This Summer the City of Austin had a program to give each household up to three free low-flow toilets assuming you met certain conditions: age of toilet, water usage, City water customer, etc. Well we qualified and picked up our three free toilets.
Now normally, swapping out a toilet should take maybe an hour or so. The steps are pretty simple:
- Turn off the water to the tank
- Drain the tank
- Unhook the hose
- Undo the bolts
- Remove the toilet
- Cleanup the wax ring
- Reverse for install
We got right up to undo the bolts on the first toilet when we ran into problems. Turns out the thing wasn’t bolted down. In fact it was missing a couple important components like the closet flange and a decent stand pipe. Anyway, to make a long, boring story somewhat shorter, the free toilets ended up taking me a month to put in (well two of them, the last one won’t fit) which included $100 in tools and supplies, multiple trips to the hardware store and pouring concrete (twice).
Under our toilet: Missing closet flange, screwed up pipe, eroded concrete. Nasty, eh?
The best part of the whole experience? One of the requirements of getting the new toilets is that you disable the old toilets so they can’t be used again. Our method? Let the kids whack the heck out of them. Fun was had by all. Notice the safety glasses.
Wesley smashing away with the 3lb hammer.
Did I mention they loved this a lot?
This is why we wore safety glasses. Look at that potty fly!
Once Wesley got done with the first toilet we brought out number two and let Jillian have at it. We started her off with the same 3lb hammer Wesley used, but on the first swing she tipped over and fell onto the toilet. So we swapped it out with a claw hammer (thank goodness again for safety goggles).
Preparing to smash her toilet.
Doing some hard core potty training. Bad potty!
She couldn't break the cover until we placed it on the ground. Then WHACK!
Once Jillian had gotten tired we let Wesley finish it off. He came back at it with the claw hammer, but quickly switched to the heavier one for its toilet-smashing powers.
Now that the toilets are in small pieces we have been slipping them 30lbs or so at a time into the trash. I think we’ll have it all disposed of in a couple of weeks. This may have been the most fun we’ve had ever. The kids loved it. It was simple, easy, and you couldn’t help but laugh. Made the whole nasty toilet problems worth it. Even Amber and I took some swings. I highly recommend it if you get the chance.
Aahh, the joys of learning how things are “supposed” to go! This is why I am waiting as long as possible to tackle the home improvement projects on our list! Love the destruction! We hope to be smashing a toilet and a sink from our house – the longer I have to wait, the more I’ll enjoy the destruction!