On Jun 13, 5:32*pm, "Colbyt" wrote:
"Tom" wrote in ....
I was in the living room when I heard a loud bang from the bathroom. There
was
a crack going from a bolt hole in the tank right up the side. Water was
spewing out the bottom. It was lucky that I was home.

After lots of reading, I've seen the following:

-you can seal it
-you shouldn't seal it, it will always have the danger of a leaking
disaster

-you can't use a modern tank as a replacement

-new toilets are apt to suffer from poor flushing and many models suffer
from
leaks -- unless I get some $500 Japanese model

I wish I could just replace or repair the tank, I'm not concerned about
looks
or anything. But it seems like replacing is the only option. The old
toilet is
maybe 1960s, 1970s? The house is 1950s.

So my question is: are there pitfalls awaiting in trying to put a new
toilet
where the old one had been? Will the bolts in the floor automatically
match
up? Will the old flange need replacing? Anything else? *Thanks.

Measure from the wall, not the baseboard, *to the flange bolts, the ones in
the floor. *If it is 11-1/4" to 12-1/2" any modern toilet you buy should
work fine.

You may also be able to score a free used tank by cruising around the day
before trash pickup.

To fully understand what you ate getting into I suggest this article:http://househomerepair.com/4-Replaci...-Part-One.html

Be glad to answer any follow-up questions you might have

--
Colbyt
Please come visithttp://www.househomerepair.com- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Judging by some of the initial questions the OP may not have much
experience?
However all home and do it your self repairers have to start
somewhere!
And almost every job one does one learns something and or stores away
info for next time somewhere in the future.

Sometimes it can be as detailed as "Remember the time we changed the
toilet and the section on end of the sewer pipe to which on attaches
the toilet base, had cracked ..............and we put longer
stainless steel bolts right down through the floor because we could
get at the underside? Gee; let's see now, it's worked that way for
what is it now six years?

Also btw keep a spare wax seal somewhere close by. Chances are that
next time toilet has to be taken up it'll be 10.30 PM on the last
business day before a long weekend! And if it's not you, it will a
neighbour or son in law who is desperately looking for one!

It's all part of owning your own home!!!!! In some 50+ years we have
had three toilets in two different homes with both septic tank and
municipal service. Considering the amount of use they get, they
require very little maintenance.