Soggy and shady is exactly what I’ve got!
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Replacing is straightforward and quick, troubleshooting multiple issues is frustrating. If you’re doing it yourself repair is cheaper, but I like replacing because the simple and quick is worth it to me.
The wax rings that come with toilets suck, buy a nicer one. It’s a few dollars well spent.
Do not buy or attempt to repair a dual flush toilet.
@RamonaQ I also vote for ferns. Mine love the shadow and damp, and give me fiddleheads in the spring.
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Hostas, hostas, hostas lol
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Definitely won’t be doing the repair ourselves, the stuff that has degraded includes the part in between the bottom and the top of the toilet, so we would need to drain it and completely take the upper tank off and replace all of the flapper thingies and everything in there. Apparently can’t be done without fully ripping it apart. I’m also trying to figure out if it’s worth just outsourcing all of it because we need the emergency shut off on one of the toilets replaced so that we don’t have another situation like our house flood in October when that emergency shut off failed. The previous homeowners were absolutely dingdongs and I think everything is kind of a ticking time bomb apparently now 
. But the toilets run nearly constantly and need dealt with.
Why you do say no dual flush?
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I have loved the concept of fiddlehead ferns ever since they were mentioned in the children’s book The Trolls by Polly Horvath. I may have to try ferns in part because of that!
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Deer snacks! The hostas in my backyard grow a little bit, then get chewed down to little half inch nubs.
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We love something you can easily rule out 
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For a price point, the week before last we had a plumber come out and replace the toilet the same day for $437… We could have gone to Home Depot and bought a fancier toilet of some sort, but no thanks. Toilets are heavy.
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In that case I would definitely replace the toilet. An honest worker will do it quickly for cheap, it’s a very simple job. You don’t need a plumber, anyone handy can do it.
Dual flush toilets have the brand’s proprietary mechanisms in the tank to enable the flush. They are fiddly and tend to break. When they do, if you’re lucky the company will sell you replacement parts. If you’re unlucky they won’t carry that model any more and won’t sell you parts. Home depot doesn’t have generic dual flush toilet parts, because they don’t exist. Each company does their own version. Normal toilets all have the same mechanism with interchangeable parts and universal generic parts. Very easy to find.
So if your new dual flush toilet breaks you have to wait for the parts to come to you in the mail instead of just buying a new flapper or handle or whatever for a few bucks and getting on with your life.
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Ahhh this is excellent intel.
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If anyone wants a fancy toilet, this is how:
- Own a normal toilet in good condition
- Buy and install a bidet attachment. It takes ten minutes and an adjustable crescent wrench.
- Buy and install a fancy toilet seat. Soft/ slow close, taps off for easy cleaning, etc. there are some very fancy toilet seats out there and I enjoy mine every single day, more on days when I clean my toilet. Replacing a toilet seat takes ten minutes and a flathead screwdriver.
Ta da! The fanciest toilet experience outside of the amazing toilet tech the Japanese have developed.
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Yes, I would also estimate about $400-500 including the toilet and labor for replacement
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Dead nettle (Lamium), especially the variegated kind? I do not know if deer like them, but they are very nice for shade (especially the variegated or spotted varieties).
I also say hostas! 
I have deer (I live in the dang country) but they don’t eat the stuff that is right next to the house, including hostas. How far away from the house are the ones that get eaten? (Seriously, the deer walk right through the middle of my yard, but they don’t go right up to the house (fortunately).) You could always split some you already have, plant in front, and see what happens. Hostas take to dividing splendidly (and really should be periodically anyway).
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Although sometimes the flappers don’t fit all toilets. We have a toilet with a finicky flapper. Just a standard toilet.
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The hostas that are getting eaten are maybe 20 feet from the house? But they are pretty small actually. A neighbor had a big hunk of hostas out on the curb for trash, so I took them, divided them, and planted them. They haven’t had a chance to get that big yet.
On the other hand, I have some irises that grow and spread like crazy and I love them! I definitely need to split those again. They do so well in crappy soil, right by the street, with basically no attention paid to them. I started with one or two small plants from a friend and they basically cover a 5’ x 5’ area now, maybe more.
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What fancy toilet seat do you have?
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I’m eventually going to buy a nicer toilet seat. That really is easy. Not my priority for this month, though, as I’ve bought a new a/c, new windows, and dropped a few thousands at the vet.
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And eventually a toilet is old enough that parts are unavailable, which is annoying.
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My toilet seat is something like this.
https://www.homedepot.ca/product/bemis-round-plastic-toilet-seat-with-whisper-close-and-easy-clean-change-hinge-in-crane-white/1000835177
But I think it’s wood. It’s solid and sturdy under my butt. The easy clean thing is a marvel.
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Cool. I want one of the easy clean ones now.
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