Friday 1 June 2012

Clogged Toilet Bowl? How to Clear a Toilet Bowl Choke

When a toilet bowl gets choked up, it can be an unpleasant strain on your time and efforts, but there are some easy ways to fix the situation before things get messy.

The Simple Approach


First, evaluate the situation to determine how bad the choke is. If you have a short toilet and not a lot in the bowl or if it is clear that the choke is a minor one, you may try the simple approach.


1. Wait for the water and plumbing to settle and become totally silent.

2. Slowly press down the toilet bowl handle and hold it.

3. If you hear the bowl having trouble, release the handle immediately.

3. If the flush sounds fine but prolonged, keep holdi ng until you hear the clog release. It should make a distinct thick and muted popping noise as the toilet paper lets go and clears the pressure.

Sometimes this is sufficient to clear a minor choke. However, sometimes a choke is not minor and it's time to escalate to other household tools.

The Troubleshooter Approach

If the toilet bowl clearly has more than a minor choke or there is significant debris inside the bowl, troubleshooting the problem will be more effective and avoid making an unpleasant mess.

1. Locate and retrieve the household plunger.


2. Evaluate the water level to determine whether inserting the plunger will cause an overflow.


3. If the water level is too high, wait up to twenty or thirty minutes to allow it to settle.


4. If the water level is low enough, insert the plunger over the drainage hole.


5. Press on the plunger handle until you feel or hear it create a suction. Hold it down until you hear the clog release.


6. If you lose the suction and do not hear a release, repeat as necessary.


7. Once the clog has released, flush the
toilet and clean.

Tuesday 20 March 2012

Toilet Seat Risers For The Elderly And Disabled

Anyone suffering from the inability to sit down comfortably on a toilet seat due to a disability, injury or aging problems will benefit from a toilet seat riser or a handicap toilet seat. There are many styles and designs on the market that will meet the particular needs of almost any type of problem including obesity.

There are styles that include handles, extra firm, and extra padded elongated styles just to name a few. It is important to understand just what your particular need is before shopping for the commode seat riser and what will be your best choice regarding price as well as performance.

Handicap seats are not just sold in medical equipment stores any more. Most big box stores carry many different makes and models. The prices for a riser seat can range anywhere from a low end of $25 to over $100 for specially designed seats with hinges or an elongated design to fit an extra-large toilet rim.

If you are a senior citizen suffering from an inability to bend at the knee or hip, a toilet chair riser will ease the pain of bending down to lower yourself onto a conventional seat. Using sore or arthritic muscles and joints can be painful and increase your chances of a dangerous fall; something most elderly people should take precautions to avoid. Using a toilet seat riser will eliminate the fear of bathroom mishaps.

Many handicap toilet seats come with side handle bars for more stability and ease of use. There are a few different styles on the market with handles attached to the sides of a riser. There are also seats that have a separate steel attachment that has added legs on the side to create a more stable platform for the handicapped person. You can easily search online for photos and prices of the type of riser that will suit your situation.

If you are interested in a different type of riser altogether, there is a special model that attaches to the base of the commode, making the toilet higher up on the pedestal so the regular toilet chair is accessible to the disabled or handicapped person. The necessary height is achieved by adding to the base of the toilet leaving the conventional seat intact. This eliminates the need for a padded rise and can be equally effective as a Styrofoam or plastic elevated seat.

Finding the right riser should be simple. It may help to measure the height of the handicap or disabled person before purchasing your handicap seats or riser. Make sure to get a receipt to return your item if it turns out to be the wrong style or height or look for an adjustable toilet seat.

Wednesday 8 February 2012

Hemp Toilet Paper

If you could use hemp toilet paper, would you do it? The choice seems obvious. Many people don't know about all the problems with regular toilet paper, and the various chemicals that are used in the process that can ultimately lead to personal health problems and environmental degradation. Hemp offers a novel solution to the toilet paper problem, and as technology improves and hemp gains more support, these quality alternatives will be available throughout the world. It is only a matter of time, because once enough people start to use these products, they will see how superior they are to the traditional options we have had to use for so long.

Toilet paper is one of the few things that we absolutely cannot go without. Even Kleenex can to some extent be replaced with a handkerchief (although many people find that to be unpleasant), but bathroom paper definitely cannot be reused. Because of this, toilet paper is a very high turnover product and millions of tons of it must be produced every year, with many companies playing a role. This production subsequently destroys millions of trees, and considering how much we use trees for all kinds of other paper products, being able to offset a lot of that with hemp could truly help the planet.

There is also benefit for the economy if hemp started to be used more for this purpose. Hemp can be grown virtually anywhere and would be a great boon for our farming industry, but of course the benefits do not stop there. New companies will be needed to harvest, process, and add value in a variety of ways to hemp. It doesn't need to stop at this particular product, as hemp can be used to make a wide variety of different paper products. But there's no better place to start than toilet paper, because as was mentioned before, it is one of the things people absolutely cannot live without. And once people start seeing how well this works and realize how much better it is for the environment and their bodies, the hemp market will be able to explode for other sectors as well.

Until recently, there were no hemp toilet paper products on the market, so purchasing such a product was not even an option. Thankfully, firms are starting to realize the value of such a product line, and these kinds of hemp-based papers are now starting to be released. It isn't far until yet more hemp products make their way into the American economy, because there is nothing else out there that can make so many different things and improve the economy in such a dramatic fashion. When hemp finally does reclaim its rightful place at the top of not only American industry but global industry itself, the world will be a much better place.

Monday 16 January 2012

Fixing a Rocking Toilet and Toilet Leakage

The causes of Toilet Rocking and Leakage
A Toilet rocking and leaking is one of the most common problems that a property owner may face. leakage on the floor, coming out from under the toilet, is sometimes caused by rocking toilets. The leakage can also be caused by sewer back-ups breaking the wax seal or leaking supply lines. The rocking toilet is usually caused by a problem with the toilet flange height compared to floor height, or the floor being slightly off level from the original construction.

How to fix a Rocking Toilet
If there is no water on the floor, no odor, and the toilet is only rocking, sometimes the rocking problem can be fixed without the need of a plumber. Home Depot, Lowe's and other Hardware stores sell a part called a wobble wedge. These wedges can be slipped in under the high edge of the toilet. They also are made of plastic and can easily be trimmed to be even with the outer edge of the toilet. If you have caulk around the base, you may need to trim this caulk off before installing the wobble wedges. Place the wedges into the largest gap area, pressing them firmly under the toilet. Then check to see if that solved the rocking. If the toilet is still rocking you may need to loosen the bolts on each side next to the floor, and push the wedge under a little further. Check again after tightening these bolts to see if that corrected the rocking.

How to fix Toilet Leakage
If you have water coming out from under the toilet, it will need to be reset because the wax seal or the flange could be broken. To reset the toilet yourself, you will need to turn off the water to the toilet. Then disconnect the pipe going to the flush valve. Then remove the bolts holding the toilet to the floor. Drain off all the extra water with a wet/dry vacuum, or by dipping it out of the toilet. Place a tarp or plastic trash bag on the floor to set the toilet on. Pick the toilet up and set it on the tarp. Then scrape off the old wax seal and replace it with a new wax seal. Also, place your bolts into the slot for the bolts on the flange. Then reset the toilet, being careful to line up the holes with the bolts. Tighten all the bolts and supply line. Also, add the wobble wedges to help level the toilet. Then check for leaks and adjust the wobble wedges, as in the instructions above, until rocking stops.