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How
To Install A New Toilet
If your toilet
is old and in need of repairs, it is really cheaper to install
a new one. This is the easiest of all the plumbing jobs in the
home to do and if you follow my simple instructions you can put
yours in yourself.
1. Shut off
the water to the toilet, use a bucket and a cloth or a sponge
to remove the water left in tank and bowl after you flush the
toilet.
2. Using a
pair of channel pliers, or a small pipe wrench (8"), remove
the nut where the water line fastens to the ballcock valve under
the left side of the bottom of the tank. Next use a small crescent
wrench, remove the two 1/4" nuts holding the bowl to the
floor flange. Remove old toilet. Remove the water line from the
valve or fitting at floor or wall.
3. Now you
are ready to install your new toilet. Put the two 1/4" bolts
in the side holes of the flange with the bolt head in the flange.
Put some of the old wax at this spot to hold the
bolts straight up and across from each other. Put new wax ring
on flange, flat side up if tapered.
4. Set new
bowl only straight down so it centers on wax ring and both bolts
come through holds on each side of bowl. Sit on bowl facing wall
until your weight puts bowl flush with the floor. Put metal washers
and nuts on bolts and tighten until snug. Do not over-tighten
as you can crack the bowl. Tighten these again after toilet is
completely installed and filled with water.
5. Next put
2" rubber gasket on tank where it sets on the bowl, put
rubber washers on bolts provided under the bolt head so they
will be on the inside of the tank. Pick up tank and set on bowl
over holes in bowl where bolts go through. Sit on bowl facing
wall. Put bolts on from the inside of the tank into holes in
bowl, put on metal washers and nuts and tighten. Hold tank level
and tighten so it brings tank down level. Use a large screw driver
inside tank and a crescent wrench or end wrench to back up nut
under bowl.
Tighten with
screw driver. Hook water supply to tank, turn on water, check
for leaks, snug up the bolts holding bowl to floor. If there
is a space between the back of the tank and the wall, put a spacer
of sort there to brace tank. A piece of wood or hard rubber works
fine.
PARTS NEEDED:
Toilet bowl
Toilet tank
Toilet seat
Two 1/4" bolts for bowl to flange
Wax ring
20" water supply with fitting at valve or floor connection
Now DO
put my DOs and DON'Ts into use, and you new toilet will never need
a plumber!
WATER CONSERVATION
BEGINS AT HOME
I believe if
we tried we could cut our water use in half. There are many more
ways other than the ones in my article. Have an idea of your
own ? write it down. Sometimes some things we don't think are
worthwhile are great ideas.
Like the young
man who went into one of the larger toothpaste companies and
told the president of the company if he paid him a sizeable amount
of money, he would give him his idea on how he could double his
toothpaste business. The company president agreed, and the young
man said, okay here's what you do, make the hole in all of your
toothpaste tubes twice the size it is now, this will double the
use of your toothpaste, and double your sales.
HERE ARE SOME
OF MY IDEAS
The first thing
to do is to check your entire plumbing system for leaks - leaking
faucets, water pipes, etc. If you don't think a leaking faucet
will waste water, put the stopper in a sink where one is leaking
overnight.
The toilet
is the worst water waster of all. Flush the toilet and wait until
it supposedly shuts off, then listen at the tank for a hissing
or trickling sound, if you hear a noise here's what to do, check
the rubber tank ball or flapper in the middle of the toilet tank
at the bottom. If the ball is old and has lost its shape, replace
it. Also using a fine steel wool pad, clean off the seat under
the ball till it is smooth. If the noise is from the ballcock
valve on the left side of the tank and is the type with the quarter
inch rod with a metal or plastic float ball, lift up on the rod,
if the noise stops, then starts again after you let go, chances
are your ballcock valve is bad and needs replaced. If when you
are holding the quarter inch rod up and the water leaks out of
the tank, and you have already replaced the rubber ball or the
flapper, check the lift wire or the chain from the ball to the
handle, and make sure it is not dropping the ball wrong, or is
on a bind.
WHEN YOU FLUSH
YOUR TOILET AT ANY TIME, ALWAYS WAIT UNTIL YOU ARE SURE IT SHUTS
OFF, ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE LEAVING THE HOUSE. IF YOU ARE LEAVING
YOUR HOUSE FOR A VACATION OR ONLY A COUPLE DAYS ITS A GOOD IDEA
TO SHUT YOUR MAIN WATER VALVE OFF. IT MIGHT SAVE A GREAT WATER
LOSS, AS WELL AS A LOT OF DAMAGE TO YOUR HOME. HERE'S WHY:
I had a plumbing
call to a home where the people had gone on a vacation for two
weeks. The last person to leave the home flushed the toilet and
did not wait to be sure it shut off before leaving.
HERE'S WHAT
HAPPENED:
The toilet
stopped up when the last person flushed it. The rubber ball did
not drop back straight and the water ran over the toilet bowl
for two weeks.
HERES WHAT
THEY FOUND WHEN THEY RETURNED HOME AFTER TWO WEEKS:
- The bathroom
and the kitchen floors had warped.
- The tile
and the carpet was ruined.
- The plaster
ceiling in the kitchen had fallen.
- The woodwork
and the doors were all warped.
- The formica
counter tops in the kitchen had lifted.
- Below the
kitchen in the basement, the father and son's very expensive
car and train set were severely damaged.
NOW this was
in the winter time, and the furnace was left on to keep the water
pipes from freezing. The water went down from the first floor
and leaked onto the furnace which made steam, the steam went
into every room in the house and caused the wallpaper to fall
off the walls in every room.
LOOK AT THE
WATER WASTED HERE AS WELL AS THE $ COST
- When using
your bathroom or kitchen sink, don't leave the water run when
you don't need to.
- Take shorter
showers.
- Turn off
the shower when you are lathering up.
- When using
your washing machine, and only washing a small amount of clothes,
set the water level for less water.
TRY THIS:
Take the quarter
inch refill tube that goes from the toilet ballcock valve into
the overflow pipe in the toilet tank, and fasten it so the water
from it goes into the tank and helps to fill it faster. You can
only do this if when your toilet is flushed and retraps itself.
While the toilet
is refilling after being flushed, it doesn't take as much water
as is put into the bowl from the refill tube. Every little bit
helps.
HERE IS
A GOOD WATER SAVER
If the water
pressure in your home is more than you need. DO THIS.
Close your
main water valve until your pressure slows down some, but is
still enough for your needs. Or do this to the smaller valves
under your kitchen and bathroom sin. A lot of homes have a lot
more pressure than they need.
UNDERGROUND
WATER LEAKS
Sometimes there
are water leaks underground between your home, the street, or
your outside water supply.
These go undetected
for years. Here's one way you can check your line for a leak.
Put your ear on the water meter in your home and put your finger
in your other ear. If you hear a hissing sound like pressure
releasing you probably have a leak in your line, be sure no one
is running water in the house when doing this. Most of the time
a leak underground will eventually come to the top of the ground,
but I have had some leaks that I found had worked their way into
the sewer line under it, and had been leaking for years.
To check this,
remove the clean out plug on your sewer line to the street. Put
your ear at that point and listen, if you have a leak you will
be able to hear it in the sewer line. Again be sure no one is
running water...
HERE ARE
SOME OF THE WAYS A CITY COULD SAVE WATER
In areas where
the water pressure is greater than needed, the city water deptartment
could install a pressure regulator valve at the water meter in
these homes to control the amount water used.
Another good
water saver would be to require in new home construction that
a small spring valved wall hung urinal be installed in all bathrooms
.
A TOILET WHEN
FLUSHED USES ABOUT SIX GALLONS OF WATER.
A SMALL WALL
HUNG SPRING VALVED URINAL USES LESS THAN ONE GALLON.
LOOK AT THE
WATER THAT COULD BE SAVED HERE.
HERE IS A TWENTY
FIVE YEAR WATER LEAK...
I worked as
a maintenance plumber in one of the larger hospitals in the area.
Here's what I found one day.
The kitchen
of the hospital had a tile floor, and at one area the tile floor
was always hot, so much so the workers were always complaining
of being too warm.
One day while
working on the water piping, we had to turn off the water for
a long time.
I later happened
to kneel down on the floor where it was always hot. It had cooled
down. When we turned the water back on we found a water line
leaking under the floor where it was always hot. We repaired
the hot water pipe, turned the water back on, and the floor stayed
cool...
I then began
to explain to the kitchen supervisor what we had found. She said
she had worked here for twenty five years and the tile floor
in that are had always been hot...
A twenty five
year water leak. Can you believe the water loss here. I bet if
we checked all over the country we could find some water being
wasted. |
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