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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

People keep breaking my toilet seats

89 replies

Menora · 19/01/2020 10:01

I am having a final straw moment AngryBlush

Is this just how toilet seats are? Or is everyone else inconsiderate?

My DC are small built but for some reason in every house we have ever lived in and every toilet they have somehow managed to break or skew the fixings of toilet seats. I have had to repair more toilet seats in my life than surely is normal

I have 2 toilets now that have fixings that you screw into the bowl and then you place the sweat on to 2 pegs. Whenever I go into the toilet and go to sit down, the toilet seat is loose. My mum does this to my toilet and my DC.

OP posts:
Original poster
Menora · 19/01/2020 10:02

Posted way too soon!

No matter how many times I fix the seats and sit down carefully on the seat, someone else seems to manage to make them come loose

A silly AIBU I am just fed up with repairing them Blush

OP posts:
plunkplunkfizz · 19/01/2020 10:05

I think they’re just not very well made these days. It can also be the position of your toilet. Is it near a wall? If so, people are likely sitting down from one angle each time and that puts strain on the bolts.

I’d look at the hardware and positioning before you start blaming your mum and children (because of course you using it daily couldn’t possibly be a contributing factor).

Original poster
Menora · 19/01/2020 10:12

I tighten it up and I am really the only person who uses the downstairs toilet during the week

The moment my mum comes over on the weekend the toilet seat will be loose again. And DC broke it again this morning. And none of them would ever think oh no I made or loose I had better fix it - they don’t even tell me so I go in there and just find the seat hanging off Angry

OP posts:
mrsbyers · 19/01/2020 10:22

Are you buying really cheap replacements ? Seems odd it keeps happening

RedRiverShore · 19/01/2020 10:26

This happens to our downstairs toilet but not on the upstairs one so I suspect it is the toilet rather than the seat. I usually get my toilet seats from Next in the sale so they are not particularly cheap ones and at the moment have a similar seat on both toilets, upstairs is fine but downstairs constantly goes on the skew.

Cornettoninja · 19/01/2020 10:27

We got a non-slip toilet seat in the end. www.argos.co.uk/product/3261956 This one and so far it hasn’t budged a mm so far fingers crossed.

You can get little rubber things to fix normal seats tighter.

Sympathies though, I don’t know what people do to loosen them but I’ve got a dodgy back so surprise toilet seat swivels are not welcome!

Pipandmum · 19/01/2020 10:31

Over time the fixings will come loose but unless someone very overweight is using your toilets if they are that problematic there's either something wrong with how you're fixing them, the quality of the seat, or maybe the toilet itself?

0blio · 19/01/2020 10:34

I have the seat that Cornettoninja linked to and definitely recommend it. I fitted it years ago and it hasn't moved at all.

PlanDeRaccordement · 19/01/2020 10:35

FIRST- a loose toilet seat is not a broken toilet seat. You are not repairing them, you are merely tightening the screws. Which is normal maintenance of an UNbroken toilet seat.

SECOND- don’t buy the cheapest seats. You’ll find the better quality ones will stay tight longer.

millymae · 19/01/2020 10:50

We had the same issue and went through quite a few seats, some more expensive than others, until it dawned on us that perhaps OH (who weighs a fair bit) was causing the problem by using the toilet with the lid down to sit on sideways (so not sitting as you normally would) to dry his feet when he came out of the shower.
He took the seat off, refitted it and now dries his feet elsewhere and we’ve not had to buy another one since, so it was obviously caused by his weight pulling on the fittings at the wrong angle and loosening them so the seat slipped.
My sister had a different problem, but hers needed the toilet bowl to be repositioned as it hadn’t been installed straight which meant that no matter how hard you tried to fit the seat it wouldn’t sit flush on the rim and moved every time anyone sat down.

Original poster
Menora · 19/01/2020 11:05

Broken as in the sense of unusable for the best person who needs to use the toilet until it’s repaired

Mum is very overweight but I would still never leave a toilet seat hanging off for the next person! DC have no excuse as a courtesy they could at least tell me

I have an usual toilet so it’s not a cheap seat - the fittings are what people keep making loose and also pulling it off the fixings (how I don’t even understand as this isn’t easy to do)

OP posts:
Original poster
Menora · 19/01/2020 11:06

Next person and the toilet is unusual!

OP posts:
Cornettoninja · 19/01/2020 11:08

Don’t be put off by the price of the one I linked. We’ve always bought ones in the £20-£30 range and when I was looking at this one I was expecting it to be broken quickly but honestly we’ve not had any problems at all with it.

Thestrangestthing · 19/01/2020 11:08

This keeps happening in my house too!! The last 2 I've had have fallen to the side everytime you sit on the toilet. I think dp is fitting them wrong. I'll do the next one.

Fallsballs · 19/01/2020 11:10

A bit of a drip feed there op - you never said your mother is “very overweight”. Tell her to piss in a bucket in future, she’s obviously breaking the bog.
What’s with MN and weight today ?

whattodo2019 · 19/01/2020 11:14

Are they plastic loo seats?
If so try the John Lewis wooden ones

Original poster
Menora · 19/01/2020 11:14

This is my toilet

People keep breaking my toilet seats
OP posts:
Original poster
Menora · 19/01/2020 11:15

Try again!

People keep breaking my toilet seats
OP posts:
Original poster
Menora · 19/01/2020 11:17

DM is overweight but DC are not, so it can’t just be weight related hence why I didn’t mention it in my OP!

OP posts:
crimsonlake · 19/01/2020 11:22

I hear you OP and have the same problem and it is nothing to do with cheap seats or being overweight. I now live on my own most of the time and it still happens and it is not all about the same toilet as I have moved several times over the years. My current expensive one which would not be 18 months old has been coming loose for many months despite being fitted by someone who is a perfectionist at every job they attempt.

easyandy101 · 19/01/2020 11:24

If it happens all the time then maybe you're not doing them up tight enough?

Wrapping some ptfe around the threads might make them hold a bit better, or nylon lined nuts that kinda deform as you tighten them

Purplemist · 19/01/2020 11:27

I used to have the same problem. I bought a Bemis stay tight ( STA-TITE ?) seat several years ago and it is still going strong.

Original poster
Menora · 19/01/2020 11:28

I’ve totally messed up now as to unscrew fitting completely you have no choice but to let the washer/stop drop through underneath the toilet and no way to get it back out. So now I have no toilet seat at all! I need a wall hung toilet seat

I’ve been tightening it up if it comes loose but the way mum and DC use toilets seems to be either plonking down hard or swinging around to reach toilet roll and it’s impossible to get a toilet seat to stay straight 😂

OP posts:
Nifflernancy · 19/01/2020 11:29

Is the toilet a rectangle shape?

bellabasset · 19/01/2020 11:30

Mine is the design of the seat, which is a toilet with a round seat that can be fitted at an angle, think around £100 to replace.

I'm going to replace the toilet!

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