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.