Removing a Toilet

You come home from work one day, and go in to use the bathroom. Before you get down to business, you notice that there is a major crack in the tank. As you know, this means that you need to replace the toilet prior to using it. Don't worry though, this is not as difficult of a task as you may have thought. This is actually a fairly easy task, and one that anyone can do. In order to complete this task though, you are going to need a few items. Gather these items prior to beginning, and you are going to be ready to go.

• Wrenches
• Bucket
• Several sponges or towels
• Screwdriver (either Philips or straight edge, check your toilet first)

After assembling your material you are ready to begin. In order to complete this home improvement task, you are can simply use this checklist and you are going to be able to have your old and faulty toilet removed, and you are going to be able to proceed to install your new toilet.

1. Before doing anything, you need to shut off the water to the toilet. Do this by looking to either the side of the toilet, or behind and looking for a small pipe and turning the valve to the shut off position. This is usually done by turning it to the right.
2. After you have shut off the water, flush the toilet to get rid of most, if not all, of the water in the tank. Flush the toilet as often as necessary so that this water is gone. If you are lucky, you may even be able to get all of the water in the bowl removed as well. If there is any water left in the tank, or in the bowl, you are going to have to remove it by using the bucket and sponges or towels.
3. After removing the water, disconnect the water supply line from the toilet. As you are doing this make sure that you put the bucket underneath the water supply valve to make sure that you catch as much of the water as you can, so that there is a little of a mess as possible.
4. You now need to remove the bolts that hold the tank onto the toilet so that you can lift off the tank and remove it. After you have done that remove the decorative trim caps so that you can undo and remove the bolts (also called the flange bolts). If they are corroded then you just might have to cut them off with a hacksaw or some other type of rotary cutting tools.
5. Once you have removed the bolts, gently rock the toilet base so that you can break the watertight seal that is at the base of the toilet. After that is done, just make sure that you remove the toilet out of the way.
6. All that you have left to do is to clean up the wax residue from around the hole. After you have done this you are ready to go and install your new toilet.