Dear John,

Posted February 16, 2011 // Half Bath, La Casa, Mr. and Mrs. Fix-It

In our latest Durham Magazine Blog feature we share the story of a certain couple installing a new High Efficiency Toilet in the casa.  Exciting stuff right?

While not a sexy topic, we thought it might be useful to share the process with you guys in case you too find yourself in need of a new throne one day.  First, we’ll explain the need.  Our half bath had a basic white toilet that was old but not too bad looking.  It just had a mind of its own.  Besides the fact that it guzzled gallons and gallons of water with each flush it also would start running in the middle of the night for no reason.

We hated to have to remind guests to jiggle the handle to make sure it wouldn’t run constantly after use – or even slip into the room after they were done to make sure that rubber flap was down.  Our previous homeowners had actually turned the water off to the toilet just to save water. After having its guts replaced following our home inspection, it still wasn’t living up to expectations.

The solution on a dime? The idea to just completely replace the toilet came after an online search found the City of Durham’s Toilet Rebate Program which would give us a $100 credit toward our water bill for replacing our old clunker with a new High Efficiency version.  You can learn more about the program here.

New goal: find a good toilet for $100 so we aren’t out any beans.  There turned out to be many choices, some as low as $75.  Although we are not toilet aficionados by any means we wanted a brand we had heard of (and I wanted a chrome flush lever – strange but true I wouldn’t even look at the ones with white plastic handles).

Luckily most models, either $75 or $375 met the criteria for the city’s rebate program and are listed on the EPA’s Water Sense list.  We settled on a Kohler model originally priced at $159 on sale at Lowe’s for $99 the weekend before Valentine’s Day – romantic right?

And yes, it is both bold and powerful. Thanks for asking.

How did we know that we were buying the right model? We got to know our original toilet pretty well. 

First we measured our rough-in.  This is the distance from the wall to the bolts at the base of your toilet.  The standard rough-in for a toilet is 12″.  If yours measures differently, say 8″, 10″ or 14″, you’ll need a special model that accommodates these rough-ins.  Why is this important? Measuring makes sure your new toilet is not too big to fit up against your wall and that your existing plumbing will line up properly.  Be sure to measure the rough-in from your wall. Ours originally measured 11 and a half inches because of our half inch baseboard, but the toilet fit just fine.

Okay, so you measure, you shop and you buy. Now what?

The entire process of removing our old toilet and installing the new one took about an hour and 45 minutes – and this was our first time to ever attempt a toilet replacement.

Step One:  Unpack your new toilet to be sure it is complete and undamaged. You don’t want to go through the process of ripping out the old toilet only to have a broken new one and be left with more trips to the store and an exposed sewer line in your house.

Step Two: Turn off  the water supply to your toilet at the valve to the lower left of the tank.  Flush the toilet to make sure the water’s off completely and to get as much water as you can out of the tank and bowl.  We had to flush and then scoop a good bit of water out of the bowl with a plastic cup.  We also used old towels to soak up the remaining water not caught in the cup.

Step Three: Once your toilet is as dry as possible, prepare to remove it.  We cleared a path to the back door (yes, our old toilet is in the back yard – we are those neighbors right now).  We also made sure to have plenty of old towels handy for water drips. Notice a theme yet? Lots of old towels. Like you just need hot water to deliver a baby, you only need old towels to replace a toilet.

Step Four: Remove the old toilet. For us this meant the whole shebang at once.  We’d recommend removing your tank first. It will make the moving much lighter. Unfortunately the bolts attaching our tank to the base of our toilet were so rusty that we couldn’t pry them off.  So we just removed the two bolts at the base of the toilet and cut the line of caulk around the base with a utility knife.  Then Chad literally just rocked it back and forth and with his brute strength pulled it up off the floor and hauled it out the back door.

Step Five:Clean up the floor so that you can install the new toilet. We’ve read that once you rip up the old toilet, exposing your sewer line, to watch out for the smell of sewer gases.  We didn’t really experience this stench (thankfully) but were prepared with… wait for it… an old towel to plug the hole just in case.  Very important to be careful here though. Don’t stuff the hole so that you can’t get the towel back out or else you’ll likely have to call in a pro. Blocked sewer lines are no bueno.  Use a putty knife to scrape away the brownish wax from the old seal on the top and sides of your flange (AKA the sewer hole).

Step Six: Install the base of your new toilet. Follow your manufacturer’s instructions first and foremost here.  For us this meant just popping on the wax seal included with our toilet around the drain hole on the underside of our new base.  Slowly lower the base onto the sewer opening, also lining it up with your two floor bolts. It was also suggested to us to buy a back up wax seal because if you don’t get this step just right you’ll have to redo it in order to keep the seal watertight.  We found that sticking the wax seal to your toilet base and lowering the base onto the opening was really easy and much more fool proof that laying the wax on the floor and trying to line up the toilet on top of it. So we didn’t need two seals – but they’re cheap so if you want to be safe go ahead and grab a second one.

Step Seven:  Attach your toilet tank. You’ve got your base down, you’ve secured your base bolts. Now line up your tank on top of that. You’ll likely have three bolts to tighten that are already mounted into your tank for easy install.  Just be sure to tighten all three in a way that keeps the tank level so the water flows properly.

Step Eight:Now it’s time to reattach your water supply line and turn the valve back on.  The tank and bowl should begin to fill up right away and cut off when full.  Look at your bolts and floor for potential leaks.  You’ll waste some water here but flush, flush, flush to make sure there are no leaks. This is a pretty exciting time. Chad even video taped our test flushes – not as weird as that sounds we promise. Check it out. 

And just to answer some of your questions ahead of time: Yes, I am way too excited, yes I am holding/hugging the new toilet like I love it, and no I am not wearing any make-up. Yikes.

Step Nine: If the new throne passes the flush test, go ahead and put the seat on and get busy. Unless you want to caulk the edges of the base.  To caulk or not to caulk. That is the question.

All of the toilets in our home are caulked around the base. The only downside to this is that you are less likely to see leaks quickly when your seal is caulked. If you must do it, we’d recommend only caulking the front and sides, leaving the back portion of the toilet un-caulked allowing potential leaks to be visible. Might save you a rotten floor.

Whew! That was a lot of writing! 1371 words to be exact. What do you guys think? Any one else out there tackling toilets today? Tips to share? Strong feelings about caulk or my use of the word “baller” in our video? Do share. 

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