Tool Tips: Toilet water removal, basin wrench usage, location positioning

Toilet water removal

When evacuating water from a toilet tank or bowl, I use an inexpensive multi-use transfer pump with two 51-in. hoses, which you can cut to size. Place one end in the tank or bowl and the other end in the lav sink, shower, tub drain or pushed through the commode drain. Then just pump out the water. No mess, no Styrofoam cup, no heavy shop vac to carry in — simple, clean and efficient.

Edward King

King Plumbing

Cortland, Ohio

Basin wrench usage

A basin wrench can be most helpful and save a lot of backbreaking digging when a cut-off valve is in the ground and a sleeve of pipe is around it. If it’s leaking at the valve stem packing, you won’t need to dig it all up as the basin wrench will reach around the handle and allow you to tighten inside the pipe sleeve. This is especially helpful if it’s encased in cement.

Bill Pair

Pair Plumbing and Septic

Cameron, Texas

Location positioning

My tip is how to find your location in a building between floors or rooms. We drill a tiny hole using a steel rood that is used to hold insulation bats in ceilings. These roods have a diameter of 1/16 in. and come in lengths of about 21 in. You can cut one down to any length you prefer. Make a tiny hole in the corner of a room or along the edge of a wall into the next room. The hole is almost invisible and the steel rood sticking through the other side is easy to see. Roods can be purchased in most any store that sells fiberglass insulation.

Bill Haynes

Haynes Plumbing & Caretaking

Vineyard Haven, Mass.

Send Us Your Tool Tips

If you have an idea that has saved you time and money, Plumbing & Mechanical would like to share your tip with our readers.The first-place winner each month will receive a Kinetic Water Ram from General Pipe Cleaners with a retail value of $325. Read here for more details.