How would you mount the toilet?

[Rockinar]

35 year old boat with House of Horrors head.

Working on making guest friendly again.


Pulled the nasty decades old Groco out and bought a new Lavac for it. Looking for ideas on how to mount it on the platform. Lavac is just a simple 4 hole square pattern. Im not sure what's under this fiberglass platform. I suspect just some rotten old plywood. Groco toilet was screwed down with wood screws. When I removed the screws, the screw threads pulled up what appeared the rotten wood under it. But, I really have no idea what's under it.


My thoughts:

1) Cut out a section of the glass, remove rotten wood, replace with fresh wood and 4 stainless bolts countersunk upwards. Re-glass over it, paint.

2) Sand off top paint (gelcoat?), glass on a 3/4" piece of plywood on top with countersunk bolts, paint. That will raise the seat 3/4". Not sure if that's a good idea or not.


Im just fishing for ideas who might have other ideas. I want it strong like bull.

[HeinSdL]

On reading the title of this thread I had my answer ready!

But reading the post I can only say, this looks a complex repair, probably requiring some kind of cutting out the whole lot and starting anew. That rotten wood needs to come out in any case and hence therefore also the fibreglass. Unless there is access from below, somehow.

[tkeithlu]

I like option number one. Perhaps start by cutting a hole in the top big enough to allow feeling around underneath to determine the extent of the rot. Your goal is a 35 year repair.

[Pete7]

In addition to cutting out the rotten top, you will also need an access hatch in the front wall to get your hand in and hold the nuts tight when you clamp down the new heads. Perhaps 4 or 5" with one of those little dinghy hatch covers to make it look neat afterwards.

Replace the pipes whilst your at it too.

Pete

[wsmurdoch]

Before I bought my boat, it appears that a Groco Type K was replaced by a Lavac, and that the Lavac was later replaced by another Groco Type K. As a result there is a polished ~1/4"x8"x8" stainless steel plate under the toilet base with four threaded holes used to mount the current Groco in place. The plate is caulked in place and bolted to the fiberglass under the toilet with four stainless carriage bolts. The plate spreads the toilet's load over a wider area and covers the Swiss-cheese-like holes in the fiberglass. An access plate like Pete7 mentions covers a rectangular hole cut in the front wall under the toilet and is made from a rectangle of starbrite held in place with four screws and rounded off on all four sides with a quarter round router bit. The access plate allows inspection of the space under the toilet as well as access to the carriage bolt nuts.

Bill