I convinced myself yesterday that I have the ability to rebuild my toilets from the wax ring up. I replaced some of tank parts in the past at my first house, but never have progressed to taking the tank off of the bowl. The only things that scare me are the two bolts on the tank/bowl and replacing of the wax ring and bolts on the floor. The bolts on the floor really bother me because I don't know how they are attached to the floor and they are probably severly rusted. Hopefully I'll get over these fears once I've been able to get everyone out of the house for a few hours. My plan is to work on only one toilet at a time, taking each one entirely apart, laying out all of the parts on the floor on a plastic bag, then figuring out what parts & sizes I need and then putting it back together.
The toilets are American Standard and are 19 years old. Aside from the flappers, I am sure everything is original. It is black city in the tank from the decay of rubber parts. I need some advice on some brand names which hold up. I see that the big box hardware stores sell many different brands and types, ranging from in expensive to moderately expensive. The big box store is an easy way to go, but I wanted to get some comments on which parts/companies to avoid. Or maybe I should just avoid the big box stores and purchase the parts somewhere else. Any advice would be appreciated.
Wade