Fixing up the house

One thing to always remember when working with toilets and sinks that are made of porcelain. You have to be careful not to drop them or bang them into things as you carry them into place.

Also you must not over tighten them when you are bolting the tank to the bowl. If you over tighten them you take a chance of breaking them and then you waste your money having to buy another one.

Here is a good method for bolting the bowl to the tank. place all the gaskets and washers in their proper locations and insert the bolts then tighten the bolts finger tight.

Now look at the gap between the tank and bowl. This is the distance the tank needs to be pulled down to make a good connection. You want the tank to just be snug against the front and back of the bowl. Once you have gotten that tightness you stop. If you keep going something is going to break. The tank should feel firm and not do any rocking if you gently push and pull on it.

The same thing goes for tightening the bowl to the floor flange. Just tight enough for it to be snug and not move. Some floors are not flat and will need some sort of shimming to make the toilet bowl not rock. Do not try to tighten the toilet down harder to get it to stop rocking. Insert some type of plastic shimming where the toilet rocks to. then trim it flush and caulk to secure it.

That should help clear things up a bit for you.

Cheers till next time
Glenn

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Ok, let’s review for a moment:

1. Planning the remodel, this is where you decided what extent you were going to with the bathroom.
2. Removing the toilet, step by step instructions to remove a toilet
3. removing the vanity, step by step instructions to remove a vanity

If your plans involve removing the bathtub then you are in for a little work now. To get a regular tub out you have to remove the wall covering on the front sides, top sides and back. There is a flange that sticks up behind most tubs that stops water from seeping back behind and it is also used to fasten the tub in place.

The tub/shower valve handles need to be removed. There should be a little cap on the top of the handle or handles. pry them out and it will expose a screw head. If the faucet valve is really old there could be rust in here and if you can’t get the screw out you may have to figure out how to get it out. A good drill bit and drill straight into the top of the screw will remove the screw head and you can get the handle off. Then you can grab the screw shank with a pliers if you are going to be saving the valve. Just leave it if you are replacing it. That’s about the easiest way to get one of those screws out.

Now remove the fill spout for the tub. There are a couple ways these are attached. Some have a set screw just next to the wall and under the spout. Loosen it and pull the spout out away from the wall. Most likely it is an “allen wrench” about 1/8″ or so. The other way is screwed on and a counter clockwise rotation will get it off. It may be on there pretty tight.

If you have a shower door the frame needs to be taken apart. First thing is to remove the doors. They should lift up to get the wheels off the track and then pulled out on the bottom (or in) and lowered then they should be loose. There may be a guide bar screwed to the bottom to keep it in the channel and that has to be removed first before lifting. Then once the doors are out of the way take out the screws for the frame and take it apart. There may be a bunch of silicone caulk around it so prying may come into play here.

If there are tiles on the wall or a plastic/fiberglass surround for the tub that will need to be removed as well so you can get to the drywall or tile backer board that will have to be removed. I find that a drywall taping knife works pretty good to get under older tiles and sometimes a little hammering action with a masons chisel under the edge of the tiles.

The same goes for the surround with a big drywall taping knife to wedge in behind to get it loose. Don’t worry if you pull off some of the paper on the drywall. This can be fixed or replaced when the new tub is in place. When I am replacing a tub I take all of the sheet rock off and start over with new and if I am using tile I place a tile backer board instead. This way if the grout has any leaks the board behind will resist the water and make it cause no damage.

Now that the tub is all exposed and the flange edge has any fasteners removed it is time to remove the plumbing drain. The drain on the bottom most commonly screws out of the hole. You can take a pair of pliers and a big screw driver to get this out. Stick the handles of the pliers into the hole so it goes through the cross grate in the drain. (You know that spot that always catches all the hair and stuff you have to clean out or the tub fills up when you shower.) There may be a screw holding a screen in place that has to come off first. Put the screw driver through the middle area on the handles so you can use it to spin the pliers counter clockwise. Now when you have that out you can take the overflow apart. First take off the cover and remove the drain stopper if there is one. You should have two screws for the cover and then a rod going down the hole. Just pull the rod all the way out and there should be a pipe looking thing on the end that will have to be wiggled a bit to get it out. Now there should be just two more screws to remove that hold the drain up against the tub right where you just pulled out the drain stopper. Take them out and the tub is free.

There you have it. The tub is now ready to be lifted out of it’s space.

For a comprehensive guide to bathroom remodeling

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