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Whetherfixing a commode that ’s runningor leak from the nucleotide , clean the tankful , or supplant a whole that ’s beyond repair , your first step must be to drain the toilet in club to inspect its internal parts and head off a flood on the john level .

as luck would have it , eliminating water system from both the tank and the bowl is among the easiest , least mussy commode - related DIY tasks , using supplies you no doubt already have on bridge player . Below , we ’ve outlined the simple dance step - by - footprint book of instructions for draining a toilet , along with the instrument that make it easy .

How to Drain a Toilet

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Draining a Toilet in 8 Steps

Step 1: Prepare the area.

Protect your privy floor by laying old towel around the nucleotide of the potty . Fully get up the privy tail book binding and toilet behind toward the front of the toilet tank to protect them from possible stir back .

Step 2: Turn off the water supply.

Locate the metallic element shut - off valve along the wall behind the commode , usually near the al-Qa’ida of the armoured combat vehicle . Manually twist the valve clockwise until tight to turn off the water supply to the toilet .

Step 3: Remove toilet tank lid.

apply gloved hands to lift the eyelid off the commode tank and gently set it on a plane , soft surface , such as a carpeting on the level . ( The lid of standard porcelain toilets can crack if abruptly put on a hard Earth’s surface . )

Tried-and-True Advice

After working in the plumbing system industry for a decade , I can confidently say that one of the most time - consuming function of the problem is draining the water . After turning off the closing off valve to the lavatory and redden to get rid of most of the water , you’re able to use awet / dry shop vacto suck up any stay pee . Instead of mopping it up with towels or sponges , the knock-down emptiness will remove the water from the tank and any piddle that is leave in the bowl with relative ease .

— Timothy Dale , Contributing Writer

Step 4: Drain the toilet.

purge the toilet , keeping the flush lever depressed until the water level inside the tank empty as much as potential . At this point , the tank will either be wholly empty or filled with less than half an in of water . If the tank is empty , go to Step 6 . If the tank still hold in some pee , proceed to the next step .

Step 5: Remove excess water.

hook up any piss remaining in the tank with a bombastic and absorptive cleanup leech . Squeeze the sponge over the crapper sports stadium to discard the water supply , and then set the parasite away .

Step 6: Fill bucket with cold water.

Fill a 5 gallon bucket with 3 gallons of plain cold weewee . The easy fashion to fill the bucket is to station it in the bathtub and fly the coop the cold tap . If you have a half bath without a bathing tub , fulfil ashampoo rinsing pitcheror a tumbler ( no more than 8 inches tall ) with piss from the bathroom pass , then empty its contents in the bucketful , repeating this cognitive process until the bucket has about three gallons of water .

Step 7: Pour water into toilet.

Tote the bucket to the toilet . Lifting the bucket to the height of a few inches above the throne bowl , quickly pop to pour the water into the throne bowlful , gradually revoke the pail to a height of one groundwork above the toilet bowl until the bucketful is empty .

While pouring water into the bowl sounds counterintuitive for drain a toilet , lifting up the bucket as you pour will speed up the water supply stream and encourage most of the remaining H2O in the bowl to go down the drain — similar to a flush .

Step 8: Dry up remaining water.

To run out the toilet completely dry , soak up any standing water that remains in the toilet bowl with the with child parazoan . Now , you ’re ready to keep with your gutter repair or alimony task . When your toilet is back in business , remove any towel from the john flooring , and turn the toilet shut - off valve counterclockwise to restore the body of water supply to your commode .

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Woman wearing rubber gloves removes lid from toilet tank.

Photo: Tom Fenenga for Bob Vila

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Close up of a person’s hand flushing a white toilet.

Photo: Witthaya Prasongsin/Getty Images

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