How to Rough-In a Toilet Bowl
Before you can install a toilet, you must screw a closet flange to the sub-floor and connect it to the waste line. The term for this is "roughing-in," and it usually refers to the entire toilet. Since the bowl and tank come separately, though, it can also refer to only the bowl, since that is the part of the toilet that connects to the waste line. Before you rough-in a toilet, contact the building department for your city or county to be sure that local regulations permit you to do your own rough-ins. Does this Spark an idea?
Things You'll Need
- Tape measure
- Closet flange
- Reciprocating saw
- 1-inch No. 10 screws, 3
- 3- or 4-inch ABS waste fitting
- ABS cement
- 3- or 4-inch ABS waste pipe
- Hacksaw
- 2 sanitary tees
- 2-inch ABS pipe
Instructions
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1
Measure the location of the hole for the toilet in the floor with a tape measure and mark the center of the hole with a pencil. The hole must be located far enough from the back wall to give the toilet tank clearance when the toilet is in position. For a standard toilet, this distance is 12 inches.
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2
Place the pipe on the bottom of a closet flange on the floor and position it so it's centered over the mark. Draw the outline of the pipe with a pencil, and then cut out the outline with a reciprocating saw to make a hole.
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3
Insert the pipe of the flange through the hole and push the flange down until it's seated on the floor. Screw it down with three 1-inch No. 10 screws, which are usually supplied with the flange.
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4
Glue a 3- or 4-inch ABS waste fitting to the flange pipe in the floor underneath the toilet with ABS cement. The fitting you need depends on the configuration of the framing underneath the toilet, the location of the sewer pipe, and the size of the flange pipe. Use a straight coupler if you can run the waste line directly down to the sewer and an offset or angled fitting if you need to change the direction of the waste line to meet the sewer or a vertical waste stack coming from another toilet.
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5
Glue lengths of 3- or 4-inch ABS waste pipe together to form a waste line that runs to the sewer or the vertical stack coming from another toilet.
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6
Cut into the sewer line or the vertical waste stack with a hacksaw and install a sanitary tee at the point where the toilet waste line intersects it. Use a reducing tee if the sewer or waste stack is larger than the waste line from the new toilet. Glue the tee to the sewer or waste stack with ABS cement so that the inlet is facing the toilet waste line.
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Glue the waste line from the toilet to the inlet of the sanitary tee with ABS cement.
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8
Vent the toilet waste line if you are not connecting to a vented sewer or waste stack. Glue a sanitary tee with a 2-inch outlet into the line and extend 2-inch ABS pipe from the tee, angle it upwards, and route it through the roof to terminate as an opening that extends 1 foot above the roof line.
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Tips & Warnings
If your sewer pipe or waste stack is made of cast iron, you can still cut through it with a hacksaw. Connect the plastic pipe to it with a rubber sanitary tee made for connecting plastic to cast-iron pipes.
References
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
