8 Toilet Renovation And Installation Mistakes To Avoid

Toilets might not be the most exciting things we have in our homes, but there is no doubt that they are indeed essential. Did you know that over their lifetime, a person spends on average 18 months on one! So when you are looking at having a new toilet installation whether as part of renovation work or because the old one is broken, your best step is to have a plumber handle it for you. Putting in a new toilet might seem like something basic and easy to handle but it is best left to someone with a license to work with your plumbing system.

• Choosing the wrong pan type - Before you choose a toilet you need to know what pan you need. Do you have a P trap, S trap or Skew trap? The trap is the bend in the toilet pipe and changes where the waste pipe connects. An S trap connects to the floor, a P trap concepts to the wall and a skew pan comes out one of the sides of the toilet. You can easily get the wrong toilet and find it does not connect to the waste pipe.
• Forgetting to measure the set-out or getting the measurements wrong - You also need to measure the set-out before you make a purchase. This is different depending on the pan type you have. It is essential to measure it as different toilets have different set-outs and the age of the home is a factor. Newly built homes tend to be between 140 to 165mm. But old buildings might have anything from under 100mm to over 200mm!
• Not considering the water efficiency rating - The water efficiency ratings are a scheme the Australian government came up with to help reduce the water and energy consumption in the country. When it comes to toilets you look for the WELS rating system which considers how many litres of water a toilet uses per flush. Toilets come in 3 or 4 stars and the more stars the better. If you have a newly built home and are choosing toilets for the home you are required to choose 4 star more efficient toilets. If you are replacing a toilet in an older home you can use either.
• Going with the wrong style of toilet - There are 4 different toilet types in Australia so when looking for a toilet replacement you need to decide between connector suite, wall faced, close coupled suites and concealed suites.
• Forgetting to turn the water off - Before you or your plumbers do anything in the bathroom with a toilet installation, you need to remember to turn off the water. A lot of people forget and face water damage problems as a result. It might sound obvious but it is a step a lot of people forget amongst everything else they have to remember!
• Not checking the height of the flange - You need to make sure you have enough room to put in the wax ring so that it is properly sealed. You would aim for a flange height of 2.5cm.   
• Not properly anchoring the toilet base - It is essential to anchor the base to the flange and you need closet bolts to do so. Make sure your plumber properly anchors everything.
• Forgetting to make sure it is level and caulked - No-one wants a toilet that rocks! As well as being hard to use it could have the potential to create a mess. During a toilet replacement make sure everything is level or flat before it is bolted down and then caulk the base to seal it.