LESLIE: Alright. Now we’ve got Joyce on the line who’s calling in about a humidity problem caused by a leak. Tell us what’s going on and is the leak fixed, Joyce?
JOYCE: Well, no, it isn’t and …
TOM: Well, then it’s going to keep happening.
JOYCE: Well, I don’t know what’s happening. Number one, it’s a rental property and number two, I found a receipt for lye in this person’s car in February.
TOM: OK.
JOYCE: I was called and said that they flushed the toilet once and it went down through a fir-wood ceiling and through a suspended ceiling and soaked the tile?
TOM: Right.
JOYCE: And it was dripping in the kitchen, OK? So I had my plumber come over and he had to literally cut out the wood in the kitchen, which is – the toilet is above it. And he flushed the toilet and he said, “It’s not that.” And he said, “Maybe it’s the roof.” Well, then it rained for a month-and-a-half and this person – they moved out. And I kept checking it every day and there wasn’t a drop that came in. Nothing.
TOM: OK. Well, now, what I’m saying, if you have a leak, you think the toilet may have caused that leak and you had a plumber in your house to fix that. What I would expect the plumber to do is to take the toilet off of the floor, which is actually not that complicated, and replace the wax seal that’s under the toilet and price it and put it back together again. Because if it is leaking and it’s not the fill valve on the back or the water-supply pipe, it’s most likely happening around that wax seal. And then once you do that, go ahead and flush it 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 times and see if it continues to leak. Does that make sense?
JOYCE: It does. And he flushed it.
TOM: But that wax seal is the most common cause of toilet leaks, Joyce. And once you get to the bottom of that, I think your problem is solved. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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