2 Out of 3 Ain't Bad
There's always some trepidation surrounding the installation of a toilet. The thought of the fixture not setting properly in the wax ring and the risk of a black water leak in the house makes the task a bit stressful beyond its complexity.
Getting all the pieces to line up is the hardest part. The flange must be set so that the bolts can be positioned in alignment with the toilet's bolt holes. Most flanges are designed to allow you to install the flange first and then add the bolts later by inserting them in a slot that has wide and narrow sections. You insert the bolt in the wide section which receives the bolt cap and then slide the bolt to the narrow section where the bolt can be held in place. Positioning the flange so that the narrow end of the slots align with the toilet's bolt holes is a crucial first step.
The next piece is placing the wax ring on the bowl. It helps to press it well into place so that it doesn't fall off when you turn the bowl over or slip out of place as you position the bowl over the flange.
When you're ready to set the bowl on the flange, it helps to have an extra set of eyes to guide your alignment of the bolts into the bolt holes. And once the bowl is positioned correctly you need to wiggle and press it down to compress the wax ring and assure a tight fit. And of course, when tightening the bolts you have to be careful not to over-tighten and crack your new toilet.
I was able to follow most of my own advice for installing the toilet, and got it hooked up and running in time for our guests. The supply line had been prepped back around New Years when my brother helped do a temporary installation for house guests then, so hooking up the water was just a matter of tightening the compression nut.
The sink on the other hand required breaking out the propane torch and solder to sweat the new valves. It also meant gluing some PVC adapters to complete the drain hookup.
I purchased the bathroom sink over a year ago when I spotted it at a salvage store. I was told it came out of the Park Plaza Hotel in Boston during a renovation there. The only problem is that it was a pedestal sink without a pedestal. As the day got closer for installation, I was still wracking my brain as to how I was going to mount the sink, and even considered giving up on it altogether. And then I got the idea of mounting it on a cabinet and remembered an old sewing machine cabinet stored in the barn. (We had used it in the past to hide a small TV and VCR--a kind of mini entertainment center.) The sink fit nicely. I just had to cut a larger hole in the top and a couple of holes in the back for the plumbing, then I clear-coated the finish with 3 coats of urethane, and now the old sewing cabinet is living its third life as a sink vanity.
With the toilet and sink installed upstairs, we were ready for our guests. The bathroom still has a way to go. There's more wainscoting to install, the wiring for the radiant heat still needs to get done, and the third fixture, the bathtub, needs to be painted and installed, but we've come a long way in the short time since I started prepping the floor for tiles.
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Posted by: cabinetgiant | March 15, 2010 at 08:55 AM