Toilet Supply Line Hazard

Jul 18, 2008 11 Replies

In February the master bath toilet supply line in my unoccupied house failed. By the time the next-door neighbor noticed water coming out of the house, all rooms but the front two bedrooms were flooded, and the drywall was damp as high as 8" in some places.



This line was installed by the builder in 1998, and has a plastic coupler at the toilet end. This coupler is what failed - it split open. The result was approximately $25K in damage - most of the carpeting, vinyl floors in both bathrooms and laundry, all of the MDF baseboards, and repainting of rooms except the previously-mentioned front bedrooms.



State Farm took great care of us, and between the work done by a local company to remove ruined stuff, dry everything out and do some of the repairs, plus the work I did myself, we were able to move back into the house starting in May.



But here's the thing: I inspected the coupling on the hall bathroom toilet, and it was starting to crack too. So when I replaced them, I tried to find supply lines that had metal couplings, but no joy. They're ALL plastic now. But I noticed the new ones are made with more solid thicker plastic than the ones that failed.



So my advice is this: Check those toilet supply lines, and replace them if they look like they're starting to crack - it'll save you a lot of grief!


--Steve


Thanks for the heads up, I wouldn't have thought to check those.

Cheri

If you want all metal construction, try a corrugated stainless steel water supply connector. Here's one manufacturer of them, there are others: .

Cheers, Wayne

The may even crack when installed, so don't over tighten. Same with any of the plastic fasteners.

I bought a chromed hard line from my local plumbing supply; it has a brass nut on it. I think that that was actually two separate pieces, so you could probably buy the brass nut separately. I assume you're talking about the nut that attaches to the bottom of the fill valve, yes?

nate

That, and turning off the water to an unoccupied house...

Here's some better advice. Turn off the water when you leave the house. Even if it just to go to the store. To leave it on in an unoccupied house was just asking for a disaster.

s

I actually do this if I'm leaving for more than a day. Too much "vintage" plumbing in the house that hasn't been completely checked out by Yours Truly yet.

nate

Steve Barker DLT wrote:

There are two type of homeowners. Those that have had a washer hose or water heater fail, and those who will. Those of us who have already experienced the action, turn the water off when we leave.

s

Turning off the water can cause problems too if you have a hot water heater in the attic.

A neighbor turned his off and apparently left the valves to the washer open. The selenoids on his washer apparently need pressure to work properly so they started leaking and the caused siphoning out of his water heater.........

One of my customers had a capped off iron water pipe. The cap was plastic and split during the night. So check any such caps, not just those on toilets.

Depends on how long it was unoccupied, but I'm suprised SF paid this claim. The homeowner has a 'responsability' to prepare the home during extended absenses. Those are often defined as 10 days or more.

I shut off my water for anything more than a day...Power down the HW heater etc etc..

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