Express Plumbing Heating & Air Blog

Everything has a shelf life Milk has a shelf life of about two weeks, chips are usually good for a few weeks. Even humans have an average life expectancy of 65-80 years. Your average toilet has a life expectancy of 20-30 years, but there have been toilets known to keep on ticking until they are past 70! So you can help extend the life of your toilet with gentle use and proper maintenance. Another way to get more miles out of your toilet is to rebuild the tank.

The first thing you generally want to do before working on any plumbing fixture is to turn off the water supply. Locate the shut-off valve behind your toilet and close it. This will prevent any water from entering the tank. So once this is done, flush the toilet and hold down the lever to allow as much water as possible to drain out. Use a shop vacuum or a turkey baster to remove any water and give yourself a mostly dry workspace.

Next, you will want to place a bucket or rag underneath the fill tube on the underside of your toilet tank. Now, lose the fill tube. Repeat the water removal as before. You should see two screws at the bottom of your tank. Reach in with a large slotted screwdriver and loosen them. You will need to hold the nuts on the underside of the toilet with an open-end wrench. So once the nuts are off, you can lift the tank off the toilet.

Now that you have the tank off, lay it on its side. Use your pliers to remove the large spud nut from the flush valve. To loosen and remove the fill valve, as well. You can now install your new fill valve and the flush valve. Press the rubber spud gasket onto the flush valve.

After you have done this, but the brass bolt back through the holes in the bottom of the tank. Secure them with washers and nuts. Once you have set the tank back on the toilet, put a rubber washer, steel washer, and wing nut onto each bolt. Hand-tighten the wing nuts.

Reach into your newly replaced tank and insert the flexible refill tube into the rigid overflow tube. If this overflow tube is higher than your flush lever, trim it to size. Turn your water back on and flush the toilet. Check your water level. It should be about one inch below the top of the overflow tube. If it isn’t, adjust your valve to the appropriate level.

Voila! You’ve just rebuilt your tank and extended the life expectancy of your toilet! This job can be a little time-consuming and frustrating if you are unsure of how everything works. If you need help, the qualified technicians at Express Plumbing Heating & Air are here for you!

Brad Jordan

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