Toilet Supply Line Hazard

Steve

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Jul 18, 2008, 2:49:07 PM7/18/08

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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

Cheri

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Jul 18, 2008, 3:27:06 PM7/18/08

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Steve wrote in message ...

>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

Wayne Whitney

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Jul 18, 2008, 3:40:05 PM7/18/08

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On 2008-07-18, Steve <sm...@sureNOSPAMwest.net> wrote:

> So when I replaced them, I tried to find supply lines that had metal
> couplings, but no joy. They're ALL plastic now.

If you want all metal construction, try a corrugated stainless steel
water supply connector. Here's one manufacturer of them, there are
others: <http://www.falconstainless.com>.

Cheers, Wayne

Oren

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Jul 18, 2008, 3:56:50 PM7/18/08

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On Fri, 18 Jul 2008 11:49:07 -0700, Steve <sm...@sureNOSPAMwest.net>
wrote:

>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!

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

N8N

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Jul 18, 2008, 4:46:31 PM7/18/08

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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?

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Jul 19, 2008, 10:52:57 PM7/19/08

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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.

in2-d...@webtv.net

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Jul 20, 2008, 7:11:24 PM7/20/08

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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..