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How to replace a toilet PDF Print E-mail
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Monday, 17 August 2009 14:30
If a toilet develops cracks or leaks, uses too much water per flush, or is discolored, it may be time to replace it. A plumber should be able to take care of this within a few hours, but if you enjoy do-it-your projects, you might want to consider doing it yourself. Toilets are heavy and awkward lift, but if you (or someone you know that will help) have a strong back you can save the expense of calling a plumber by doing it yourself.  Replacing a toilet can take you between 4-7 hours (give or take), depending on your level of plumbing work experience.
Tools needed
1. Adjustable wrench or open-end wrenches
2. Drill/driver
3. Hacksaw
4. Handsaw, or inside pipe cutter
5. Jigsaw
6. Level
7. Propane torch
8. Screwdriver
9. Striker, to light torch
10. Tape measure
11. Tubing benders
12. Tubing cutters
13. Utility knife
Parts/supplies needed
1. Bucket
2. Chromed brass supply line
3. Closet bolt caps
4. Closet bolts, washers, and nuts
5. Flux
6. Lead-free solder
7. No.10  1&5/8”  Stainless steel screws
8. Pencil
9. PVC primer
10. PVC cement
11. Rags
12. Rubber gloves
13. Seat assembly
14. Small bucket
15. Stainless steel washers (for shimming)
16. Stop valve
17. Toilet bowl and tank
18. Tank bolts with washers and nuts
19. Teflon paste (pipe dope)
20. Tubing cutter
21. Wax rings (with and without integrated rubber gasket
22. Wax ring
23. Wire-brush pipe cleaner
Step 1: Remove the old toilet
The first thing you need to do is shut off the water supply to the toilet (you may have to shut off water to that bathroom). Flush the toilet, but keep holding the handle down –this will empty the remaining water out of the tank. A sponge can be used to wipe the tank dry (if there is any water left in it). The next step is removing the tank from the bowl. You’ll need to loosen the bolts at the bottom of the inside of the tank. While you use a screwdriver on a bold, hold the nut on the outside of the tank with pliers to keep it from spinning. Remove the tank from the bathroom (you’ll need the room).
Remove any water that is left in the bowl with a sponge, then remove the bolts at the base of your toilet. It may be difficult to remove the bolts, there may be some plumbers putty around the bolts or they may be corroded. Use a scraper to remove putty or penetrating oil to free corroded bolts. Your option of last resort is to use a hacksaw to cut the bolts off. To break the seal between the toilet and piping, carefully rock the toilet back and forth. Carefully lift the toilet (it’s heavy) and remove it from the bathroom (again, you’re going to need the room when installing the new toilet).
Step 2: Prepare the floor and soil pipe

With rubber gloves on, quickly stuff a rag into the soil pipe to prevent sewer gas  from coming up into your bathroom (this will also prevent anything from falling in while you’re working). Then check that the hole in the floor is big enough to for the closet flange (needs to fit up to its collar). If the hole is too small, trace around the base of the flange with a pencil. Then with a jigsaw, cut away the excess flooring. Before you cut, make sure you won’t cut any joists.

Try fitting the soil pipe into the closet bend and put the flange over the soil pipe. Measure the gap between the flange's collar bottom and the finished floor. Take out the soil pipe, use a handsaw to trim by the amount of the gap you measured. Remove rough spots on the cut edge with your utility knife. Test attach the flange to the soil pipe, and the soil pipe to the closet bend –you want to ensure the flange's collar will now rest properly on the floor.
Step 3: Install the soil pipe and closet flange

Take the pieces apart and apply PVC primer to the outside of one end of the soil pipe and also on the inside of the closet bend. Take the PVC cement and apply to the areas you applied the primer to, and then immediately twist the soil pipe into the closet bend. Apply primer and then cement to the other end of the soil pipe and the inside of the closet flange. Immediately twist and press the flange onto the soil pipe, you’ll want to do this until the collar is seated on the floor. Turn the collar so that its slots are on the right and left of the hole. The closet bolts, which you will insert into the slots, have to line up parallel to the wall (behind the tank). With stainless steel screws long enough to bite into the subfloor, attach the collar to the floor. It’s important to note that when you are gluing a fixed-collar PVC flange, you must align the bolt slots quickly before the cement sets.
Step 4: Solder the stop valve

First make sure that you shut off the bathroom's water-supply. Take a bucket and position it under the supply line. Carefully sever the line with a tubing cutter, leaving approximately 1 inch of pipe to attach the stop valve and escutcheon. Let the pipe drain into the bucket. Take off  the valve's handle and stem, heat from soldering could damage the plastic washers in the stem. Use a rag to dry the inside and outside of the pipe. Then, using a wire-brush pipe cleaner, clean the inside and outside of the pipe and inside of the valve's inlet. Apply flux to both areas.

Place the escutcheon over the supply line, then place the stop valve --the valve's outlet should point up. Light your propane torch and heat the supply line stop valve joint. When the joint is hot enough to melt the solder, turn off the torch and run the solder around the joint. When you can see a drop of solder appear at the bottom, the joint has been filled.
Step 5: Set the toilet bowl

Take the long brass closet bolts and insert them, threaded-end up, into the flange collar's slots. Place a brass washer over each bolt. Carefully and gently, with its flat-side down, press the wax ring, over the flange. Carefully lift the toilet bowl over the flange (you may need an extra pair of hands and muscles for this), align the holes in the toilet’s base with the closet bolts, and then carefully lower the base onto the ring.

Press the bowl down onto the wax ring, without twisting or rocking it, until the bowl's base rests on the floor. If the bathroom floor is uneven, you can shim the bowl by using the stainless steel washers. Drop a nylon washer over each of the bolts, then hand-thread the nuts. With only one quarter turn at a time, tighten the nuts with a wrench, alternating between the two nuts. Stop immediately when you feel firm resistance; overtightening will crack the toilet bowl. Use your hacksaw to trim the closet bolts at a point two threads above the top of the tightened nuts –be careful not to hit or mark-up the toilet’s porcelain. Snap the plastic bolt covers into place, this will both camouflage them and somewhat protect them from water.

Step 6: Install the tank

Examine the large-diameter rubber tank-to-bowl (also called “spud”) washer on the outside of the tank's bottom; make sure it is firmly seated. Put the small-diameter rubber tank washers into the small tank holes from inside of the tank, and then carefully insert the tank bolts through the holes. Gently place the tank onto the back of the bowl, making sure the ends of the tank bolts slide into the holes. Place a nylon washer onto each of the bolts, then hand-thread the nuts.  While using a screwdriver to hold each bolt head in place, hand-tighten the nuts, switching back and forth from nut to nut --checking repeatedly to make sure the tank is level. Be very careful not to overtighten, it will crack the porcelain. When the tank is firmly attached, connect the tank's handle to the flapper chain.
Step 7: Install the supply Line and seat assembly

With a tubing bender, curve the supply line to fit in-between the stop-valve outlet and the tank-supply fitting. When you’re finished bending it, hold the pipe, flared-end-up, between the stop-valve outlet and the tank-supply fitting and mark it half an inch below the outlet. You’re doing this to leave enough length of the line to sit inside the outlet. Using a tubing cutter cut the supply line across the mark you made.
Place the plastic nut, compression nut, and compression ring (in that order) onto the supply line. Apply a thin coat of Teflon paste to the valve's outlet threads, then insert the line in the outlet, and fit the compression ring. Hand-tighten the supply line's plastic nut under the tank, then tighten the compression nut with a wrench –be careful not to overtighten.
Step 8: Attaching seat and testing for leaks

Take the seat assembly (seat and cover) and place over the bowl, then insert the plastic bolts through the seat back and the bowl's seat holes; tighten the nuts by hand –do not overtighten. Turn on the water to the toilet (or bathroom if you had to turn off the whole supply. Open the stop valve behind the toilet and allow the tank to fill. While watching carefully for leaks, flush the toilet a total of six times. Check for leaks after every flush and then let the toilet sit unused for 15-20 minutes. If you don’t see any leaks and it appears to be working normally, you can begin using the toilet normally.
 

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