Fix for Broken Toilet Tank Lid

Have you ever checked on your laundromat restroom and seen something like this?

Frustrating isn’t it?

You might wonder why toilet tank lids are being broken in the first place and why you as a laundromat owner should even care about this issue.

“I found my toilet tank lid broken three times in a year,” said owner Mike F.

“I wondered what was happening to it.

As it turns out it was a mixture of kids horsing around and standing on the toilet and being stupid. Some other people were using the tank to hide drugs for someone to pick up. Other people were having sex in the bathroom and somehow using the toilet when the lid broke. I got sick of it always being broken. I left the lid off for awhile.”

How many have just left the lid off?

How many of you replaced the whole toilet for lack of finding a correct size or model tank lid?

Maybe you tried the generic square tank lids that are sold at some hardware stores.

Whatever you have tried in the past, there are some owners that have come up with a simple, common sense solution:

Use a “L” bracket from a shelf and bolt it to the wall above the tank.

The bottom half of the bracket is against the top of the tank and holds it in place like the picture below:

Having the bracket alone might give someone pause at first before attempting to move the lid, however if they figure out all they have to do is pick the lid up and bend it backwards toward the wall you will have another broken lid on the floor.

The addition of the bar rail going across the top like one owner did, helps negate that because you can’t bend the bracket back as far to lift the tank lid off. It also looks more sturdy visually and that will scare off a few more would be vandals.

“There is one additional thing I do to help secure the lid,” said owner T.S. who owns multiple stores.

“I add some of the corner lid rubber bumpers from topload washers to the bracket in between the tank and the bracket. That helps keep the tank from sliding and secures it. It also helps keep the noise down if the tank moves because the lid doesn’t scrape the metal bracket.”

Mike F. used a similar method.

“I found a lid from a discarded toilet in an alley that looked like it would fit and it did. This time I secured the top of the tank with a four inch wide L shaped shelf bracket with some rubber insulation from a section of pipe insulation under it. So far no one has messed with it.”

As an owner you may have never had to deal with this issue. If you ever do have to deal with it, here is a possible solution thanks to these two owners.

 Thanks…or should I say “tanks” for reading.

Ev

A Heck of A Nice Guy