VicPlum Toilet Pan needs re-positioning - how to secure to floor after move

[JimboMarimbo]

New toilet pan with a cistern-concealing 'cupboard' recently installed. Due to my careless mistake the 'cupboard' when it arrived was over a foot deep and in the restricted space available this only left a few inches between the front end of the seat and the wall. My bad. I put up with the installation for a few months, but with no leg-room it became clear that this was a no-no.

I decided to temporarily remove the 'cupboard' releasing <13 inches of space! That's 8 usable inches after allowing for the slim 5 inch cistern. Fine. I can cut down the 'cupboard' and re-install it, once the toilet pan has been shifted back <8 inches or so.

Just remove the pan securing screws and shove the whole thing along, then re-secure, yes?
Problem is, the toilet pan is not screwed vertically down into the floor.
There is a hole each side thru the porcelain for a long self-tapper screw which locates in an angled hard plastic bracket, which has been pre-bolted to the floor.
I can remove the screws and shove the pan along a small distance, but soon the brackets prevent any further movement.

I'd have liked to lift away the pan, unbolt the brackets and reposition them, but the guy who did the installation had to use about three tubes of silicone in order to get a good seal between the corrugated waste tube and the vertical waste exit. And I am reluctant to disturb his good work.

The brackets being the problem, I'd thought I could easily tilt the pan on each side and just anglegrind the bolt fixings off. The pan would then slide into the new position - as long as the concertina waste pipe is happy to be squashed up that much.

But how to screw the pan to the floor. I've tried long 120mm screws inserted thru the side holes but they do not droop enough to get any purchase on the timber ply flooring; the angle of the holes in the porcelain is not enough, set as it is at around 90degrees.

If you will forgive this long post - I would be very grateful for another head to think this through.

 

[Doggit]

Can you get an angle grinder in there to grind off the head of the bolt, and then the screw after you've released the bracket. Or can you get hold of a reciprocating saw with a met blade. Those brackets pretty hard, so as long as you're careful, it should survive. If it doesn't, go and see VicPlum for a spare pare, or try your local plumber merchant

 

[JimboMarimbo]

Thanks for that. It got me thinking.
I could angle-grind off the two bolts on the plastic supports. And throw them away.
Then at the wall end, drill and bolt down two 2x4 timber 15" long pieces going length-wise.
With no plastic or bolts in the way, slide back the pan to my best postion.
Big screws into the timber. Pan secure.
Thank you.

 

[Doggit]

You could use the wood, but if you ruin the existing brackets, I'd try and get a new pair. The trick on the plastic brackets is that you lightly screw the brackets to the pan, and use a bit of blue tack or similar underneath the brackets, then when you drop the pan in place, you can gently unscrew the brackets from the pan, take the pan away, and then fix down the brackets. And when you finally fix the pan in place, the bracket it'll bend slightly at the corner to give you a tight fit.

 

[JimboMarimbo]

Doggit - that's a super tip. I was wondering how to accurately align the replacement out-of-sight brackets, let alone screw them down in an impossible tight access gap.
Blu-Tac to the rescue! Who knew?

 

[Doggit]

Sorry, should have added double sided tape sometimes works better depending on the floor surface. Best of luck

 

[Elkato531]

I'd have liked to lift away the pan, unbolt the brackets and reposition them, but the guy who did the installation had to use about three tubes of silicone in order to get a good seal between the corrugated waste tube and the vertical waste exit. And I am reluctant to disturb his good work.

There should be no need to use loads of silicon to make a seal here. I suspect it is hiding a bodge up. Rip it out, remove the pan, re-position floor brackets and use correct fittings to join pan to soil pipe without the need for silicon.

 

[JimboMarimbo]

You are so right Elkato. Moving the pan around a bit, the whole silicone joint came adrift.
I got the local professional in, who confirmed it as a monster bodge-up.
Replacing the rubbish concertina with a solid 90 degrees cut-to-size solid jobby, which slotted into the vertical soil pipe exit, it allowed him to move the whole pan 8" back to the wall, after he had lifted and unscrewed the brackets.
Brilliant! He said no need for brackets, and applied a good bead of silicone to the solid floor, instructing me to leave 24 hours before using.
He said the silicone would provide a hugely strong pan-to-floor adhesion as good any bracketed screw job, but suggested I might like reach behind and drop in a couple of laminate-ply-concrete masonry screws to prevent any possibility of rotational movement. This I will do when the silicone has set.
In the meantime - here's the finished result, prior to having a cut-down cabinet replaced. 17" legroom - Yay!!