Help with Koehler Veil Wall hung leak

[Nycpluminghek]

Hi everyone, my contractor and plumbing company left with me with a “turd sandwich”. Whenever I flush my Koehler Wall hung toilet there is a leak of clear water at the bottom of the wall. I called another plumber who came in and found a chip in the water inlet, see video. The problem is that that pvc pipe is an elbow and I would need to break open the front of the wall to replace this. I created a large access planel at the back wall, however this pipe that goes from the tank to the inlet hole of toilet bowl seems tough to replace from the back.

The current plan is to:

Disconnect the toilet
Remove existing pvc tubilar
Remove 4” toilet drain pipe
Install new pvc tubilar
Connect 4” toilet drain
Install the toilet
Note: this is kohler veil wall hung

the problem is that this cannot be done from the back, which would mean my tiled accent wall and drywall would need to broken and replaced

Can some please advise and if you are licensed to do work in nyc, can you fix this for me… help.

 

[breplum]

movie did play but blank screen for me...
Generally speaking: This is a toilet that requires a in-wall carrier system.
Do you have such?
Your "contractor" must come back and fix it all.
The in-wall carriers are all similar, when matched to "euro" style wall hung.
The "tubilar" you say is spelled tubular. Each toilet mfr gives instructions for cutting the length to match the specific china fixture and each tube, the big one and the smaller one.
It is pretty simple to do but sometimes takes two people to mount and dismount the china bowl. good luck.

 

[SHEPLMBR]

movie did play but blank screen for me...
Generally speaking: This is a toilet that requires a in-wall carrier system.
Do you have such?
Your "contractor" must come back and fix it all.
The in-wall carriers are all similar, when matched to "euro" style wall hung.
The "tubilar" you say is spelled tubular. Each toilet mfr gives instructions for cutting the length to match the specific china fixture and each tube, the big one and the smaller one.
It is pretty simple to do but sometimes takes two people to mount and dismount the china bowl. good luck.

same here

 

[Nycpluminghek]

thanks so for replying...i have uploaded the file and added a few more pictures...

This toilet has a in-wall carrier system adding picture from pre construction
My "contractor" bailed and so did his plumber, I don't have a choice now to bring someone else.
Typo on "tubilar" ... this link has the mfr instructions for cutting the length the issue is the elbow PVC has a cut and has to be replaced.



I created a large access panel from the back. A plumber gave me 3 options
1) use epoxy or PVC glue to cover the small crack
2) try to change the elbow pipe from the access panel at the back
3) break the accent wall from the front and change the entire system to GerBer as Kohler is flawed in its design

 

[JG plumbing]

Seems like the most complicated way to have a wall hung toilet. Turd sandwich is right.

 

[Twowaxhack]

I would replace the broken plastic piece if possible from the access.

Wouldn’t that solve the problem ?

Did it come broke or did they break it trying to install ?

Looks easy to install, maybe not easy to repair. I can’t tell......

 

[Nycpluminghek]

I would replace the broken plastic piece if possible from the access.

Wouldn’t that solve the problem ?

Did it come broke or did they break it trying to install ?

Looks easy to install, maybe not easy to repair. I can’t tell......

hard to say how it broke, I think it was during install. I have a new plastic piece, it is just hard to replace from the back access panel. the plumbers that have seen this say the front accent wall must be broken.

Part of me just wants to junk this whole wall hung thing and get a back mounted toilet.

 

[Twowaxhack]

hard to say how it broke, I think it was during install. I have a new plastic piece, it is just hard to replace from the back access panel. the plumbers that have seen this say the front accent wall must be broken.

Part of me just wants to junk this whole wall hung thing and get a back mounted toilet.

Sounds like you have it figured out. Good luck

 

[BlueSkyHigh]

The movie played for me. I use VLC media player. Other than that I am glad it was resolved satisfactorily! I think the Russian idea of a toilet is the simplest and least prone to breakdown.

 

[Nycpluminghek]

The issue is still not resolved, the crack and the leak are extremely small and only when I flush and while I have isolated the problem looking for thoughts from people that might have seen or done this beefier.

1/has anyone worked with the Kohler veil wall hung and successfully replaced the inlet PVC elbow pipe from the back and not the front? Is this even possible to do from tbr back. I have plenty of space to work from the back but it seems very tricky to do from the back

2/should I try a bandaid first with epoxy or pvc glue. I can also cut a small pvc and glue it on top of the crack

3/one plumber said the design is flawed for Kohler and he would replace with another brand (which is a major project)

really looking for opinions here as the collective power of this forum would be better than just one or two plumbers that have seen the problem

 

[JG plumbing]

I don't like the system as a whole. I can't see how it's broke from your pictures. I see you pointing and I see the closer up picture, but it doesn't show me the "chip".

Any kind of epoxy or pvc glue that attempts to fix a broken hub will likley not last, that said you could get lucky and make a good repair. I've actually welded pvc before with a hot iron and pvc rods.

I love the idea of wall hung toilets, but they can be very very simple with flushometer valves. There is no need to have a tank in the wall storing water in your walls should be avoided.

 

[Nycpluminghek]

I don't like the system as a whole. I can't see how it's broke from your pictures. I see you pointing and I see the closer up picture, but it doesn't show me the "chip".

Any kind of epoxy or pvc glue that attempts to fix a broken hub will likley not last, that said you could get lucky and make a good repair. I've actually welded pvc before with a hot iron and pvc rods.

I love the idea of wall hung toilets, but they can be very very simple with flushometer valves. There is no need to have a tank in the wall storing water in your walls should be avoided.

thanks,if you look at about 4 o’clock in this picture you will see a small slit, the size is small and so is the leak. But after flushing several times you can see the water at the bottom of the floor. This is the leak for sure and I have verified if thru this access panel I built at the back. Also a plumbing company came in and put a bandaid by pasting another pvc on top of this one.That didn’t work.

I will ask the plumbers I know about the welding idea sounds promising. Thanks for the pro tip

 

[Twowaxhack]

I doubt that’s pvc......but this stuff works on a variety of plastic. On pVC I’ve made some exceptional repairs with it. It works.

https://weldon.com/repair-fabrication-adhesives/810-a-b-kit/

 

[Nycpluminghek]

So I had official Kohler support team come here in person. They said the tile behind the toilet, in front of the carrier, is mounted on green gypsum board. Page 13 of the install instructions strongly recommends not using gypsum board and to use a backer board or cement board to carry the weight and not flex.

https://www.us.kohler.com/webassets/kpna/catalog/pdf/en/1142998_2.pdf(see page 13) also photo attached.

Net net take down the wall and do this correctly. Thoughts?

 

[Twowaxhack]

Yep, it’s not installed right. I caught that in the video but couldn’t tell what they had actually installed

 

[Sifi]

We had a crack on the sewer outlet pipe (K-1155520) 3 years after installation. Was dripping water after flush. Our installation wasn't done properly as well. Installed on drywall and no backer board. Cracks could be due to installation. Another reason I can think for cracking pipes is if the connecting pipes were cut longer than they need to be, and they get stressed between the toilet and the frame. With daily use, they give up and crack. When I tightened the toilet nuts thinking maybe something is loose, drops turned into a leak with a lot more water coming out making me think that the tightening is stressing the pipe and opening the crack more. We are lucky this time that the part can be replaced externally without breaking the wall. We'll cut the pipe shorter and see how it works over time before a bigger fix like adding a backer board. We like wall mount toilets since they make it easy to clean the bathroom floor but maintenance is very very tricky. This toilet is not be best designed wall mount toilets out there. Ordered without reading the reviews and suffering from it.