Was: Standard Modernus (Nick2000's thread)

[jimmyangst]

I may have jumped the gun with my questions about replacing the bowl on a Standard Modernus-- plus I kinda hijacked Nick2000's thread on his repair questions (btw, Nick, I'm envious of YOUR problem!!!)
Can't make it to my folks house tonight to measure the closet this toilet's located in. Will do tomorrow.
Two quick questions for The Gurus amongst us:

1) is the drain flange on a Standard Modernus indeed much farther forward than the flange on a "modern" two-bolt commode?

2) and, if the answer to #1 YES, how much farther forward would the front of a "modern" toilet set? The seat front is already uncomfortably close to the sink (a matching pedestal style...) If the answer to #1 is NO, then I'm headed to HD & buy a toilet!

...I really want to get SOME sort of flusher installed by week's end; my mom's currently unable to get upstairs to the regular bathroom & is reliant on a porta pot (yuck!!!) I'll be out of town all next week for work, so even a temporary or "rigged" solution this week would be better than the portapot!

Thanks to all who've provided suggestions already! Y'all are fast!

Best,

Jim B.

 

[Jadnashua]

Didn't someone say there were 4-bolts? Only two are connected to the flange, the others are extra insurace and hold it to the floor. Not needed on a conventional, new toilet. So, it is probably the back bolts that are attached to the flange. So, measure from those to the wall and see what you get. To be safe, you could remove the toilet and then measure. If it's nominally 12" from the center of the drain to the wall, then any stock 12" rough-in toilet should fit. Depends on the toilet how much space there is behind, but it could be anywhere from nearly nothing (rare) to over an inch. It depends on the model and brand.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[jimmyangst]

Jadnashua,
Yeah, it has 4 bolts-- thing is, it's a 193X-194X low tank (with a big brass ell attaching the wall-mounted tank to the bowl) toilet. 2" dia ell, runs ~4" down from the bottom of the tank and ~4" horizontally into the back of the bowl (measurements ~from center of pipe runs) Bottom line is, with this old specimen it's minimum 12" just to the back of the bowl from the wall-- the flange, *I'm told*, is situated at the front of the bowl, placing it ~22" minimum from the wall. I'm getting my info from my dad, who's an old coot and who generally knows what he's talking about-- in this instance I'd be REALLY glad to prove him wrong for once!

We haven't pulled the toilet up to inspect/ measure the innards & connection 'cause there's no shutoff-- we'll have to turn off water at the street since this connection Ts off before the theoretical "main" inside shutoff. Push comes to shove I'll wrestle in there and pull the (odd sized, antique, corroded) chrome-plated ~1/2" pipe that runs from the floor to the tank, and replace it with a standard shutoff valve & flex pipe, then investigate the mysteries of (what my dad tells me) is a 4" drain with matching 4" flange. It'd just be nice to knock out as much of it as possible in 1 fell swoop; I'll have to borrow a key from a buddy to reach the street valve. The same line feeds cold water to the upstairs (and only other) bathroom in the house, so whatever I do has to be done within 1 day's work or we've got serious liveability problems for my folks. I'm in alien territory here, since all the pots I've done (bearing in mind I'm not a real plumber by any means!) have been 1-3 hour jobs including lunch breaks and emergency trips to the Home Despot for widgets!

 

[Jadnashua]

I'd shut off the water and install a stop valve. Then you'd have time to think. Sounds like you'd have the thing sitting way out in the middle of the room if you didn't move the flange.

 

[jimmyangst]

I'd shut off the water and install a stop valve. Then you'd have time to think. Sounds like you'd have the thing sitting way out in the middle of the room if you didn't move the flange.

Yep, it's a real corksocker! Killing the water and putting in the valve is even a bit scary--since all the work is at least 60-70 yrs old, anything can happen. My line (from best to worst scenario) is 1) cut existing 1/2 line, install compression fitting and valve, then attach flex pipe (assumes the existing pipe will accommodate regular compression fitting)

2) remove existing 1/2" chrome plated brass line from the main, galvanized T it fits into & replace with flex pipe

3) replace entire run of pipe & install union with existing pipe (giant mess asking for trouble!

To really, truly and correctly solve this issue would involve replacing the whole system; I don't have the time to do that, and my folks don't have the money to hire it out. Kinda sucks to think about; on the brighter side, I'm rewiring the place (replacing knob n tube) and will have that wrapped up by the weekend. Electric is easy compared to plumbing!

 

[Kingsotall]

Electric is easy compared to plumbing!

Shhhhh!!! The sparky forum is downwind from us.....

 

[hj]

toilet

The opening in the floor has nothing to do with the Modernus toilet. With a wall hung tank and a flush ell almost any dimesion could be accomodated by just cutting the flush ell to fit. The only way to decide the answer to your question is to measure to the rear bolts and determine the size of toilet you need.

 

[Peterson]

The flange on those toilets is NOT situated in the front of the bowl. It is in the back of the bowl. What you need to do is measure the distance from the back set of floor bolts to the finished wall. That will give you the rough-in of the toilet bowl. It should either be 14", 12" or 10". Do NOT measure from the front set of bolts back to the finished wall. The front set of bolts are only extra bolts that go directly into the floor to secure the bowl. They do NOT go into the flange.