DIY toilet projects are a major trend nowadays, with many homeowners looking for opportunities to take on new projects at home. As peoples’ skills and needs increase, they’re even looking to pursue DIY plumbing projects, which used to be frowned upon. However, many projects are actually much easier to complete at home than you may think. For example, installing a bidet toilet seat is a quick, convenient DIY project to consider.
In this article, we’ll go through a full guide for how to install a bidet toilet seat in your home today. Let’s now get into the details of setting up one yourself.
Installing a Bidet Toilet Seat – Preparations
Before purchasing your new bidet seat, there are a couple of features of your current toilet and bathroom that you’ll want to consider. Basically, you’ll need access to both water and electricity sources to power the bidet seat.
Water Access Checks
Bidet seats need to connect to a water supply valve, which could either be behind or alongside the toilet. Usually, it shouldn’t be hard to access the water supply valve, but it’s good to identify where the valve is and be sure you won’t have issues connecting to it before you try to install the seat.
Electricity Checks
Particularly if your new bidet seat includes features like warm water and air drying, you will need to connect it to a power source to use these features. For electricity connection, ensure that your bathroom has a GFCI-rated outlet, with a ‘test’ and ‘reset’ button. Do not worry about accidental shocks, as these outlets feature a circuit breaker to prevent this from happening.
If your bathroom outlet isn’t close to the toilet, you can use an extension cord to connect your seat to the outlet. However, be sure that any extension cord you use in the bathroom is grounded and certified for outdoor use.
Once you’ve verified both of these components in your bathroom, you’re ready to start installing your new bidet toilet seat.
Installation Tools for Installing a Bidet Toilet Seat
Before you begin the installation process, it’s helpful to gather all of the tools you’ll need throughout the process. There are a few main items you’ll need to have on hand, beyond the new bidet seat itself.
Screwdriver
We recommend using a multi-bit screwdriver, which will work with different types of mounting bolts. If you don’t have a multi-bit option available, you may need a few different options depending on the type of screws used for your bidet seat
Adjustable Wrench
Similar to the multi-bit screwdriver, an adjustable wrench will help you tighten any metal connection that you encounter. There may be multiple parts to tighten with different sizes, so using an adjustable wrench ensures you’ll be able to tighten everything with no problem
Towel, Rag, and Bucket
Especially when you’re disconnecting the toilet’s water supply hose, some water may spill. We recommend placing a bucket to catch the water, with an extra towel or rag also on hand for final cleanup.
Step-by-Step Install Guide
It’s now time to complete the 5 key steps to install a bidet toilet seat on your own:
1. Turn Off Toilet Water Supply
This step may seem obvious, but it is pretty easy to forget. However, trust us when we say that you wouldn’t want to deal with any leaks during the installation by forgetting to switch off the water supply. Luckily, cutting off the supply is quite easy.
First, locate the shutoff valve, which should be just behind the toilet, close to the floor. Once you’ve located the valve, turn it clockwise until it won’t turn anymore. Finally, flush the toilet to drain any water that may be remaining in the tank.
2. Remove Existing Toilet Seat
When you close your toilet’s current lid and seat, you will spot two caps just behind the seat. These caps cover the mounting holes for the bolts that hold the seat on the toilet. Use your screwdriver to flip the caps open so you can access the bolts to remove the seat.
Once the caps are open, you’ll see the bolt heads underneath which you can unscrew with your screwdriver. Then, when you’ve removed the bolts, lift the toilet seat off completely.
3. Install T-Valve – Toilet Current Supply Line
Your new bidet seat ought to have come with a T-valve, which gets its name from its ‘T’ shape. This gadget serves to divert water from the supply line to two places instead of one: the toilet and the bidet sprayer. To install the T-valve, start by unscrewing the supply hose from the bottom of the toilet’s tank. Be careful, because if there is any water in the tank, it may leak out, although most of the water should be drained from when you emptied the toilet before. This point is where the bucket and towel will be handy for dealing with any water.
After you’ve unscrewed the supply hose from the tank, you can then connect the T-valve in its place. Once you’ve connected the T-valve at the base of the tank, you can re-attach the supply hose on the bottom of the T-Valve. This step will allow your toilet to still have water while also providing a source of water for your bidet seat.
4. Mount New Bidet Seat
Next, slowly slide the bidet seat onto the mounting bracket on the toilet until it clicks into place. Then, conduct a quick wiggle test to ensure the seat doesn’t shift around. If the seat doesn’t feel like it’s firmly in place, you may need to remove it and tighten the mounting bracket further. Keep testing the seat until it feels firm and doesn’t shift around when you pressure test it.
5. Connecting Bidet Seat to Water Supply
After you’ve firmly secured your bidet seat to the toilet, the final step is connecting the water supply to the seat. This step is where you’ll use the second part of the T-valve you installed earlier. Basically, you’ll attach the available end of the T-valve directly to the bidet seat, which will connect your seat to the water supply hose.
Lastly, tighten up all the connections to make sure nothing feels loose. Then, you can restart the water supply by turning the knob counterclockwise. At this point, as long as there are no leaks, you should be good to go, ready to enjoy what your new bidet has to offer!
Our Opinion
As you can see, installing a bidet toilet seat is not as complicated as it may seem. With all the tools in place, you should be able to have your new seat installed within minutes. Especially if you invest in a high-quality unit, just a few minutes of work will lead to many years of use from your new bidet toilet seat.