Toilet Repair in Iowa

Weighted across 31,176 occupied homes. Separately, 76% of the state’s 39,612 housing units — a wider universe, because it includes vacant ones — were built before 1990, which is before the Energy Policy Act of 1992 set a 1.6 gallon flush maximum.

Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, tables B25003 (tenure) and B25034 (year structure built), 2023 release. Flush volumes: US EPA WaterSense, tank-type toilet supporting statement.

A state average hides the thing that matters. Of the 28 towns we route in here, 22 are mostly pre-1990 housing and 0 are mostly post-1990 housing; on tenure, 15 are strongly owner-occupied and 0 are renter-heavy.

The two are close to independent of each other, so an old town is not reliably an owning town or a renting one. That is why every town page below carries its own pair of figures rather than inheriting these.

The fault list does not vary by state. A running tank is the flapper or the fill valve, and EPA publishes a ten-minute test that tells them apart. Water at the base is four different faults, one of which is condensation and not a leak at all. A fixture that rocks is the one that causes the seal failure you will meet later.

What varies by town is who fixes it. In a rented home the toilet is normally the landlord’s repair, and in the towns above that is a large share of households.

Checking a credential in Iowa

Iowa licenses are issued by the Iowa Plumbing and Mechanical Systems Board, which publishes a public search you can use before work begins.

• Armstrong 84% owner-occupied · 87% pre-1990
• Arnolds Park 88% owner-occupied · 47% pre-1990
• Ashton 81% owner-occupied · 97% pre-1990
• Emmetsburg 71% owner-occupied · 87% pre-1990
• Estherville 75% owner-occupied · 89% pre-1990
• Everly 81% owner-occupied · 88% pre-1990
• Fenton 93% owner-occupied · 99% pre-1990
• Graettinger 82% owner-occupied · 86% pre-1990
• Hartley 80% owner-occupied · 83% pre-1990
• Lake Park 89% owner-occupied · 73% pre-1990
• Laurens 74% owner-occupied · 94% pre-1990
• Milford 75% owner-occupied · 63% pre-1990
• Ocheyedan 85% owner-occupied · 87% pre-1990
• Okoboji 71% owner-occupied · 59% pre-1990
• Paullina 79% owner-occupied · 81% pre-1990
• Peterson 90% owner-occupied · 86% pre-1990
• Primghar 87% owner-occupied · 86% pre-1990
• Ringsted 83% owner-occupied · 96% pre-1990
• Royal 75% owner-occupied · 91% pre-1990
• Ruthven 81% owner-occupied · 72% pre-1990
• Sanborn 77% owner-occupied · 77% pre-1990
• Sheldon 73% owner-occupied · 79% pre-1990
• Sibley 78% owner-occupied · 85% pre-1990
• Sioux Rapids 87% owner-occupied · 92% pre-1990
• Spencer 69% owner-occupied · 76% pre-1990
• Spirit Lake 74% owner-occupied · 63% pre-1990
• Sutherland 80% owner-occupied · 95% pre-1990
• Terril 87% owner-occupied · 93% pre-1990