How To Remove Wax Ring Residue

I wanted to title this post "Mystery Poop", only decided it may not attract as well many viewers if I did. Yous see, I recently moved to a new house, and had an issue with a…well…a turd that kept reappearing in my toilet. The little "dancing turd" every bit my kids and I lovingly nicknamed it, didn't belong to whatsoever of us (it came gratuitous with the business firm). After a few attempts, I managed to launch the picayune brown pest into Sewersville with my plunger. I thought my toilet issues were over until subsequent deposits made by family members, guests and myself as well continued to reappear. I decided enough is enough and sprang for a new toilet.

I'd always heard that installing a new toilet isn't all that hard. And since I'd already paid my plumber enough coin from other jobs in my new business firm to finance his son'south college educational activity, I decided to tackle this projection myself. Plus, I'd removed a handful of toilets in my lifetime, then I at least had experience at one-half of the job.

Step 1. Every toilet has a shut off valve to stop the catamenia of water to the tank. I close this off, and then flushed the toilet to empty the tank. If the toilet fills back up after you've shut the water off with the close off valve, call your plumber. You've got problems. Here's the shut off valve.

There will still exist about an inch or so of water in the tank afterward it flushes, but that'south normal.

Adjacent I unscrewed the plastic nut that connects the hose to the tank. I had a container ready to catch water that I expected to run out, but much to my surprise, no water came out.

Adjacent, I removed the plastic nut in club to remove the float tower (my personal proper noun for it) to let the remaining water to drain out of the tank. A little water leaked out, but not as well much.

After the nut was removed, I lifted out the bladder tower not realizing there was all the same quite a fleck of water in the tank. My feet got wet on that one.

Equally I was working, I noticed that the hose that I had disconnected had drops of water leaking out of it, which meant my shut off valve wasn't working quite right, then I left my container nether information technology to grab the drips. If everything is working properly, your close off valve should stop all the water from coming out of your hose.

Adjacent, I removed the tank from the stool so the toilet would be lighter and easier for me to lift off of the flooring. In social club to do that, I simply had to remove three basics from under the tank (two of them are pictured here).

Sounds elementary, correct? Two of nuts came off with niggling effort using a pair of pliers. The third nut notwithstanding, had rusted. Removing the final commodities would accept been much easier with ii people, where one person could hold the nut with pliers on the underside of the toilet, and the 2nd person could use a screwdriver to unscrew the bolt from the superlative.

Afterward several minutes of dinking around with the spiral from hell, I came to the painful decision that it wasn't going to come off. Ever. In a moment of desperation, I made the conscious determination to merely crack the toilet to get it off. And then here's a slap-up shot of the cracked tank.

For the record, I've heard a person tin can become cut pretty bad on cracked porcelain, so don't try this at abode. I would advise you to go a Dremel or a hack saw and cut the screw off if it won't unscrew.  Or get someone to help lift the toilet off in one piece and then you lot don't have to take information technology apart.

Here are the fruits of my labor. Beautiful (or not).

Next, I removed the caps off of the bolts that concord the toilet to the floor.

Now it'due south fourth dimension to cutting through the gross caulk then the toilet will come loose from the floor.

I lifted the stool and put information technology on a throw-away towel in the bathtub. I tipped the stool forwards a couple of times to remove the remaining h2o. (No lurking turds.) Brand no fault–at that place will be water remaining in the stool part that y'all can't see, and then don't go trying to bear it beyond your new white rug to the front door without a garbage pocketbook wrapped effectually it.

It would have been a practiced idea to set an open garbage bag on meridian of the towel to set the toilet into in the beginning place. Just since I didn't exercise that, I had to lift up the toilet and slide a purse underneath it. Not actually too much fun.

Here's what I'thou left with.

If y'all've been thinking this is a pretty disgusting process so far, it gets worse right about now. I put on some gloves to remove equally much of the wax ring as possible. If you have a blackness plastic band in the heart of the mess, that needs to come out likewise.

I removed the old bolts, and stuck a rag into the opening to keep sewer gas from coming up.

At present comes the time-consuming part of removing all of the sometime caulk with a razor blade.

I found later on trying both Goo-Gone and Dawn dish soap, that a very simple manner to remove wax off of the linoleum was to apply good, onetime-fashioned blistering soda. I just sprinkled a generous amount on the floor, ran the plastic side of a sponge over it, and it came right off.

Hither'due south my new toilet by Kohler. I chose a chair-elevation toilet which sits college off the basis than a standard toilet. I also chose a round toilet instead of an elongated ane since I have a pocket-sized bathroom. It was well-nigh $170.00 at Lowe's. I also saw information technology at Home Depot.

To figure out what size of toilet I needed, I measured the space from my toilet bolts on the floor, to the wall behind it for a 12″ measurement. This is the about mutual toilet size.

To install the new toilet, I basically re-did all of the things I un-did to become the old toilet out.

I put the new bolts right dorsum in the flange where I took the old ones out.

To help with setting the new toilet over the bolts, I put bluish tape on the floor next to the bolts and drew a line to where the bolts sit so I could encounter meliorate where I need to get with the toilet.

Adjacent comes the wax ring. My plumber uses two wax rings, and so that'southward what I did too. Here'southward the wax ring. I came with the toilet, and I purchased a second ane separately.

I removed the plastic that the wax ring came in, and stuck the ring around the opening on the lesser of the toilet.

I placed the second band on the flange on the floor after I removed the rag from the pigsty. It might cause you lot some grief if yous don't recall to remove your rag from the opening before you put the toilet on. Just a helpful tip from me to you lot.

I didn't want to try to lift the toilet over the bolts by myself, so I chosen over my son, Ross, to help me. I'm not certain how a person could actually do this by himself, but I know people exercise information technology all the time. If yous are going to try this past yourself, I would strongly recommend putting tape on the floor as I did, to aid guide you because the toilet blocks the view of the bolts from in a higher place.

Seating a toilet is a ane-shot deal, which is what has kept me from trying this in the past. If you mess up your toilet placement, you can't lift up the toilet and endeavour again because you lot'll break the seal on the wax ring, causing the toilet to leak. You are likewise non supposed to slide the toilet around also much after yous seat information technology for the aforementioned reason. I did have to motion it just a scrap because it was a little cati-wampus. I sat on the toilet facing the wall, which squished the wax rings together to form the seal.

After the toilet felt like it had sunk downwards onto the floor, I measured from the wall to each of the 2 holes on the stool to make sure the toilet was prepare evenly. I also used a level to make sure the toilet was even. No 1's gonna want to do their business concern with their cheeks out of whack, right?

Next I put on the washers and nuts over the flooring bolts as directed. I manus-tightened these just barely snug so as not to cleft the porcelain.

I then followed the directions on how to adhere the tank to the stool. These directions volition vary from i toilet to another. First I put on the gasket. The gasket is a squishy, prophylactic doughnut-similar circumvolve with a flat side that keeps the water from leaking out of the tank. Every standard toilet volition have a gasket, although I've never seen 1 quite this big. The flat side generally goes against the tank, and the round side towards the stool, only be sure to read the directions for your particular toilet. If the gasket is put on backwards, the tank volition leak.

So I put the tank onto the stool, and hand tightened the 2 screws that hold the tank to the toilet. The photo is a picture earlier the nuts were tightened. This role was a picayune tricky. I had to put the tank on and have it back off a couple of times before I got information technology right considering it was besides wobbly, all the same the nuts felt tight plenty. I but didn't have it placed correctly at commencement.

The "guts" inside this particular toilet tank were already assembled within of it, then I didn't accept to do anything there. Now for the thou finale! The toilet seat. Hither are the bolts in the tabs made to hold the toilet seat on.

I fastened these winged plastic nuts to the bolts that held the toilet seat in place. These nuts were easy to screw on because of the wing. Over again, I was careful not to over-tighten them.

Lastly, I caulked the sides and front of the base of operations of the toilet, leaving the back gratuitous of caulk. Why? Considering that'southward what my plumber told me to do. He explained that if there's ever a leak in the wax band, it may requite the h2o a place to go other than into the sub floor. This fashion, you'll know if you accept a leak.

That's all there was to it. It wasn't difficult, it was just time-consuming. Considering of the historic period of my business firm, the toilets I had were not the low-water usage ones. If I determine to go a more efficient toilet in my other bathroom, I would install that one myself too (with the help of my son, Ross, of course). It wasn't very fun, but it was worth the effort to save myself some money.

And here she is. Of course afterwards the new toilet looked and so nice and new, I had to paint the walls and vanity, get a new vanity top, faucet, light fixture, mirror, baseboard, wainscoting…..

This post was written by Tracy Evans who is a Certified Domicile Stager, Certified Redesigner and Journeyman Painter servicing the Central Illinois area. Feel gratis to visit her website at http://www.HelpAtHomeStaging.com to view her portfolio for more before and after pictures of her projects. And if yous enjoy gardening, you may want to visit her gardening blog at MyUrbanGardenOasis.

Source: https://homestagingbloomingtonil.wordpress.com/tag/how-to-remove-wax-from-a-toilet-wax-ring/

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