To maintain a cozy, functional, and comfortable house in The Pinery, the plumbing must be in good working order, especially the toilet. Poorly functioning toilets can run the gamut from annoying to downright dangerous, but the good news is that most of them can be fixed with a little know-how and persistence. Signs that your toilet might need some TLC range from the obvious (clogs, a running toilet) to the not-so-obvious (weak flushing, strange noises). If you encounter any of these issues, don't panic! Several solutions can address each of these problems faithfully without relying on get-rich-quick schemes or the drama of those "life was perfect until I called the plumber" stories.
Another issue that homeowners in The Pinery often confront is a leaking toilet. This problem can almost always be traced back to one of three sources: faulty seals, a cracked tank, or the supply line itself. The seals can fail for two reasons: Either the toilet was not properly installed in the first place, or the seals have simply degraded due to age. A cracked tank could also lead to the same problem: an improper installation could compromise the tank's integrity, as could a series of unfortunate events (faulty repair, falling objects, etc.) that could lead to a literal cracking good time. Most people, however, would not be so unhinged as to allow a falling object to crack their tank in two.
In The Pinery, old-fashioned toilets are likely to lead to some unique repair situations. They're just not as reliable as newer models that are designed to save water—up to 60% by some estimates. The average toilet uses around 3.5 gallons of water per flush, and replacing it with a model that meets the current EPA WaterSense standard will cut that in half, with many new models using even less. In addition to using less water, new toilets are designed to do the same job with less fuss, if only because the mechanisms in a dual-flush toilet are less likely to fail than those in an old 3.5-gallon toilet.