Exploding Toilet (not fun)

Ever have a toilet literally explode on you and turn your hands to shreds from the shrapnel? I have, so read on for a good story.

Well the carpet guy was in laying down the carpet and linoleum and so I put my toilet outside for a day or two to be out of his way. After he was done with the bathroom I started to install the toilet. It was a lot of work because the closet flange and radiant floor concrete don't mesh that well together. anyway through hilti-guns, a few swear words and a lot of machining (yes I said machining of the toilet flange itself) I was able to get everything to work.

So there I am, getting everything tightened up, but as you know, with toilets nothing is too tight because of the porcelain. Anyway I get the plumbing hooked up and open up the valve.

Boom!!

The toilet literally explodes in front of me sending small pieces of porcelain at my hands. Exploded porcelain is sharp and nasty and literally cut my hands in numerous places. So now I got an exploded toilet, lots of water and blood everywhere.

After cleaning up my hands I found the problem. The snow we got had filled the toilet with water, and through warm and cold days froze. When I turned on the valve it put water pressure onto the ice and the pressure had no where to go so the toilet literally exploded.

So today Alyson and I went to Home Depot and got another toilet. I am happy to say this one is now working just fine, but Alyson now has purple hands. yeah she got into the pipe cleaner and you know how that stuff stains your hands and must be worn off instead of washed off? Well her Mom will be home in 3 hours and she is not going to be impressed with her daughters purple stained fingers!!

Do you think Mr Crapper, the honest to goodness inventor of the toilet is laughing in heaven knowing how much crap I have had to put up with with these two toilets just to take a crap!! (all puns intended)

Now i am sure!!!!

You need to stay in maine travis,, i dont need any form of your good fortune,, and you can adda split cup of coffee to your mishaps.. yup i am blamin you for that... if this is the way yur day is startin out i dont want tohear the neding

Ah Ha!

So that is why I had a bowl blow up on me tonight, must be the dreaded "Travis-in-Maine-Exploditis" going around

Hey Travis, at least you got it fixed, if you had to pay a plumber you would have no funny story to tell and even less money!

Hope them mitt heal fast!

Had a toilet blowed up once, but not like that. During a thunder storm at my Uncles' house in Virginia back in the late 50's. His house was on a septic system.

Lightning struck the septic tank and worked it's way back up the line. Blowed the terlit up and left black burned places on the kitchen and bathroom sinks. We were in the kitchen at the time and thought maybe the world had ended.

Thank goodness no one was on the pot at the time. WOOO! WEEE! That woulda been a ride, eh.

Karl

Now that is one for the grand kids. What a story. Glad you weren't seriously hurt. File this one under "look back and laugh".

Hi Travis, regarding the purple primer, a couple years ago I spilled a half can of it on my concrete sidewalk. It cleaned up by blotting up the liquid and then soaking the area in good old Clorox bleach. I little scrub brush action made sure the bleach got into all the crooks and crannys. I am not suggesting your wife soak in bleach, but a very dilute solution might soften the color. OR, you can make sure the dishwasher is out of service for a week or two.

Ken Garlock said:

OR, you can make sure the dishwasher is out of service for a week or two.

Click to expand...

I'm sure this is just one more thing she is going to be sure to tell the marriage councilor next week.

You gotta understand Patty is a bit over-protective of her daughter, going as far as to give her only Maine Grown Organic Food, and only using environmentally safe cleaners and stuff around the baby. Having a degree in Environmental Science does not help either, Patty has a thing about chemicals and cleaning agents too.

It was kind of funny though because Alyson HATES to get dirty. Every five minutes she would come over to me and present her hands and give up a little whine and say "irty". I would take a rag and wipe her hands but obviously the purple would not come off. (Incidentally the pipe dope compound she got into was having a tough time coming off too.) Anyway Alyson cannot say "more" verbally yet, but she can make the sign for it in sign language. I would get done wiping her hands off and she would sign for "more", then "more" again when I stopped. She really hates to get her hands dirty. I gotta do something about that...

There is hope though. Last week I needed to sharpen up a router bit and it was too cold in my shop so I came into the house and had Alyson "help" me as can be seen in this photo. You can see the router bit just peeking out of her hand, but getting it to the sharpening stone was a bit tough for her. I guess she needs a little work on her fine motor skills still!

Travis, I was reading last week that there is growing evidence that young children SHOULD PLAY IN THE DIRT. The soil bacteria helps build natural immunity. It is suspected that the rise in childhood asthma may be due to the lack of 'dirt time', and the overuse of antibiotics by doctors to placate parents. Another culprit is thought to be the overuse of anti-bacterial soap.
Clean is good, but sanitized is not....