Wobble Wedge® Plastic Toilet Shims Make Installing a Toilet Easy
There are going to be a thousand frustrations when you install a toilet. Don’t let an uneven floor be one of them. Wobble Wedge® plastic toilet shims make leveling a toilet easy!
Remember when buying your new toilet that you need to measure from the wall to the closet bolts on your old toilet to be sure your new toilet is going to fit. Measure from the wall, NOT the baseboard, this is key to making sure you buy a toilet that will fit.
First thing’s first, remove the old toilet!
- Turn off the water supply, flush the toilet and then use a sponge to remove the leftover water from the tank.
- Disconnect the water lines from the tank, place a bucket underneath and then unscrew the nuts holding the tank and remove the tank. Wear gloves for all of these tasks, just in case the porcelain breaks!
- Unscrew the bolts holding the basin to the floor, use a sponge to get out any water still in the bowl and then remove the toilet bowl.
- Place a towel into the drain in the floor so nothing drops down and the gases from the sewer don’t vent into your home. Remove the old wax ring, use a scraper to clean off the flange as you will want a nice clean seal for your new toilet.
- Remove the old closet bolts from the flange and then make any repairs the flange may need. (Making sure the flange is in great shape is very important to getting your new toilet in, be sure you replace or repair it before you put in the new toilet!)
Installing a New Toilet:
- Slide the new closet bolts into the flange and secure with the washers provided (Pro-tip: you can buy extra nuts to hold these closet bolts in place more firmly, this will help when trying to place the bowl and make it less likely that you’ll damage the new wax ring when installing.). Mark the location of the bolts on the floor with some masking tape to make it easier to see where they are for placement of the toilet.
- The wax ring is the most important part of installing your toilet, it makes the seal and any damage to it can mean you have to go out to get another one. It avoid this, do a dry-run WITHOUT the wax ring in place. After you’ve added the closet bolts put the toilet bowl in place and see if the toilet wobbles. If it wobbles it will lead to lots of issues down the road, a rocking toilet can break the wax ring causing leaks and can lead to floor damage.
- If the toilet is wobbling take your soft Wobble Wedge® plastic shims in white or clear and insert them around the edges. Soft Wobble Wedge® plastic shims will cushion the porcelain while providing stability, stopping the toilet from wobbling. The white or clear color of our toilet shims will blend right in, and no one will notice them. Tape down the plastic toilet shims in place, this will prevent the toilet shims from moving out of position when you remove the bowl to add the wax ring.
- Remove the bowl and the rag in the drain line. Place the wax ring onto the flange and then VERY CAREFULLY lower the toilet bowl back into place. This step is where the most errors happen, because the wax ring can so easily be damaged. Take your time. Once the toilet is in place, loosely tighten the nuts on the closet bolts and check for any more wobbling. Add anymore toilet shims as necessary to fix the rocking toilet, and then add the cap bases, washers and nuts. Tighten the bolts alternating from side to side to keep the pressure even. Be sure you don’t over tighten, as you can accidentally crack the porcelain.
- After the bolts are secure, cut off any exposed portions of the plastic toilet shims with a utility knife. And use a hacksaw to cut down the bolts so that they can be covered with the bolt caps.
- Attaching the tank is next, flip it over and install the bolts that hold it to the bowl. Place the rubber gasket into the base and then place the tank onto the bowl. Tighten the nuts on the tank by hand then tighten further with a wrench. Again, be careful to not over-tighten. Use a level to make sure the tank is sitting level.
- Hook up the water line to the tank and slowly turn the water back on. Check for leaks, small leaks might just mean some bolts need to be tightened more. But if there is a leak around the floor after a test flush, this is likely from the wax ring getting damaged during installation. You will need to get a new wax ring and reinstall the bowl.
- The final touch is installing the toilet seat with a screwdriver and adding the top to the tank.
- Congratulations, you installed a toilet!
Some “how to sites” recommend that you caulk around the base of your toilet after installing it, but this can hide leaks and lead to severe floor damage before you realize you have a leaking toilet. Not caulking will allow you to see the leak, and fix the issue before it gets any worse.
PLEASE NOTE: Follow any manufacturer instructions included with your toilet.
Add Wobble Wedge® toilet shims to your toolbox today!
