Often when you go to the toilet and sit down to do your business, the toilet seat keeps shifting to another side, making you uncomfortable.
Tightening the nuts won’t work and you keep wondering, “why my toilet seat keeps breaking?”
Other than the loose nuts, the material of the toilet seat, its wearing limits, or even its capability to hold the weight of people also might cause the toilet seats to keep breaking often.
So, let’s see a possible list of what can cause your toilet seats to break and what their fixes are.
Common Problems of Toilet Seat Breaking
If your toilet isn’t securely connected to the floor, you could be in for some problems. The wax seal is damaged by any movement of the toilet.
This results in leakage and, eventually, costly repairs.
To save yourself from these heavy damages and repair costs, you must know the root of the problems causing your toilet to seats to break or crack easily even after repairing it on your own a few days back.
- Soft Close Toilet Seat Keeps Coming Loose
You would often find that your toilet seats are wobbly and shifting to another side when you try to sit on them. This might happen due to the loose nuts and bolts that connect your toilet seat with the surface of your toilet.
The nuts often get loose because of frequent uses or maybe the quality of the nuts is not good. Some people use plastic nuts, which can also be a reason.
So, using metallic nuts can work like a charm. Another reason for the soft-close toilet seats to keep coming loose can be the harsh use of the toilet and not maintaining it properly after use.
- Toilet Seat Can’t Hold the Weight
Usually, the limit for a good toilet seat is always 300 pounds. And because they’re not meant to handle all kinds of squirming, even from lightweight users, most toilets in many business buildings contain cracks.
The toilet seats are also mishandled when being lifted and put back in a harsh manner. This makes the cracks in the toilet seats.
Other than the discomfort and unpleasant feeling, the cracks or breaks of the toilet seats are also harmful as the cracked pieces can hurt you or cause cuts. It is unhygienic as many people use the same toilet.
- Nuts and Bolts of the Toilet Seats are Corroded
Nuts and bolts are used to attach or fasten the toilet seats with the toilets. These nuts and bolts can be corroded or rusted to some point where fixing them becomes hard.
Sometimes they become so rusted that it is beyond repair.
Take a look at those nuts and bolts attaching to your toilet seats and see what material they are made of. Pry open the seat cover of the toilet to see the nuts and bolts.
If they are made of plastic, it won’t take you much time to take them out. But metal nuts and bolts that are rusted might not come out as easily as the plastic ones.
If the condition of the nuts and bolts is too worse to get repaired, then you might have to replace them all before they start damaging other parts of the toilet, which would cost another handsome amount of money to get repaired.
So, it is best to keep a check on these whenever you get time.
Another thing you can do is use the plastic ones if you think your toilet gets mushy very quickly and metal nuts and bolts would get corroded easily.
How To Fix A Toilet Seat That Keeps Falling?
Now that you know the possible reasons for your toilet seats to break let’s move on to some fixes you can do at home and save some bucks.
Most of the problems often lead to some repair costs and need you to bring a plumber to help but you can also prevent it from happening in the first place.
Before moving on to the possible fixes, make sure you have some things close to your hand which would help you repair the toilet seats.
- Pliers
- Wrenches
- Toilet seat tightening kit
- Screwdriver
Now, let’s get into the action!
- Tightening the Toilet Seats
Tightening the toilet seats is very simple if you know the steps and have done it earlier or watched someone do it. At first, find the nuts and bolts which are connecting your toilet seat with the toilet surface.
Just lift up your toilet seat and you will find the hinges. Now take your pliers or wrenches to tighten the loose hinges. Find which one needs tightening and start to do your job.
You will also find some toilet seat tightening kits in the market, which are also very handy. They come with a whole manual on how to repair and fix the toilet seats with minimal problems.
Although the kit would cost you a bit much, we will recommend you to take it if you are a beginner and learning to do your job.
- Replacing Corroded Nuts and Bolts
Sometimes the nuts and bolts are too corroded to be repaired that they need good replacements.
At first, check your hinges and see if the nuts and bolts are too corroded or not.
If they actually need a replacement, then just bring out your tools and kits and unscrew all the nuts and bolts and replace them with the new ones.
While replacing, remember to consider if you would want to keep using the metal nuts and bolts or to replace them with plastic ones. Both kinds of nuts and bolts have their pros and cons.
So, try to figure out which ones would suit your necessities the most and replace them accordingly.
You should also be careful while choosing the nuts and bolts. They come in different sizes. So, take an old nut and bolt with you to the shop to match the sizes and then buy the new ones.
After replacing them, make sure to tighten them properly so that they don’t get loosened easily.
- Replacing Toilet Seats
Now, this is a big issue. Sometimes, your toilet seats might be too broken that you won’t have any other option than to replace the entire toilet seat that won’t move. This happens when you have big cracks or breaks.
You cannot simply fix them with glues and fillings. The cracked parts might get you injured as well.
So, it is better to replace the toilet seats other than having heath threats. You might want to call an expert plumber to help you replace it if you have not done it before.
Also, before buying a new toilet seat, make sure it fits with your toilet and also has a good capacity of holding 300-400 pounds.
Even better if you buy the ones with a capacity of holding 1200 pounds or more. They might cost you a bit more, but they are also worth buying.
Watch this video if you want to replace the seat altogether.
Final Words
We often neglect the maintenance of the toilet seats, and the toilet seat keeps breaking. So, now that you know what causes the toilet seats to break, be sure to avoid all those problems and save yourself some money.