w.main broke, toilet cogged

Hey all,

The apartment water main broke a few days ago, the sink aerators & shower head were removed, found 1-2" of sand/sediment clogging them.

There's no inflow to the toilet, I'm assuming the inlet valve/ballcock is also clogged with sediment (the float cannot be moved up).

Anyone know how to disassemble this kind of inlet valve/ballcock?

To make things tricky, I haven't located the valve to turn off the toilet inflow, there's just a t-connector at the base of the line running into the wall...

not that it helps you any.... but there should be a valve there at the wall

I think the top part of the valve should turn counter clockwise and come off. There should be a rubber diaphram inside that you can take out. Hope this helps.

Apartment = owner's responsibility to fix. Non-functioning toilet = emergency/health hazard and they better get a plumber out there like NOW to fix it. A call to your local housing inspector and public health authorities will light a fire under the landlord if he doesn't want to get it fixed right away.

The top of the valve should come off, it either snaps off or twists off. However, you don't want to take it apart without shutting off the water upstream of it, or you'll have a fountain.

I agree that it should be the responsibility of the apartment management. In the meantime, you can refill the toilet tank with a bucket.

pigeon wrote: Apartment = owner's responsibility to fix. Non-functioning toilet = emergency/health hazard and they better get a plumber out there like NOW to fix it. A call to your local housing inspector and public health authorities will light a fire under the landlord if he doesn't want to get it fixed right away.

ding ding ding.. Winnar.

Didn't think of the emergency/health hazard facet of the situation, I'll bring it up to the maintenance staff, thanks for the input guys!...

In the mean time, flush by dumping a bucket of water in the bowl after you do your business. A new Fluidmaster fill valve is only 12 bucks at the big box stores, but you need to shut the water off to the supply line first. Are you sure that tee isn't a handleless shut off valve? You see those in public restrooms where you don't want people tampering with the plumbing.

Just the braided line coming out of the wall, into a 90deg connector & into the toilet...

I'm thinking the toilet water supply is tied into the sink cold water line, but since there's no inflow into the toilet, I'd never know if it was shut off until it was too late; definitely going to let the maintenance guys handle this one...