Toilet Replacement Part Expert, Resume of Toilet Expertise

This Old Toilet™

ToiletTankLids.com & ThisOldToilet.com

Resume of Toilet Expertise

Gary N. Tjader

The "The Toilet Lid King",, per the San Jose Mercury News

(Read this only if you are really bored. Insert tongue in cheek.)

1953 - Born the son of a wholesale plumbing supply (toilet) salesman. Grandson of the owner of the wholesale plumbing supply company. (Heieck Supply, aka Heieck & Moran, aka United Pipe & Supply, founded 1933.)

1959 - Went to the plumbing supply office occasionally with dad on Saturday mornings and watched him work on plumbing supply (toilet) paperwork. (This was likely for the benefit of my mother more than anyone else.) Dad used scissors, paper and glue to prepare toilet sales fliers. I became skilled at pushing myself around the large, empty office in one of those wheeled office chairs.

1963 - Traveled with dad on (toilet/plumbing) plumber sales calls in the summer time. ...Only a few times though because you had to get up early in the morning and it was boring.

1969 - Full-time warehouse helper at the wholesale plumbing supply company headquarters in San Francisco during summers and holidays. (Union member.) First task was "Dumpster Boy." "Go out back", they said. "...Take this hammer with you and break up all the defective and damaged toilets and then put the pieces in the dumpster. ...And wear these leather gloves." (Kohler, Briggs, Crane, Norris.) Soon I was promoted to "lumper"- a union term for a laborer who helps a veteran. Task - "Unload 550 Briggs toilets (1,100 cartons) (by hand) from that railroad box-car over there."

1969 - 1975 - Worked at three of the four wholesale plumbing supply branches during summers and holidays. Performed various tasks such as order filling, receiving, counter sales and inside sales.

1975 - Dad, now President of Heieck Supply, San Francisco is presented with a bronzed Norris toilet from Norris Industries. Inside the cover of the toilet seat is a plaque proclaiming, "The Norris Pot-of-Gold Award". Presented in recognition of outstanding Norris toilet sales. The tank and bowl are gone, but the tank lid and seat survive today in the collection of This Old Toilet™.

1976 - (Bachelor of Science degree, Business Administration with concentration in Accounting. California State University, Chico.)

1976 - Product coding clerk, pricing department. Assigned computer product code identifications to every friggin' toilet they sold. Got to push myself around in the wheeled office chair again :-) - eight hours a day, five days a week. :-(

1977 - Accounts payable. Processed the bills for all the toilets purchased.

1978 - Moved to new branch. Outside sales one day a week. Purchased all Kohler products (toilets) for the branch.

1979 - Toured Kohler Company toilet factory, Kohler Wisconsin. Completed three day Kohler distributor training seminar.

1980 - Parents sold out their interest at Heieck Supply. Became outside salesman for AMFAC Mechanical Supply, the largest plumbing wholesaler in the United States. Publicly traded on NYSE. Sold Kohler, Briggs, Norris, Vitromex, etc. toilets.

1981 - 1985 - Branch Manager for AMFAC, San Jose California. The bureaucracy and administrative drudgery was debilitating. One day I lamented to a friend, "All I want to do is sell toilets again."

1985 - 1989 - Associate representative for the largest plumbing manufacturer's representative in Northern California. Sold toilet seats for Bemis and Church brands and toilets for Colton, Crane, Norris and Delta. Delta? Yes, Delta the faucet company. (They invented the first, and last, plastic toilet in the world. They made a red one which became know as "The Red Head.") Traveled with the Norris quality control inspector to process every darn defective or damaged Norris toilet in the area.

1987 - Toured Norris Industries toilet factory, City of Industry, California.

1988 - Toured Bemis Manufacturing toilet seat factory, Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin.

1989 - Present - Founded Tjader Sales, manufacturers' representative for luxury kitchen, bath & plumbing products including toilet seats from Pressalit and toilets from St. Thomas Creations and Barclay Products Limited. This includes production from the international plants Celite, Ferrum, Orion and Vitromex.

1997 - 2000 - Volunteer advisor on two plumbing advice web sites.

1999 - Sold a Norris salvaged toilet tank lid via contact from the plumbing advice web site.

1999 - Toured Kohler Company plumbing fixture (toilet) museum, Kohler Wisconsin.

2000 - Sold several more salvaged toilet tank lids. Started a web page offering the web's first toilet tank lid replacement search service.

2001 - Toured Villeroy & Boch "sanitary wares" (toilet) factory, Mettelach Germany.

2002 - Opened the web's first dedicated salvaged toilet tank lids web site, www.ToiletTankLids.com.

2003 - Purchased an old house converted to an office. Though primarily for the rep business office, space at the new location allowed for expansion of the toilet tank lid inventory. 300 lids were trucked from the side yard at home to the storage yard at the new office.

2004 - ToiletTankLids.com is featured at The Old House Web.

2004 - In response to several years of requests, toilet seats were added to the store.

2004 - A web site was established providing local toilet salvage and recycling service, www.ToiletSalvage.com.

2005 - The business was renamed This Old Toilet™ to better reflect the expanded offering of lids, tanks, bowls, seats, and bolt caps. www.ThisOldToilet.com

2006 - World's largest shipper of salvaged toilet tank lids and tanks. 418 tank lids shipped. (1,300 lids and 100 tanks in stock.)

2007 - This Old Toilet™ was featured in the The San Jose Mercury News where Columnist Mike Cassidy said of Gary and his tank lids, "He walks among them like something of a toilet sommelier." In his blog, Cassidy says, "The guy can spot a make and model from a block away..." And he describes Tjader as "The Toilet Lid King."

2007 - Gary's expertise and knowledge was requested by attorneys from Rhode Island and Nevada who are defending a cinema and a hotel relative to personal injuries incurred from toilet seat falls. The Nevada attorney retained Gary for two hours of consulting research work tracking down an extinct brand of toilet seats.

2007 - A homicide detective from the Tucson Arizona Police Department contacted Gary for assistance in identifying a toilet tank lid which was used as a murder weapon. Gary identified the lid from numbers on the bottom and This Old Toilet™ supplied a file-photo of the lid make and model to the police department for use in its investigation.

2007 - ToiletTankLids.com was recommended by Alan Heavens, Real Estate Writer with the Philadelphia Inquirer.

2008 - 453 toilet seats and 534 tank lids shipped last year. 1,700 lids in stock.

2008 - Trademark Certificate of Registration for the name "This Old Toilet™" is received from the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Parts and Components For Old, Obsolete, Discontinued, No Longer Manufactured Toilets

Toilet Tank Lids, Covers, Tops ~ Toilet Tanks ~ Toilet Bowls ~ One-Piece Toilets ~ Toilet Seats ~ Toilet Bolt Cover Caps