Well... many of you might not find this fascinating - but some of you might...
Our toilet leaked. It is probably our fault... because we had it installed. Honestly, we probably should have just left the 'squatty' that was there in the first place, but we only have 2 toilets in our house and figured we wanted to be comfortable using either one of them. So we had a 'sitting toilet' (toilet duduk) installed.
That was our first mistake. as you can see, they pulled the squatty out and poured cement around the pipe. For those with toilet installation knowledge... at this point, in the states, there is a 'KEY' plate of some sort placed on the ground and secured at this point... the toilet is bolted down to this plate.
Those don't exist here.
So, they then drill a hole in the cement around the drain pipe and install plastic inserts (bigger than the ones you might use in concrete or sheetrock walls, but the same idea... you screw in a bolt and the plastic expands.
This was the second problem.
The plastic wasn't big enough. So the first time someone sat on the toilet, the hole thing moved and adjusted and leaked. blech....
So I called our repair contractor, who is really very good, but because of that, is very busy. He sends out a couple of guys and they pull the whole toilet apart, piece by piece. (a third problem)... and find the loose bolt... then they stick double the amount of plastic in the little hole (hammer it down in there) so there will be something for the bolt to stick to.
This problem, I think, was already apparent the first time they installed it, because there was plumbers tape wrapped around the bold to make it bigger... thus trying to make it hold in the little hole that was too big.
Finally, they got some silicone caulk and slathered it around the drain pipe (no preformed bees-wax toilet seals here!) and set everything back in place. presto-magic, toilet fixed.
Until that night when I went to teach, and megan texts me the the toilet is leaking like a sieve. Not soooo bad, until you realized that we only have a 1200 liter water tank, and it can be exhausted easily and quickly (in fact a leaky toilet already did this for us once)... so I had her turn off the pump to the entire house (we pump water from our reserve tank in order to have water pressure) until i could get home. When I checked the toilet, they hadn't put all the puzzle pieces back together again correctly. the water tank on the toilet was pouring water all over the ground.
luckily Indonesian bathrooms are 'wet' bathrooms. there is a drain in the corner and everything goes out.
Honestly, I think one issue is that Plumbers are not a 'specialty' in Indonesia. There are Carpenters, Welders, Electricians... they are all specific workers you can contact. But in general, plumbing is considered too simple for specialized training. "WHAT? " all my plumber friends say.... to which I have 2 comments:
1) Plumbing here is a little different. Grey water (sink, shower, etc) literally pours through a (covered) hole in the to the ground below the house. Sometimes there is a pipe to carry it to a ditch in the front or back of the house. Thus, plumbing is a little simpler.
2) My first comment doesn't matter... because there are still problems with plumbing here. They could really use specialists.
