I'm Ricky Cox, master plumber with Sewer Studs Plumbing & Drain. A skirted toilet doesn't mount like a regular toilet — there's no pair of exposed bolts at the base to work with, because the skirt covers the sides of the bowl. The toilet secures to a bracket that bolts down to the floor first, and then the bowl screws in from the side. This video walks the whole swap: removing the old toilet, the two repairs that turned up once it was out, and setting the new skirted toilet in its place.

Step One: Prep the Area and Turn the Water Off

Step one is getting all your tools into the area and prepping it: drop cloth down, shop vac ready, hand tools at hand.

Then turn the water off to the toilet at the angle stop valve underneath it. On this job the pipe is old CPVC, so the move is to grab the valve and turn it nice and slow until it's all the way off. Old CPVC doesn't get rushed.

Once the water is off, flush the toilet, then take the shop vac and suck all the water out of the tank and all the water out of the bowl. A dry toilet is a cleaner, lighter pull.

Step Two: Remove the Closet Bolts and the Supply Line

With the tank and bowl empty, loosen and remove the closet bolts at the base of the toilet — two bolts, one on each side. I use a pair of small channel locks to loosen them and remove the nut from each bolt. After that, remove the supply line from the toilet, and the toilet can be pulled off its base.

If you run into the problem where the bolts spin and the nut won't come off, there's a special tool made for exactly that: it inserts onto the bolt and holds it still, so you can work the nut off with your pliers. One bolt on this job fought like that — tricky angle — but with the bolt held, the nut came off and the toilet was free.

Step Three: Lift the Old Toilet Out

This toilet had been grouted in, so it took a little wiggling back and forth to break it loose. The easiest way to lift one out: step over the toilet, grab it by the underside of the bowl, rock it up, lift, walk backwards, and set it down.

That leaves the closet flange exposed — the part that sits underneath the toilet. Strip the old wax off the flange and get the grout off, so you can see what you're really working with.

Step Four: Fix What the Pull Exposed — a Flange Sitting Way Too High

Cleaning this one up turned up a problem: the flange was way too high off the floor. A flange sitting too high won't let the new toilet set right, so this flange had to be cut out and replaced.

While the toilet was out, the angle stop got changed out too — the same valve I'd had to baby on the way off. Both repairs happen at this point in the job, while everything is open and reachable. If your flange problem is bolts that spin or a ring that won't hold, our PVC toilet flange replacement guide walks through cutting an old flange out and gluing a new one in.

Step Five: Set the Wax Ring, the Closet Bolts, and the Mounting Bracket

With the flange repaired and the angle stop changed, the install starts: set the wax ring and the closet bolts, then install the mounting bracket — the contraption that comes in the box with a skirted toilet.

And here is the step that matters more than it sounds: read your instructions. I don't care how long you've been a plumber — it's always important to read your instructions when you're doing something you haven't done a thousand times. I've done this install a hundred times, and that's exactly why I'm reading the instructions on this one.

The bracket works like this:

The bracket goes over the wax ring and sets down in place.
It bolts down to the floor — this is how the toilet gets secured.
The toilet then sets over it and screws in from the side.

I tightened the bracket down to the floor and got it all ready before the toilet ever came off the ground.

Step Six: Set the Toilet and Bolt Down the Sides

Now for the fun part: lift the toilet — an extremely heavy toilet — and set it down on its flange in one motion. Don't do this at home, kids.

Once she's set in place, bolt down the sides, and the job is done: the old toilet out, the flange sitting at the right height, a new angle stop, and a skirted toilet set solid on its bracket.

Why the Repairs in the Middle Are the Real Job

On paper this was a toilet swap. In the room it was a toilet swap plus a flange replacement plus an angle stop — and neither repair was optional. The flange height decides whether the new toilet can set and seal at all, and a tired angle stop is the valve you'll need the day something leaks. Pulling a toilet is also how you find out whether an old install was sound in the first place: our guide to fixing a rocking, wobbly toilet starts with a flange that turned out to be fine and bolts that had never been anchored — and our toilet pull and reset vlog from Carrollwood shows the same pull-and-inspect approach on a real job.

Thinking About a Toilet Swap at Your House?

A skirted install is one piece of toilet work. Our fixture installation page covers how we handle toilet installs and the change-order items that can surface once a toilet is pulled — the flange and the angle stop are exactly that kind of item, and both showed up on this job. If the problem is smaller — a running toilet, a flush that isn't right — start with small plumbing repairs, and if your toilet uses a pressure-assist flush, our pressure-assist cartridge guide walks through that fix. This job was in Land O' Lakes — see our Land O' Lakes plumber page — and we serve homeowners across Tampa Bay, including Tampa.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a skirted toilet attach to the floor if there are no bolts showing at the base?

Through the mounting bracket that comes in the box with the toilet. The bracket goes over the wax ring, sets down in place, and bolts down to the floor — that bracket is how the toilet gets secured. The toilet then sets over it and screws in from the side, which is why no bolt caps show at the base.

What do you do when a closet bolt just spins and the nut won't come off?

Use the tool made for it: it inserts onto the bolt and holds the bolt still, so the nut can be worked off with pliers. One of the two bolts on this job spun exactly like that before it came free.

The flange sat too high — why not just set the new toilet on it anyway?

Because the flange is what the toilet sets and seals on. This one was way too high off the floor, so it was cut out and replaced before the new toilet went anywhere near it.

Why turn an old CPVC angle stop so carefully?

Because it's old CPVC. On this job I grabbed the valve and turned it nice and slow until it was all the way off — and the angle stop still got changed out while the toilet was pulled, while it was easy to reach.

You've installed skirted toilets before — why read the instructions on camera?

Because the mounting system is the part you don't improvise. If you're doing something you haven't done a thousand times, read your instructions. I've done this one a hundred times, so I read them.

Ready to Talk About Your Toilet?

If you want a skirted toilet installed — or the old one is rocking, leaking at the base, or due for replacement — we'll give you a straight answer and a firm quote. Call Sewer Studs Plumbing & Drain at (813) 680-2284, Monday through Friday, 8 AM to 5 PM.

Install a Skirted Toilet (Step-by-Step): Pull the Old Toilet, Fix a Too-High Flange, Set It on Its Bracket