Toilets: Master Bath

We suspected the master bath toilet just needed to either have the bolts tightened or maybe have it reseated before we moved in. After we got there though we realized that though it was a newer toilet, it was a tiny round bowl toilet that was really just not for us. In addition, Mark took one look at the bolts and said "this is coming out!" While the ceramic parts of the toilet were fine, the metal bolts were totally rusty and corroded and awful. And it rocked a lot, which is not good.

So, using our 10% off coupon at Lowes, we added a new toilet to our already giant shopping cart. This happened to be the same trip that we bought a washer & dryer, refrigerator, a new living room rug, and a hundred other things we "needed". We chose a chair height, oval bowl that fits into the space of a round bowl by utilizing a smaller tank. The only negative was that it didn't have the low flow flusher, but we can always add that later and it already is a pretty low flow toilet.

We waited until our resident expert Annie was in town and then Mark and Annie tackled the project. This is my retelling based on their notes.

First they removed the old toilet. This included cleaning up the flange, removing the gross remnants of the old wax ring, and plugging up the sewer pipe with a rag.

Next, the new toilet had to come out of the box. Annie wisely suggested doing a dry fit with the new toilet and they traced with pencil the landing spot for it. Then the toilet came back up to have the new wax ring affixed to it. In order to make the wax ring soft enough to stick, it needed to have a blow dryer blow hot air on it for a bit.

Finally, they set the new toilet (with wax ring) back into place and bolted it in. Tada! Except... it still wiggled. A lot.

Mark testing out the toilet fit with Sadie's supervision

So Annie and Mark decided to pull the new toilet back up to investigate. And when they did so, the entire flange from the sewer pipe came up with the toilet! At this point, I came into the room and discovered both Annie and Mark laughing maniacally. Mark just says to me "This project just got a whole lot bigger!"

For the next couple of hours, Annie and Mark discussed, debated, researched, and watched various videos on the internet. They finally decide what part they need. Go to ACE hardware, buy the part, come home, and it doesn't fit. So they hit the internet again.

Finally we go to OSH to get the correct parts, which turned out to be a replacement toilet flange that tightens to fit the sewer pipe.

Old flange with new flange installed

Then, after watching very useful this old house videos, they install the parts.

BUT WAIT! Before they can install the parts correctly, Mark has to chisel out some of the old tile mortar that for some stupid reason a previous owner had put around the sewer pipe. In addition, he had to sawzall some of the subfloor. It should be mentioned that Mark did the chiseling with a flat head screw driver and a hammer.

"Oh honey I'm so glad we bought a fixer!!"

Finally, Mark prevailed and he and Annie got the new part installed, refit the toilet and discovered... that it still rocked back and forth. A lot.

Not to worry though! The determined team figured out that the floor itself was uneven with a bit of a rise directly under the toilet. They hit the internet and discovered they could use plastic shims to even out the toilet.

New flange with outline for toilet and shims in place

After another run to OSH to acquire the plastic shims and a new wax ring, cleaning off the old wax ring goop, they finally installed the toilet, shimmed it, tightened the bolts, and finally the toilet was in useable working order and did NOT rock!

New low flow, clean, stable, non-leaky and non-rocky toilet!! 

Whew! All I can say is... I'm glad I stayed well out of the way of this project. And the one job I was given (taking pictures) I didn't do all that well in since the pictures are off color and I missed many of the good action shots. I was too busy fixing other things! But the bottom line (haha bottom) is that now we have two fully functional toilets in the house. And that's something to post about!