To catch a thief: is your toilet running away with your money?

Questions for Kimo: how do you stop your toilet from running away with your money?

It's time for a little potty talk! If your a Realtor and you have a listing where the toilet is running, help your clients save money and precious water by following these simple tips.

Just about everyone at some point in their lives will have a run-in with a running toilet. For the most part no one wants to call a plumber and spend the money to fix such a simple issue but ignoring the problem can waste hundreds of gallons of water and flush hundreds of dollars down the drain over time.

Here are two easy suggestions that can help. Chances are your running toilet is easily fixable by just about anyone, saving the cost of a plumber and wasteful water bills. So before you call the plumber or worse ignore the problem lift up the tank cover and take a look.

1) Most running toilets are result of too much water in the holding tank. The first step is to see if water is overflowing into the vertical tube. If it is, you'll want to lower the water level in the tank by adjusting the float arm(its the stick with the rubber ball like object that floats in the tank). This is easily done by bending the arm on the float downward. If you have a late model commode slide the clips down the arm by squeezing them and adjust the float towards the end of the arm. This should fix the problem.

2) If water is NOT overflowing into the vertical tube their might be a crack in the flapper located at the bottom of the tank. The flapper looks like a black circular trap door and is the mechanism that releases the water from the tank into the toilet bowl when you flush. To check if there is a leak add food coloring to the tank and wait 25 minutes. If the water in the toilet bowl changes color you will need to replace the flapper. Turn off the water supply to the toilet and reach into the tank and pull the flapper out. Bring the old flapper to your local hardware store and ask them for a replacement. The new flapper should easily snap into place. Turn on the water to the toilet and voi-la your done. No more running toilet.

JDS Consulting- Staging Hawaii nei! Providing Real Estate Merchandising services including: Home Staging, Interior Decor, Turn Key, Landscaping, Remodeling, & Open House Hosting. Visit our Blog: Questions for Kimo: Decor Design & More- www.RealEstateDesignOnLine.com tel.+1.808.344.1264 Kimo Stowell Copyright ©2008