After a couple week delay due to warehouse shipping errors, I received my Toto Entrada toilet last night and installed it today.
I noticed the instructions with the toilet covered the Drake models and several other similar toilets in the Toto line as well as the Entrada.
I read the thread here: Installing a Toto Drake CST744 or CST454CEFG 2-piece toilet written by Jamie Love. This helped as a refresher for a DIYer who has installed toilets roughly once every 9 years and also showed unique to Toto tips and some good general tips. The most misleading thing on that thread is that the install will take 5 minutes! Maybe for a plumber who installs a few of these almost every day, but for a DIYer lacking confidence it took over two hours including several trips to the basement and around the house to find different tools.
The best advice on the thread, and on other treads I've read here, is to use composite door shims to steady the toilet. I did this on a dry fit before putting the wax on and taped the shims to the floor and also put tape down to mark where the edges of the toilet were when I steadied it.
The hardest part of the install for me was sawing off the end of the bolts, after fastening down the bowl, in order to fit the white caps over them. TIP: If I did the install over I'd mark or measure these when I did the dry fit and then take them out to trim the length before adding the wax ring for the final bowl install. It would have been so much easier cutting them in a vice with a regular hacksaw instead of a short saw while they were fasted in.
The thing I obsessed over the most before the install, other than which toilet to buy, was the wax/waxless issue and which one. I ended up calling Fluidmaster and they recommended a thick reinforced wax ring over the waxless rings once I told them my flange was roughly even with the top of my new tile floor and slightly out of level (1/4" shift from high to low).
For those who are interested here is a photo level with the base of the toilet with a ruler showing the hight of the edge of the toilet and the extra thick wax ring with horn:
I also obsessed a little about the existence of the built in plastic horn since I've read some things on this forum, and other online forums, that these could interfere with the water flow out of the toilet. Once I put the was ring on I think these fears were pretty unfounded as the diameter of the horn was quite a bit wider than the outlet horn on the toilet as you can see in this photo:
Well that's it. I want to thank Terry Love for the great information he shares and for maintaining this website and to everyone else who has shared their knowledge, thoughts and experiences here.
I noticed the instructions with the toilet covered the Drake models and several other similar toilets in the Toto line as well as the Entrada.
I read the thread here: Installing a Toto Drake CST744 or CST454CEFG 2-piece toilet written by Jamie Love. This helped as a refresher for a DIYer who has installed toilets roughly once every 9 years and also showed unique to Toto tips and some good general tips. The most misleading thing on that thread is that the install will take 5 minutes! Maybe for a plumber who installs a few of these almost every day, but for a DIYer lacking confidence it took over two hours including several trips to the basement and around the house to find different tools.
The best advice on the thread, and on other treads I've read here, is to use composite door shims to steady the toilet. I did this on a dry fit before putting the wax on and taped the shims to the floor and also put tape down to mark where the edges of the toilet were when I steadied it.
The hardest part of the install for me was sawing off the end of the bolts, after fastening down the bowl, in order to fit the white caps over them. TIP: If I did the install over I'd mark or measure these when I did the dry fit and then take them out to trim the length before adding the wax ring for the final bowl install. It would have been so much easier cutting them in a vice with a regular hacksaw instead of a short saw while they were fasted in.
The thing I obsessed over the most before the install, other than which toilet to buy, was the wax/waxless issue and which one. I ended up calling Fluidmaster and they recommended a thick reinforced wax ring over the waxless rings once I told them my flange was roughly even with the top of my new tile floor and slightly out of level (1/4" shift from high to low).
For those who are interested here is a photo level with the base of the toilet with a ruler showing the hight of the edge of the toilet and the extra thick wax ring with horn:
I also obsessed a little about the existence of the built in plastic horn since I've read some things on this forum, and other online forums, that these could interfere with the water flow out of the toilet. Once I put the was ring on I think these fears were pretty unfounded as the diameter of the horn was quite a bit wider than the outlet horn on the toilet as you can see in this photo:
Well that's it. I want to thank Terry Love for the great information he shares and for maintaining this website and to everyone else who has shared their knowledge, thoughts and experiences here.
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