05/06/2017
They say that it is one of the easiest DIY projects you can do. Even knowing the relatively simple anatomy of the toilet and the whole process, I was still daunted…mostly by the unknowns. Turns out, they’re right. For the most part. So here, I’m going to detail the process I went through.
The Problem: A leak. Not from the easy to repair places either. It was from between the bowl and the tank somewhere and had been like that for months. No amount of patching could do anything to it. Trying to ignore the problem, I’d left a container to catch the water and until this past week the dripping had been once every hour or so. Going from that to a full container in 10 hours meant…OH YEAH…time to do something about it. Not to mention, the water bill had certainly been taking a hit, and on top of it all the smell!!
The Research:YouTube would of course be the first place for most people to turn to, but having been a subscriber to Family Handyman magazine, I turned there first and lo and behold they have several guides! And not just a guide either, but guides in case something goes wrong. I recommend checking out the articles here.
The Materials: Read the articles found above. The most important part before searching for a new toilet is measuring the area and the rough-in (distance from the wall to the pipe which is about the bolt). I made the mistake of measuring everything except the rough-in. Thankfully mine was the standard 12in, and not the hard to find 10 or 14 inch ones. Most of the tools necessary you’ll probably already have around the house.
The Procurement: As a dummy who didn’t measure the right measurement, we went to look, and it was all for the better anyways because for some reason everyone wanted to replace their toilets at the same time. There were no toilets left, really. So instead, I gathered the minor materials I needed, including a no-wax ring. Eventually went and got my toilet with the help of my brother because darn it all those things are heavy.
The Process: I love demo. That has got to be my favorite part of doing any project like this. The instant I went to remove the tank from the bowl, the bolts connecting the two fell before I could do anything. Hmm. I think I found what the problem was.
As usual I always get hang-ups when doing a DIY project because it’s never exactly like they tell you on the guides. Instead of it being caulked to the floor, it was grouted and the people before us (this is how I know this has been a problem) put caulk on top of THAT. Well. Grout isn’t
the easiest thing to get rid of. Thankfully I have POWER TOOLS.
The wax ring was mostly intact, and it literally was just a ring of wax. I had to scrape it off with a putty knife and then tried to wipe the flange as well as I could. Which brings me to my next surprise which is that the flange wasn’t like in the guides along with the fact that the hole was not that pretty. Oh well. It worked fine.
The next part made me really glad I wasn’t doing this on my own (I was all up until that point). Those parts are really heavy and even more heavy put together. The shims were really a very integral part of this, and you should follow the instructions when it says to shim the toilet before you put the wax/no wax ring on. And by that, I mean, shim it, level it, and then cut the shims before. Oh, and using the shims properly would help too.
Then Boom. VOILA. It is DONE.
I must say that the chair height is very nice. The elongated portion I didn’t need as much, but it’s nice too. Took the opportunity to paint the wall behind the toilet and finished up my paint too. I had bought a ton of extra supplies just in case (I always seem to make multiple store trips and didn’t want to do that this time) so now after it all (and so far, so good…) I need to go return everything.
The best part about all of this? I used a gift card I’ve been saving since Christmas because I knew it’d have to be replaced and to my surprise, I didn’t need to spend any more than that!!
Here’s a side-by-side comparison.
The Verdict: Overall it wasn’t bad. I didn’t run into significant issues, just some minor unexpected ones…nothing power tools can’t fix. The guy said that if you’re lucky it would take an hour start to finish, but of course it took me much longer. I went shopping around 10am and finally was done cleaning up around 3pm. I would say that it is one of the easier projects I’ve tackled. Having the right and quality tools always makes everything easier.