After spending a large chunk of the day driving from one hardware store to the next, looking for one plumbing part, I finally have the toilet installed! It's pretty cool. It has a couple of quirks, such as if you're in the right place in the room when you pull the chain, you get sprayed with a little water from the fill valve. The gasket under the flush valve is totally shot, but it only leaks occasionally, so I'll leave it alone for now. :^)
I got these totally cool toggle bolts from Hilte at Home Depot. The require a 1/2 in hole to feed them in the wall, but once they're in, they're very solid. VERY. Solid enough that they're holding that tank up in the air.
Complication 1: Lucky me, I don't have a normal closet flange (The part of the plumbing under the toilet in the floor that the toilet bolts to.) I had this rinky-dink thing that screws to the floor to provide a couple of spots for the studs to stick up so the toilet can screw to the floor. When I was removing the old - well newer, but existing - toilet, the stupid bolts started turning with the nuts. I ended up tweaking the flange and making it useless. Off to the hardware store. I bought every model they had, and I'll be taking the rest of them back on Monday (closed Sundays. sheesh)
Complication 2: I figured that it would be my luck that when I decide where to place the tank, that one or both of the two holes would be halfway onto a stud. Not close enough that I could put a regular screw into the stud, and enough in the way to make the toggle bolt not work right. I was absolutely right. I went to drill the first hole for the toggle bolt, and once I got through the lathe the drill bit took off to the right. By the time I stopped, I had a 1 x 1/2" hole in the wall, and I could see that I chewed some nice marks in the vent pipe for the sink drain. I guess it's a good thing I didn't actually puncture that pipe. I have a piece of wood screwed to the wall that the back of the tank sits on. I tried sliding the tank 1/2 an inch to the right (where my hole is now) and the wood is too long. I had to take the strip of wood, cut a half an inch off of it, and screw it back up. For those of you that speak the queen's English, this is known as Sod's law. For us Yanks, it's Murphey's law.
Complication 3: The gaskets that came with my new plumbing hardware were crap. Fortunately I had enough old plumbing parts kicking around that I could come up with enough gaskets to get the flush pipe to seal properly.
Complication 4: Once I had the pipes all fitted, and not leaking, I went to tighten that basin to the floor. As I'm tightening the nut on the left, the bolt starts moving waaay to freely. Of course, it popped out of my new flange. I had to disassemble all of the now not leaking pipes so I could rock the toilet out of the way and get that little bugger back in place. Trust me, wax rings (which seal the toilet to the flange) are icky icky things. At least I know that this one (new with this installation) hasn't yet been "soiled". Well in as much from the top. I try not to think about the pipes underneath.
Tomorrow: the sink. I can't even imagine having a working sink in my bathroom. It's only been since December. That's hardly any time, right?
Ok. Time for a shower and some sleep.
Cheers,
Duane
