The Sh*t!

That wasn’t supposed to happen.

I just finished this bathroom and now I have a broken toilet.

Grr!

 

I’ll rewind.  This all started because I consider myself a bit of a perfectionist in certain areas of projects.  I don’t always care about minor details, but a leaky toilet tank and wobbly toilet just aren’t going to float in my life-boat.  The teetering toilet bowl was likely the result of my tile installation.  The small leak was probably caused by the toilet being dry for an extended period, and the tank/bowl gasket cracking.  The easiest way for me to change the gasket was to pull the toilet up completely, so that’s what I did.  This is where the fun moment happens.  I had just finished cleaning the old wax seal from the bottom of the bowl, when I started flipping the ceramic beast back around, and to my utter amazement, crunch!  The thing falls no more than 4 inches, but at a terrible angle, so part of the thing breaks off.

Now that we’re all caught up…  After cleaning the old wax seal, I noticed the flange (where the toilet bolts to the floor) was looking pretty rough.  In the photo below, you can see rusty metal on the left side of the hole (of stink).  The old flange could be responsible for part of my wobbly toilet issue.  The cracked grout to the left of the flange shows how the entire thing would move when the toilet shifts from side-to-side.

In order to install the toilet flange repair kit you see above, I needed to buy a set of mason drill bits.  As you might remember from my post about this renovation, there is a bunch of concrete (the foundation) beneath these tiles.

This is the first time in my life I have been toilet shopping.  It’s really quite an experience.  There are so many options, ranging in price from a sale model for $45 all the way up to $300+.  Who knew there could be so many different classes of toilets!  We went with a Glacier Bay Two-Piece Elongated Bowl Toilet in White, which cost $98.  The old toilet was a round bowl, but we’re fancy, so we upgraded to an elongated model.  Something I noticed during installation:  New toilets are SO EASY TO INSTALL!  I have replaced seals and mechanics in toilets for years, but might consider just buying a new one the next time something serious goes wrong.  It also gives our remodeled bathroom an even cleaner appearance.

After fitting the wax seal and bolting the new throne to the floor, I used some toilet shims to level it with the floor.  They’re a little ugly for the time being, but I’ll give the toilet a couple of weeks to settle, before going back, cutting the excess material and covering everything up with a bead of caulk.

Life is filled with unpredictability.  A broken toilet one day is a winning lottery ticket the next.  Fingers crossed.