DISCLAIMER! I am NOT a plumber (I do hair). If you have ANY reservations  about fixing your toilet, then call a professional! And always remember to turn off the water first!

Warning! The photos are of a graphic nature. My toilet is old and really gross inside the back tank. Proceed with caution.  If you want pretty pictures, go visit www.thePioneerwoman.com!

I don’t, nor do I care to tinker with a toilet-BUT being single and not having someone to do those things can make a chick feel sorta… helpless. I don’t do helpless very good. Calling my landlord  could have been an option, but I have a unique arrangement with really good rent and I don’t want  him hiking it up, because I’m calling him about something every other day.  So, I got on the phone with my dad and explained what was happening. Then I also called up Alaska (my ex boyfriend from the great north) and asked him too. Neither one were much help in over the phone toilet diagnostics, but they did give me some clues.

Here I will attempt to illustrate how I fixed the loo and how you can do it too, if you ever need to deal with fixin’ yer own crapper

• Problem : My toilet was leaking behind the tank near the wall and this was not a “light” leak. It flooded my bathroom floor.

You’ll need two things:

A Toilet Hose Connector (to replace the old one) Here’s a link to what they look like on lowes.com
An adjustable  wrench (shown in the bottom photo)

1. FIRST OF ALL I turned the water off to the toilet. This can be accomplished by turning the valve on the wall (puprle arrow) to the right (righty tighty). You could also be really safe and turn the water main off to the entire home and then turn on the lowest sink in the house to allow any water n the pipes to drain there. I didn’t have to do this step. It IS a good idea to know where this water main shutoff is in your home (or outside your home) for an emergency.
2. I then flushed the toilet a couple of times to get the water out of the tank and the bowl. The water dripped for awhile, so I put a bown underneath and allowed it drain.
3. I removed the hose that connected the bottom of the tank to the wall(yellow arrow). It took a pipe wrench or monkey wrench to get this off the bottom part on the wall. The top part pointed in red could be loosened by hand and later it will also be tightened only by hand. (yanno the one with the adjustable thingie that makes the wrench larger or smaller?)
4. After removing this hose, take it Lowe’s or Home Depot and find one that is exactly a match on both ends. There are several. Some are braided metal, some are plastic tubes, this doesn’t matter but the fittings on each end must match your previous hose or you’ll be making a trip back to the store.
5. I then tightened the new hose on, for this I had to use a wrench at the bottom attachment at the wall (shown below ). Don’t over tighten! There is a seal and you also don’t want to break the  pipe! Then tighten the connector at the top by hand. You can do this firmly, but it has a seal inside of it also and you don’t want to break it.



6. Finally, I turned on the water again, checked for leaks, flushed my toilet and hoped for the best! If it leaks still, try tightening it up a little more. That should do it! If it doesn’t, then you’ll probably have to call a pro. But it fixed mine! Woohoo!(I am not a plumber! Take my advice at your own risk!)