Are all loos this wobbly?

[John Rumm]

Just finished installing the loo in my new shower room. One of B&Qs finest (Barcelona IIRC). I was rather surprised to find that the pan only has two screw fixings right at the back of its pedestal and nothing at all at the front. The (close coupled) cistern sits on the back of the pan and is attached by two feeble plastic wing nuts that are in a sufficiently inaccessible place as to be difficult to get much more than finger tight, and the cistern does not fix to anything. The net result is a loo not too far off being mobile!

Are they all this bad these days?

Anyway, having made sure there are no leaks between the close coupled bits, I have siliconed them together (at the same time as sealing the join between pan and cistern), and placed a couple of large blobs of silicone behind the cistern to fix it to the wall. Hopefully when that has set it should all feel a bit more rigid.

[mrcheerful]

There is a special socket to do up the wingnuts. My cistern bolts to the wall, the pan is bedded in mortar and screwed to the floor. Nothing moves.

mrcheerful

[wounded horse]

Must say I am surprised that the cistern doesn't fix to the wall. Done 3 recently and they all had holes in the back at the top to screw to the wall. Two screws through the pan should be ok but the screws need to be up to the job and in brass with rubber bushings to prevent the pan cracking around the hole. Is the floor wooden or concrete? Just recently i had to redo the cold cistern feed with a flexy as when the toilet was sat on the pan moved the close coupled cistern which moved the copper fed cold feed pipe from below and caused a leak Whole thing was too rigid even allwing a bit of movement on the cistern wall screws. The toilet should be solid and firm where you have fixed it. No problem on a chipboard or T&G floor but if on concrete, check that the rawlplugs are firm in their holes and that the screws are not bottoming in the plugs. If they are, redrill the holes deeper and replug and refit with the right screws. I would say that with only a 2 screw fixing, they need to be in the concrete at least 40mm so you will need

65-70mm screws. Make sure that they both go in at about 20 degrees inwards so the screwheads seat correctly in the recesses in the pan mounting holes. If the floor is not level you will need to pack the front underneath of the pan to level it up. Old marley tiles are ideal. Recheck for mounting holes inside the cistern because if it stays loose to the wall there is a risk of a leak at the doughnut seal especially if the connector kit is using plastic screws. Do not let the existing cold feed pipe - whatever form it takes - dictate where the toilet/cistern combination is fixed. Fix the toilet/cistern and then pipe to the underside for the cold inlet, modifying if necessary so that there is no strain at all on the tap connector/ball valve joint and the fibre washer has a chance. Have all plumbers stripped the thread on a brand new plastic valve trying to make the connection have it?!

[The Natural Philosopher]

I glued mine to the floor (tiles) with silicone. One screw was all that I could get to bite into teh unferlying chipboard...Solid as a rock.

[John Rumm]

So was I... but definetly no screw holes through the back of the cistern.

It came withc soft plastic bushes and slim 3" coach screws.

19mm chipboard suspended floor.

Its rigid pipework from the cistern to the floor, but then plastic barrier pipe under the floor (its in a loft conversion hence lots of joists to navigate over/under/through). So the pipe is able to move if it needs to.

Just checked last nights silicone fixing treatment, the whole affair does seem far more rigid now. I think with a bead of silicone round the perimiter of the cistern, then it will be as good as screwed ;-)