Remove toilet to replace carpet with hard flooring?

[pethier]

Yeah, I know I should know what kind of toilet I have to ask this question.  I will check into that.

 

The MH is a 1992 Damon Challenger diesel pusher.  We are taking out all the carpet on the "main floor", leaving carpet only on the raised bedroom on the back and the cockpit on the front.  We are putting in "LifeProof" waterproof snap-together boards.

 

My wife wants to piece the flooring around the toilet because she is afraid to pull the toilet off the floor.  How difficult is this?

 

Piecing the flooring around a rounded toilet looks pretty difficult.  No problems with the dinette and the rotating chair, as I removed them easily.

[ARGO]

I removed mine and turned it about 25 degrees so I could enclose it. (Yeah, there was no wall between it & the bed/sink/shower area). No biggie at all. I have a couple suggestions:

1) leave the carpet & install a night light in the room

2) If the wife doesn't want to pull it, tell her to go ahead & do it her way, knock yourself out.

Can you tell I'm tired of "we" need to do it this way when it turns out to be "me" ? 

[mptjelgin]

It is very easy to remove most RV toilets. Turn off the water, disconnect the water line from the back of the toilet, and remove the two nuts that hold the toilet on the flange. Then lift the entire thing off and set it in your shower or somewhere "safe" because they can be drippy.  You'll probably want to get a new foam doughnut gasket to use when you replace the toilet. 

It takes about 5 minutes to R&R an RV toilet.

[scouserl41]

The problem you will have is that the carpet and backer is thicker than the wood floor. That will leave the toilet "Rocking" when the DW sits on it. Beware also of using the wood floor in the bathroom as it isn't waterproof and will swell up after a few months of spills and splashes.

This is from my personal experience!!

http://banbrv.blogspot.com/2015/06/bathroom-renovations-gone-wild.html

BnB

[pethier]

We are putting in "LifeProof" waterproof snap-together boards.  I took a sample of the stuff and submerged it in water for a week to see if it is really waterproof.  It is.

[gjhunter01]

Like mptjelgin said, two nuts and a water line then carry the toilet outside. We removed the carpet in our fifth wheel a couple of years ago and replaced it with cheapest light oak snap together flooring from Home Depot, ($100 total). It has worked great for us, the toilet sits flat on the wood flooring and the wood has never swelled on us, even outside the shower that gets wet daily from stepping out. I did save a couple of boards under the bed for replacements like a scratch from one of the slides. The boards were easy to replace.

Greg

[57becky]

Whatever you do after removing the toilet and carpet, you need to have the toilet mounting flange screwed tight on top of the new flooring prior to reinstalling the toilet.  Also, like was said earlier, make sure you get a new foam rubber gasket, do not try to use to old one.

[gjhunter01]

On Friday, October 20, 2017 at 10:57 PM, 57becky said:

Whatever you do after removing the toilet and carpet, you need to have the toilet mounting flange screwed tight on top of the new flooring prior to reinstalling the toilet.  Also, like was said earlier, make sure you get a new foam rubber gasket, do not try to use to old one.

We reused the toilet floor rubber foam gasket for about 3 years until I recently replaced the ball gasket which also came with a new floor gasket (old gasket was 10 years old now). I discovered the floor gasket had been twisted out of place and really wasn't doing any good for the last 3 years. Apparently the gasket's main benefit is to prevent leakage if the black tank overfills up into the toilet. It's a good thing we never had a overfill condition and we usually watch our tanks closely anyway. Sometimes we would get a slight smell if the exhaust fans were left on for extended periods. It's still best to replace the gasket if you have a new one available.

Edit - I didn't have a new seal available (unprepared) but I wasn't going to hold up the remodel job and everything worked out in the end.

Greg

[pethier]

If I r&r the toilet, I will surely get a new gasket.

 

Toilet is a Thetfort

Model AM IV HI foot flush

Part Number 20820 GO1 OO1

Code 91O930

 

 

[pethier]

Just talked to Wayne at Mike's LP in Maplewood Minnesota.  He has a seal in stock.  

I took a piece of the LifeProof flooring and pushed it up to the toilet base where I have cut away the carpet/foam.  It appears to be about the same height.

Wayne says that when I in put the seal and set the toilet on the seal, the toilet should wobble a bit. If I then bolt down the toilet, and the wobble is gone, I have a good seal and am OK.  This makes perfect sense to me.

Wayne also tells me that the flange is identical to a household toilet flange, and that you can buy shims at the hardware store to raise a flange that is too low.

I think I am going to give this a shot.

[pethier]

On 10/20/2017 at 10:57 PM, 57becky said:

Whatever you do after removing the toilet and carpet, you need to have the toilet mounting flange screwed tight on top of the new flooring prior to reinstalling the toilet.  

I think that depends on how the flange is attached now. 

If the flange is screwed to the OSB subfloor now, with no carpet/foam under it, and the toilet periphery is sitting on compressed carpet/foam under it, it would seem to me that the flange would have to stay in the same place with no flooring under it or the flange will be too high for the seal to work properly.  The flooring therefore should be cut to occupy about the same space as the original carpet/foam does now.

As I say, the new flooring appears to be about the same height as the compressed carpet/foam that is there now.

While it is attractive to have the waterproof flooring under the flange, that may not be how it works.

I don't know if it is possible to use too seals to make up for a flange that is too high.  I will bring a flooring sample to Wayne and probably buy an extra seal.  I don't want to be in the middle of this project and not have a part I need.

It makes little sense to put carpeting under a toilet, but thats what the builders did.  I don't recall if RV builders are still doing this knuckle-headed thing.

[I'mdonewiththis forum]

The flange needs to be anchored to the floor from the factory since that is what the toilet is anchored to. Far as carpet under the toilet, that is to be expected since it is way easier and "less expensive" to only cut out for the flange rather than try to fit it around any fixture.

[mscans]

The last time I R & R' d the home toilet I found a blue synthetic flexible seal kit at Home Depot ( Fluidmaster Better Than Wax) PN 7530 that I used.  It comes with spacers, hardware and instructions for installation depending on floor heights. The flange also has a better locating structure so that the toilet is properly centered on the flange, mine was not I found out when I removed it. 

The kits were not expensive so I bought a spare Just In Case.

 

Good luck, should be a pice of cake!

[Al F]

15 hours ago, mscans said:

The last time I R & R' d the home toilet I found a blue synthetic flexible seal kit at Home Depot ( Fluidmaster Better Than Wax) PN 7530 that I used.  It comes with spacers, hardware and instructions for installation depending on floor heights. The flange also has a better locating structure so that the toilet is properly centered on the flange, mine was not I found out when I removed it. 

The kits were not expensive so I bought a spare Just In Case.

 

Good luck, should be a pice of cake!

Is this the seal kit you are referring to?  https://www.homedepot.com/p/Fluidmaster-Better-Than-Wax-Universal-Toilet-Seal-7530P24/205762183

 

[pethier]

On 10/23/2017 at 7:39 PM, Mntom said:

The flange needs to be anchored to the floor from the factory since that is what the toilet is anchored to. Far as carpet under the toilet, that is to be expected since it is way easier and "less expensive" to only cut out for the flange rather than try to fit it around any fixture.

Of course the flange is anchored to the subfloor.  The issue was not that the toilet would be anchored to the flooring, but whether the flooring should be sandwiched between the subfloor and the toilet.

Wayne at Mikes says that the toilets are designed to work with the flange sitting on the surface the toilet housing sits on by that the seals are good for some additional flooring thickness.

I'm thinking that because a motorhome in Minnesota is going to see a huge temperature swing (unlike motorhome in Hawaii, say), a smart person would leave the flange sitting on the subfloor and leave enough room in the flooring around the flange and the mounting bolts to let the flooring move a little.  Some sort of slippery underlayment sheeting may be good here.  I'm picking up a Fluidmaster Better Than Wax at Home Despot today, and will ask the flooring folks about this.

[mptjelgin]

The Fluidmaster Better Than Wax seal is intended for residential toilets. I'm not certain, but the donut seal that I've used on my Thetford toilets seems to be a different (smaller) diameter. I would stay with the Thetford gasket as they are cheap, fit the stock flange, and work very well. 

[mscans]

9 hours ago, Al F said:

Is this the seal kit you are referring to?  https://www.homedepot.com/p/Fluidmaster-Better-Than-Wax-Universal-Toilet-Seal-7530P24/205762183

 

Yep, that's the one.  I also believe that there is no real difference between the flange on an RV and a S & B so it should work on either.  The rubber seal usually used in an RV is because of the normal heat the RV is exposed to during some storage cycles.  Wax does NOT like that!