Anyone Know A Plumber?

[Goodwin 1st MRB]

So, when Deyana (my girl) moved in here around 4 years ago all sorts of shit was done wrong.

She had to have the place rewired, lots of shit redone, tore out walls and redid them etc. Most of this she did on her own or with her dad - that's right men, she's independent and isn't afraid to kick a mans ass.

Fast forward to 2 years ago, we replace the ball-cock & flapper valve in the toilet because it had a slow leak.

Fast forward to today - water guy comes out does the dye trick and confirms what I thought - huge leak in the flapper valve.

Sure we could try a new flapper valve - again - but the tank was also filling up slow, causing the bowl to push out even more water into overflow.

Our last water bill was $120, $60 higher than any we had ever had. The leak was pretty bad - so we decided 'fuck it, new toilet'.

So we head out - we're not looking to break the bank because we plan on selling this place and getting a bigger house in the next 2-3 years anyhow. So we pickup an American Standard toilet from Home Depot.

Get it home - and the things been open once already by someone else and they had apparently brought it back. So I take it back, and get a new unopened one. Get it home, get the old one out, dry fit the new one - things are looking up.

This is my first toilet install, but I did my homework and felt ready to tackle this.

Set it with the wax and shit, tighten down the nuts on the sides a decent amount, and the toilet has got a wobble. Not even a little that wobble could be shimmed, like a real WOBBLE. It looks like the bolt moves with the toilet when it wobbles. This can't be good.

I end up pulling the toilet back off after trying to shim out the wobble.

2 of the anchor screws that held the collar to the concrete came out in the wax attached to the bottom of the toilet. Not only that - the screws are different lengths.

Old ass cast iron piping. I have a feeling we're fucked on this one - my dad said those concrete screws don't hold worth dick in a lot of the homes he's been to (he works for a plumbing/hvac company), and he says there are a 'few' options that 'may' work but are probably a bit more advanced than I'd have the knowledge for.

Any of you guys got any ideas? Seriously - I'll take any advice at this point short of 'get a jackhammer and get to work', which is what we fear we may have to do in order to get this shit done correctly (at least then we could retile the floor properly, but we don't really want to spend all the extra $$)... sucks balls.

Here are some pictures - the two blue concrete screws in the back are still holding the collar down - but my pops said it sounds like someone rigged this fucker all jacked up back in the day anyway, probably because they didn't give a shit which sounds about right having heard all the other horror stories about this house.

Here is me lifting the collar - it will come up bout 1/2 an inch:

Here you can see the missing screws in the front:

[Le 1st MRB]

maybe you should try replacing the coller and the gasket.

[Goodwin 1st MRB]

maybe you should try replacing the coller and the gasket.

If this were half-way modern plumbing I'd say "no problem!", but the problem is that the screws don't have much to take into. It looks like the existing tapcons were just put into the mortar, not even reaching the concrete below :-/

sucks!

This is a pain in my ass.

[Magoo]

If you are going to try to stick with the original hardware I would try either an epoxy resin or see if you can use some lead wall anchors. I'm surprised that you can't find any longer screws though. When all else fails call a plumber.

Edited February 23, 2011 by Magoo 1st MRB

[Viktor]

If you got the tools, what you do is drill holes about 1/4" bigger than what screws that you are installing. Then get a resin fill that you can find at your local hardware store. Fill that up and let it sit to near solid. Once it gets to that texture, put the screws in and let the resin dry around it. That should solve your screw problems.

From the pictures, if the pipe is on uneven ground, lift those 4 pieces of tile around the pipe and sand it out. Then use that resin or some form of concrete to make a new surface. This is a bit time consuming, but it will fix your wobbling problem. Id do it myself if you were local. :/

[Bunt]

well shit i think Viktor and magoo covered everything here... No need for my help bahaha