In a small bathroom, sometimes it’s really helpful to have a one-piece toilet. So today
we’re going to share with you how to install an American Standard one-piece toilet. It’s
super simple and straightforward. You can definitely do this yourself. And we’re going
to give you a lot of great tips along the way.
Okay, so we’re going to prep our toilet flange before installing the toilet. A couple
of things. One, I would recommend getting toilet bolts that have two sets of nuts and
washers so you can actually mount the screws to the toilet flange. And the way I did this
was I tiled around the existing flange that by the time I put 3/8 plywood on top of the
¾” subflooring that was here, my flange was below my new subfloor. And once I tiled
it, it was even lower than that. So really I was about an inch below the tile. And there
was nothing wrong with the original flange. Now you could extend—use extension rings—to
bring that all up to make up that inch, but I decided just to put a flange that slides
into the existing flange. And one interesting thing about this model is that it has Allen
keys to tighten a rubber gasket to the existing pipe so you can ensure that it has a nice,
snug fit and leak-proof system. This is sliding into that cast-iron, and then there’s a
rubber gasket around the edge of it that’s actually squeezing against that cast-iron.
So it’s a really awesome system. But having this flange over top of the tile does a couple
of things. One, it allows me to just use a standard sized wax ring rather than using
a jumbo wax ring. Basically the more wax you have, the more area that you’re going to
probably have an issue at one point of another. So you always try to have the minimal amount
of wax ring that you can. And having this on top of the tile is going to do that. So
we’ll go ahead and put our toilet bolts in.
Set the closet flange bolts into the closet flange and ensure that the distance between
the bolt and the wall is the same as your rough-in measurement. For example, 12”.
Okay, then you just basically look for your bolts. And then once you have those volts
coming through just press down on it till it meets your floor. That’s another reason
it’s nice to have bolts anchored on so it’s easier to get it in place. But hopefully your
tile work is straight. Make sure there’s no wobbling. If there is any wobbling, you
might have to do some shimming. Be careful not to over-tighten the nuts with
your wrench. I tell you the important thing is after you
have it tightened is just to really move this toilet around, make sure there isn’t any
movement. And if there is, then either tighten it or possibly shim it. Because if your tile
work isn’t exactly flat, that could be a reason why it would be rocking. But just give
it a good move and see whether it’s moving around.
Standard 12” connector. And this just needs to be hand-tightened.
You can Teflon tape this valve if you want. But with this rubber gasket on here, I’ve
never really had an issue. We’re just tightening it onto the shut off.
The water level on the tank should be about ¾” below the overflow pipe.
So there’s quite a few ways to cut the toilet bolts. One, you can use a Sawzall but you
risk the fact of possibly hitting the toilet and scratching it. If you use a grinder wheel,
you really have to make sure you protect all this because any of those hot metal shards
will probably stain the toilet. You can use a multi-tool. And then what I have been using
lately is just a pair of linesmen. These are with just a cutting action here. And basically
I’m just holding it just a little bit above the nut, and I’m just going around. You
got to put a little bit of force into it, but just go around and notch it till it comes
off. And then just to make sure that you’re tight, just put a couple of revolutions on
the bolt. And I just think that kind of gives a nice, clean job to it.
So these toilet packages always have two sets of different types of washers. I always find
the ones with the center. Kind of makes it fit right on the toilet. But it’s all in
the preference. If you want with these washers then it would slide the toilet seat up or
back. But I always just go right in the middle. Put your little rubber gaskets in the bottom
here. The American Standard toilet seats are easy to put together. Basically you just put
the plastic bolts through those rubber washers that are on the seat. Then you place the seat
on top of the toilet bowl. And then you secure it to the bowl using the plastic nuts that
are provided. So you just have to tighten down on those nuts and bolts using a standard
screwdriver. We wouldn’t recommend using an impact driver because you could strip the
nuts and the bolts, and that wouldn’t be good. But as you can see here, it’s a really
great self-closing seat on this particular Cadet 3.
The tips in the video will certainly help you with any toilet installation. But again,
if you’ve got a tight bathroom, so a small bathroom, these one-piece toilets are phenomenal.
And I always use American Standard toilets in my rentals, in my personal house. They
don’t clog. They stay clean because of the finish. They’re phenomenal.
Now if you are doing a bathroom makeover, specifically a tub/shower combo bathroom makeover,
we’ve got a great guide which you can check out right here for free. So click right here
to get the guide, and you’ll get a ton of great tips that you can use to remodel your
small bathroom and your tub/shower combo. Thanks for watching today’s video. Take
care. We’ll talk to you soon.