Download Article Download Article The typically narrow space around your toilet can make working on it a chore. It’s a good thing most toilet seats can be removed easily by unfastening their connecting nuts and bolts. Should the hardware fastening your seat resist your best efforts, detach the stubborn seat with a socket set, a hacksaw, or a drill.
- 1 Open the bolt caps to gain access to the seat fasteners, if necessary. These are located at the back of the seat, where the seat hinges. Some toilets may not have plastic covers for the bolts. If yours does, open these covers by prying upwards on them with your finger or a screwdriver.
Use light pressure when opening the bolt covers. Generally, it takes little pressure to open these, and using too much force may cause damage to them.
- 2 Grip the nut fastening the bolt firmly. You should find a nut screwed onto the threaded end of each bolt. Some nuts may have a shape similar to a wingnut, allowing you to hold it in place by hand. If you have a weak grip, the nut is not wingnut-shaped, or the nut is stuck, try gripping it with a pair of pliers or vice grips.
The fasteners of your toilet seat may be plastic. Use light to moderate pressure when removing plastic hardware to keep it from breaking or deforming.
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- 3 Unfasten the bolts with the appropriate tool.
How do I know which Ideal Standard toilet I have?
Three things are needed in order to identify your toilet: 1.The brand 2.The number 3.The color. The brand : Look under the water tank lid (on the bottom); on the inside walls of the tank; on the bowl between the bolts attaching the seat. Disregard names on the seat as they are seldom the same brand as the toilet.
- The number: Look under the water tank lid (on the bottom), or on the inside walls of the tank.* The number on the lid may or may not be the same as the in the tank or the number of the complete toilet model.
- On some pre-1940’s toilets with wall mounted tanks, the number may stamped on the outside back and therefore not visible when installed.
The color: Online color samples are very risky for determining a correct color name. Please study the Colors Information page to learn about color names. Or go directly to the Color ID Service page. If your toilet has numbers but no name, email us, We often know which numbers are what brand and we can guide you onto the right product page.
How do you remove top fix toilet seat fittings?
- I have the job of trying to remove the fittings for an existing soft-close, top-fix, toilet seat. The problem is that I cannot get the 2 existing bungs and one stubborn machine screw out of the holes in the porcelain. The screw just goes round and round in the hole – it won’t unscrew out and it won’t tighten either, for that matter). Is there a particular technique for removing: (a) both of the rubber bungs and,in particular, (b) a machine screw that seems to have its thread broken? I attach 4 photographs showing the position as it is now. I have already tried WD40 and have also tried applying pressure against the washer from under the screw whilst continuing to try to unscrew it from above, but without success. Someone previously suggested to me cutting the head off the screw but surely that would make the matter even worse as everything else would still be left in the hole.
I imagine this is not the first time someone has had this problem. Anyone got any ideas that might help? As a DIYer I have never come across these type of fittings before and do not even know what is actually inside the 2 holes in the porcelain – all I can see is some rubber at the top and apparently a metal thread deeper down.
Many thanks, Dave The top of the ” bung” is a wider diameter than all below. The screw threads into a cone shaped nut,which is captive within the bung. When turning the screw clockwise it draws the coned nut up thus expanding the rubber bung,which grips the inside of the hole in the pan.
