I hadn’t planned to spend this evening on DIY but the toilet seat cracked and so it needed replacing. First task: remove the cracked seat.

Unfortunately this hit various snags. Firstly, our toilet has a design where you can’t easily reach under to access fittings but you have to squeeze into a tight gap and reach round and back and up. I figured out a way to connect a small torch to a small mirror so I could see what was going on under there but, of course, reaching in obscured the view.

I’m also used to toilet seats with a large nut to hold onto underneath; this one has a small, square nut in a metal fitting. Perhaps there is a technique to it but, couple with the difficulty of access, I couldn’t figure it out. After various attempts with fingers and mole grips, I resorted to working up a 3D design and printing it out. Several iterations were needed as I couldn’t easily measure but I ended up with a piece that helped remove one of the screws by allowing me to hold it underneath while Jane used our impact driver at the top.

Alas, the head rounded off on the other side and so the rest of the evening was spent working on drilling the screw out. That’s still not done so I probably need to get a new drill bit for metal. I was working slowly and taking plenty of breaks to cool things off but it is taking far too long.

We probably won’t aim to replace the whole toilet but I will certainly be looking at the fixings on the replacement seat and trying to find something that will be easier to deal with.