I recently had a plumbing emergency in my own home. The main drain pipe under the basement floor got clogged with toilet paper. The culprit is a newer low-flush toilet in a basement bathroom. I’ve ...

Q. My city allows homeowners to install their own plumbing. But to get the permit, I need to supply them with a rough-in plumbing diagram. What is a plumbing diagram? Can I just do a bathroom plumbing ...

The white pipe sticking up out of the roof is a plumbing vent. The rubber boot at the base of the plumbing vent is part of the flashing kit for this vent, and the boot has dried out and split. Here's ...

I recently helped out a homeowner in Pittsburgh. His wife had decided it was time to tear out an outdated platform bathtub. She wanted to replace it with a new, sleek soaking tub shaped like an ...

The toilet in the house I just moved into is loose on the floor. How hard is this to fix? Also, there is a sewage odor in the bathroom whenever I take a shower or the wind blows, but only during those ...

Q. I would like to add a bathtub in a room that has an existing walk-in shower. The floor is a concrete slab. There is a floor drain within four feet of where I would like the tub. Can I just allow ...

Have you heard the old saying, “You don’t know what you don’t know”? It’s an axiom homeowners should always keep in mind when thinking about the mechanical and structural systems hidden behind the ...