Toilet Repair in Rhode Island

Weighted across 361,903 occupied homes. Separately, 84% of the state’s 394,399 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 41 towns we route in here, 25 are mostly pre-1990 housing and 0 are mostly post-1990 housing; on tenure, 16 are strongly owner-occupied and 8 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 Rhode Island

Rhode Island licenses are issued by the Rhode Island Division of Professional Regulation, Department of Labor and Training, which publishes a public search you can use before work begins.

• Albion 57% owner-occupied · 100% pre-1990
• Bristol 69% owner-occupied · 82% pre-1990
• Carolina 96% owner-occupied · 51% pre-1990
• Chepachet 90% owner-occupied · 78% pre-1990
• Coventry 80% owner-occupied · 80% pre-1990
• Cranston 68% owner-occupied · 83% pre-1990
• Cumberland 77% owner-occupied · 75% pre-1990
• East Greenwich 76% owner-occupied · 73% pre-1990
• East Providence 54% owner-occupied · 88% pre-1990
• Exeter 81% owner-occupied · 59% pre-1990
• Foster 92% owner-occupied · 69% pre-1990
• Glendale 78% owner-occupied · 84% pre-1990
• Greene 95% owner-occupied · 61% pre-1990
• Greenville 86% owner-occupied · 85% pre-1990
• Hope 95% owner-occupied · 82% pre-1990
• Hope Valley 79% owner-occupied · 68% pre-1990
• Jamestown 87% owner-occupied · 74% pre-1990
• Johnston 72% owner-occupied · 82% pre-1990
• Lincoln 77% owner-occupied · 73% pre-1990
• Manville 55% owner-occupied · 79% pre-1990
• Mapleville 83% owner-occupied · 68% pre-1990
• Newport 50% owner-occupied · 91% pre-1990
• North Kingstown 71% owner-occupied · 78% pre-1990
• North Providence 66% owner-occupied · 93% pre-1990
• North Scituate 83% owner-occupied · 87% pre-1990
• North Smithfield 81% owner-occupied · 74% pre-1990
• Pascoag 79% owner-occupied · 78% pre-1990
• Pawtucket 49% owner-occupied · 90% pre-1990
• Portsmouth 80% owner-occupied · 75% pre-1990
• Providence 44% owner-occupied · 89% pre-1990
• Saunderstown 88% owner-occupied · 57% pre-1990
• Slatersville 18% owner-occupied · 66% pre-1990
• Smithfield 78% owner-occupied · 74% pre-1990
• Warren 61% owner-occupied · 93% pre-1990
• Warwick 74% owner-occupied · 89% pre-1990
• West Greenwich 83% owner-occupied · 51% pre-1990
• West Kingston 94% owner-occupied · 60% pre-1990
• West Warwick 55% owner-occupied · 85% pre-1990
• Westerly 75% owner-occupied · 76% pre-1990
• Woonsocket 38% owner-occupied · 89% pre-1990
• Wyoming 97% owner-occupied · 63% pre-1990