We're ready for our final installment of our series on installing a new toilet.  Int he past two article, we showed how the old toilet was removed and the area prepped and cleaned for the new one to go in. Now, we're ready for the bowl to be installed on the floor.  To start with, place a bead of sealant on the bottom edge of the toilet bowl.  After ensuring that you have the wax ring in place, install the bowl, making sure that the wax ring goes over the hole in the floor.  Bold it to the floor, being careful not to tighten those bolts too much since the bowl could crack.  I also think it's a good idea to put a bead of caulk around the outside of the toilet bowl as well.

 The tank goes on next.  It's a simple concept, but the bolts are sometimes hard to get at.  The kit we bought came with a nifty metal pipe that was used to gain some leverage.  Again, be careful about the bolts being too tight.

We're almost done!  Connect the supply line and check for leaks.  The tank will say how much it should be filled and there should be something like the black adjustable screw that I've shown to make the water level what it should be.  Then, grab a good book and enjoy the newly installed throne!

Posted by Caeli at 06:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In the last article, I described our kid's bathroom toilet situation and the desire to replace it.  We started with cutting off the part of the bathroom counter that was hanging over the toilet.  With that part removed, we were then able to proceed with the removal of the old toilet.

The first thing that occurred to us is that no one has looked inside this thing in23 years.  To my surprise, it wasn't in that bad of shape.  Yes, it was old, yes, it was dirty, but it was functional and not horrible.

Removing a toilet is a pretty simple job.  The first step, of course, is to turn off the water.  As long as the water source is shut off, you only have to deal with the water in the tank and bowl.  After flushing a few times, you'll be left with water in the tank.  There's simply no good way to get rid of all of it without soaking it up with rags and towels.  Yes, it's dirty, but you just have to deal with it.  

 For the bowl, a rag stuffed down the toilet will soak up the water.  You'll have to ring it out and repeat a number of times, but in the end, you'll end up with a dry tank and bowl.  Simply undo the bolts holding it down and haul it away.  Separating tank and bowl is an optional step that may make removal easier.  When finished, you'll be left with the wax seal around a hole in the floor.

The rag in this picture is stopping up the hole during a break for lunch.  This is important because you are basically looking at your sewer line.  You don't want those gasses in the house, trust me.  So, plug the hole and then you can leave the project for errands, lunch, etc., without fear of hurting something.  As long as the water is off, there's nothing to be afraid of at this point.

When you are ready to continue,  you have to remove the wax seal and clean up.  You can use a putty knife to remove the seal, but be careful of the flange over the hole.  It's likely to be as old as your house and you don't want to break it.  The replacement of a toilet flange is frustrating, annoying, and will involve colorful language, trust me. 

Once the wax is gone,  you can clean around the toilet area.  It's a good idea to complete any flooring fixes at this time.  One suggestion is to check and re-caulk the seal at the bottom of the tub where it meets the floor and also to run a bead along the baseboard behind where the toilet will sit. 

Another idea is to replace the supply line with a new, steel mesh supply.  It's a bit of insurance knowing the nice new toilet is connected to a new line with new seals and fittings.  At this point, we are cleaned up and ready for the new toilet to be installed.  We'll show you how we tackled that in the next article.

Posted by Caeli at 05:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There was an article linked from the home page of Fox News recently describing how to install a toilet. It was a good article, but was short on pictures.  So, we thought we'd also describe the process, but show you what we did each step of the way.  The process takes just a couple of hours and requires no special tools or techniques.  The toilet is definitely one of the most used seats in the house, and the benefits of installing a new model you are comfortable with are immense.

For our project, we are in the kid's bathroom.  This is one room we haven't done much with yet, and in fact, to our knowledge, no one has ever replaced or upgraded the toilet since the house was built 22 years ago.  That's because, for some inexplicable reason, the countertop extends across the toilet.  That means, no one has opened it, cleaned the inside, or upgraded any of the internal systems in 20+ years.

I honestly have no idea why anyone would want to install a countertop and toilet in this manner.  It's impossible to service the toilet.  In fact, in order to replace the thing, we had to make the decision to either replace the entire counter or else cut off the piece that extended over the toilet.  We elected to cut the counter, since the rest of it was working just fine and there was no need to make this into a bigger project than what it was. 

In the engineering world, we call the tendency for projects to grow and grow "requirements creep".  Slowly, a project starts small and then creeps forward, a requirement at a time, until it's huge.  Luckily, we avoided that this time around and just did what was required to get the toilet installed.  

The project began with a straight line marking the countertop edge we wanted to cut off.  Armed with my handy reciprocating saw, I cut down the line until I was close to the wall.  Due to the design of the saw,  I wasn't able to get right up to the wall and needed to use the hand saw to finish the job.

It turned out that I was a little too ambitious with the reciprocating saw.  I ended up a bit too close to the wall when tilting the saw and hit the wall on the underside.  It can be patched, but it's a lesson learned.

In the next post, I'll go through the remaining cleanup and prep steps before the toilet is installed.

Posted by Caeli at 07:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Our screen door was basically unusable for the past few months.  Even though we're past spring and into the summer when we have the A/C going quite a bit, we're in Wisconsin, so there are cooler days when we'd like to open the windows and doors to get a breeze without also inviting in all the bugs and bees.  So, we managed to get the door off the track and took a good look.  What we found was interesting.  Take a look at this picture of the roller:

It turns out that the months of abuse leading to the failure of the door had scrapped off a significant portion of the circular plastic roller, making it basically flat on one side.  Obviously, this is not going to roll very well.  This can happen because we can overpower the door and force it to slide and scrape rather than roll in the track.  Too many repetitions of that exercise and the roller is basically toast. 

Luckily, the fix is pretty simple.  These rollers are replaceable, being held to the door by just one screw.  So, for $2 each, you can buy new metal rollers.  Install these puppies and then you can reinstall the door.  We found immediate improvement in the door movement and were able to use the screen again.  The only trick is to use the adjustment screws to carefully re-center the door in the frame.  It can take some doing and fine-tuning, but in the end, you have a decent working door.  Remember to lubricate the track while you are at it.  WD-40 will work wonders.  

Posted by Caeli at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)