DIY toilet repair, troubleshooting, installation, and maintenance walkthroughs.
How to remove a toilet: drain it, break the seal, lift it, and get rid of it By Ariel, last updated September 25, 2026. Knowing how to remove a toilet is mostly knowing what order to do things in. In the right order an old two-piece comes out in 30-45 minutes with a wrench and…
Can you flush tampons? The plumber’s verdict on 16 things people put down the toilet By Ariel, last updated September 25, 2026. Can you flush tampons? No, and the answer does not soften for a small one, a single one, or a house on a city sewer instead of septic. Below is the same plain…
Toilet supply line guide: sizes, lengths, line types, and the ones that fail By Ariel, last updated September 25, 2026. A toilet supply line is the short pressurized hose between the shutoff valve at the wall and the fill valve under the tank. It is the only part of a toilet under house pressure around…
Plumbing tools for homeowners: the kit that toilet and fixture work actually calls for By Ariel, last updated September 25, 2026. Most lists of plumbing tools are written for people who plumb for a living, so they open with a 14-inch pipe wrench and a propane torch. A homeowner fixing a toilet or setting a…
Installing a new toilet: the planning and buying guide before you lift a wrench By Ariel, last updated August 12, 2026. TL;DR: measure first, then buy, then set Installing a new toilet goes wrong at the store, not in the bathroom. The single most common mistake is buying a toilet that does not match the…
Parts of a toilet: a plumber’s glossary of every piece in the tank and bowl By Ariel, last updated August 12, 2026. Every homeowner learns the parts of a toilet the hard way, standing over an open tank at 11 p.m. trying to figure out why the thing will not stop running. This is the…
How to replace a toilet seat: identify your bolts, break the seized ones, and buy the seat that actually fits By Ariel, last updated August 12, 2026. Learning how to replace toilet seat hardware is a ten minute job when the bolts cooperate and a forty minute job when they do not. The whole thing…
How to Caulk Around a Toilet: The Three-Sided Rule and Why Caulking All the Way Around Hides Leaks By Ariel. Last updated September 9, 2026 How to caulk around a toilet is a 20-minute job that takes most homeowners three tries to get right. The first try uses the wrong caulk. The second try caulks…
How to Stop a Toilet From Sweating: The 2-Minute Diagnosis and the 4 Fixes Ranked By Ariel, last updated July 1, 2026. A sweating toilet is a humidity problem 80% of the time and a supply-temperature problem 20% of the time. Most “fix a sweating toilet” guides skip the diagnosis step and dump the same…
How to Replace a Toilet Fill Valve: The 15-Minute Job and the 4 Mistakes That Make It Fail By Ariel, last updated June 30, 2026. Replacing a toilet fill valve is a 15-minute job. The part costs $12. The four most common mistakes people make during the install (wrong water level, twisted refill tube, over-tight…