evening. The deluge of water seems to have stopped (at least from the flange area). The pipe might be leaking a little bit, but I won’t know for sure until things dry out tomorrow, but I can live with that as it will all be replaced soon enough.
As for the roof, it’s still in progress. Over half of it is shingled at this point. Unfortunately, we’re going to get almost 2 inches of rain tomorrow. Fortunately, it’s just a porch roof, so I think it will be ok. The roof is tarpapered, so that should keep things dry. If not, I won’t stand on the porch tomorrow.