Installing a New Toilet: A Simple and Refreshing Project

Today, we're going to talk about toilets setting a new toilet is a really simple project that can be a much-needed refresh for just about any bathroom. And actually removing an old toilet is probably a lot easier than you think and not quite as messy.

The first step in this process is to turn off the water supply to the toilet. This will take all the clean water out of the tank and the bowl, leaving only some clean water in the trap. You can get that water out with a shop vac. Any other water you have to deal with in this process should be pretty clean, just make sure you have some towels around to wipe it up.

To actually remove the toilet, you just need to disconnect the water line on the back and then take off the two caps at the base over the bolts underneath these caps. There will be two nuts, and you just unscrew those, and that should loosen the toilet. However, before you remove the toilet, make sure you have a place to put it underneath the toilet, as there will be a wax ring that will cause a big mess if you put it on the floor. I suggest having a trash bag laid out right next to the toilet, and then with help lift it directly off the two bolts and set it on the trash bag.

If you're going to reinstall that toilet, you want to clean off the bottom where the wax ring was. It doesn't have to be super clean; just make sure that you can have a good seal when you replace the toilet. To install a new toilet, basically, you just reverse the process. You want to start with a new ring and new bolts if you need to remove the old bolts first, those are in key holes in the flange so you slide them around and lift them out of the holes.

To put in new bolts after those bolts are installed, you drop a new wax ring right down onto the hole of the flange. Wax rings do work pretty well, but they also kind of cause a mess. There are some non-wax rings that you could use instead; they work just fine with some help lift the toilet over the bolts and drop it directly down onto the bolts, making sure that they are sticking straight up as long as this is centered and the bolts go through the holes in the bottom of the toilet.

You should line up directly on top of the ring and make a good seal after the toilet is fully seated on the ring and the floor. You can use the nuts that came with the bolts to secure it, and after those are fully tightened down and the toilet is secure, you can use a hacksaw to shorten the bolts. There's some bolts that actually come with a break point, so you can just snap them off with some pliers.

While you're at the store, make sure to get new caps if your old ones are grimy. The final steps are to reconnect the water to the back of the toilet and run a thin bead of kitchen and bath silicon caulk around the base. And after that, your toilet is ready to go. However, if you're not using a brand new toilet, you may want to update some things before you turn the water back on. You can replace the lever for an updated look or you could replace the flap and the float and the pieces on the inside of the tank that may have broken down over years of use.

This is one of those projects that may look a lot harder than it actually is, so hopefully this video was helpful to you if you've got any other tips or tricks around installing a toilet, please leave them down in the comments. And huge thanks to Lowe's for sponsoring this video; we've got a whole playlist of other bits videos for you to check out and we'll be back really soon with a new project, see you then.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: entoday I'm bits we're gonna talk about toilets setting a new toilet is a really simple project that can be a much-needed refresh for just about any bathroom and actually removing an old toilet is probably a lot easier than you think and not quite as messy the first step is to turn off the water supply to the toilet and then flush it this will take all the clean water out of the tank and the bowl there will still be some clean water in the trap and you can get that out with the shop vac any other water that you have to deal with in this process should be pretty clean just make sure that you have some towels around to wipe it up so to actually remove the toilet you just need to disconnect the water line on the back and then take off the two caps at the base over the bolts underneath these caps there will be two nuts and you just unscrew those and that should loosen the toilet but before you remove the toilet make sure you have a place to put it underneath the toilet there will be a wax ring that will cause a big mess if you put it on the floor I suggest having a trash bag laid out right next to the toilet and then with help lift it directly off the two bolts and set it on the trash bag if you're going to reinstall that toilet you want to clean off the bottom where the wax ring was it doesn't have to be super clean you just want to make sure that you can have a good seal when you replace the toilet to install a new toilet basically you just reverse the process but you want to start with a new ring and new bolts if you need to remove the old bolts first those are in key holes in the flange so you slide them around and lift them out of the holes reverse this process to put in new bolts after those bolts are installed you drop a new wax ring right down onto the hole of the flange wax rings do work pretty well but they also kind of cause a mess and these days there are some non wax rings that you could use instead that work just fine with some help lift the toilet over the bolts and drop it directly down onto the bolts making sure that they are sticking straight up as long as this is centered and the bolts go through the holes in the bottom of the toilet you should line up directly on top of the ring and make a good seal after the toilet is fully seated on the ring and the floor you can use the nuts that came with the bolts to secure it after the nuts are fully tightened down and toilet is secure you can use a hacksaw to shorten the bolts there's some bolts that actually come with a break point so you can just snap them off with some pliers and while you're at the store make sure to get new caps if your old ones are grimy the final steps are to reconnect the water to the back of the toilet and run a thin bead of kitchen and bath silicon caulk around the base and after that your toilet is ready to go but if you're not using a brand new toilet you may want to update some things before you turn the water back on you can replace the lever for an updated look or you could replace the flap and the float and the pieces on the inside of the tank that may have broken down over years of use this is one of those projects that may look a lot harder than it actually is so hopefully this video was helpful to you if you've got any other tips or tricks around installing a toilet please leave them down in the comments so we can all learn together huge thanks to Lowe's for sponsoring this video we've got a whole playlist of other bits videos for you to check out and we'll be back really soon with a new project see you thentoday I'm bits we're gonna talk about toilets setting a new toilet is a really simple project that can be a much-needed refresh for just about any bathroom and actually removing an old toilet is probably a lot easier than you think and not quite as messy the first step is to turn off the water supply to the toilet and then flush it this will take all the clean water out of the tank and the bowl there will still be some clean water in the trap and you can get that out with the shop vac any other water that you have to deal with in this process should be pretty clean just make sure that you have some towels around to wipe it up so to actually remove the toilet you just need to disconnect the water line on the back and then take off the two caps at the base over the bolts underneath these caps there will be two nuts and you just unscrew those and that should loosen the toilet but before you remove the toilet make sure you have a place to put it underneath the toilet there will be a wax ring that will cause a big mess if you put it on the floor I suggest having a trash bag laid out right next to the toilet and then with help lift it directly off the two bolts and set it on the trash bag if you're going to reinstall that toilet you want to clean off the bottom where the wax ring was it doesn't have to be super clean you just want to make sure that you can have a good seal when you replace the toilet to install a new toilet basically you just reverse the process but you want to start with a new ring and new bolts if you need to remove the old bolts first those are in key holes in the flange so you slide them around and lift them out of the holes reverse this process to put in new bolts after those bolts are installed you drop a new wax ring right down onto the hole of the flange wax rings do work pretty well but they also kind of cause a mess and these days there are some non wax rings that you could use instead that work just fine with some help lift the toilet over the bolts and drop it directly down onto the bolts making sure that they are sticking straight up as long as this is centered and the bolts go through the holes in the bottom of the toilet you should line up directly on top of the ring and make a good seal after the toilet is fully seated on the ring and the floor you can use the nuts that came with the bolts to secure it after the nuts are fully tightened down and toilet is secure you can use a hacksaw to shorten the bolts there's some bolts that actually come with a break point so you can just snap them off with some pliers and while you're at the store make sure to get new caps if your old ones are grimy the final steps are to reconnect the water to the back of the toilet and run a thin bead of kitchen and bath silicon caulk around the base and after that your toilet is ready to go but if you're not using a brand new toilet you may want to update some things before you turn the water back on you can replace the lever for an updated look or you could replace the flap and the float and the pieces on the inside of the tank that may have broken down over years of use this is one of those projects that may look a lot harder than it actually is so hopefully this video was helpful to you if you've got any other tips or tricks around installing a toilet please leave them down in the comments so we can all learn together huge thanks to Lowe's for sponsoring this video we've got a whole playlist of other bits videos for you to check out and we'll be back really soon with a new project see you then\n"