There is a reason most homes we acquire in the San Antonio area need to have at least one toilet paper holder repaired. Well, two.
First, they use the design shown above which is inherently flawed. The span between the anchor points is significantly less than the common 16 inch span between wall stud centers.
If it was installed correctly, one side will be secured into the stud. If not installed correctly, well, you’ll probably be repairing both sides at some point.
Second, no one uses a different (better) design that actually insets the TP roll partially into the wall; and I’ve NEVER seen these come out and need repair. The problem with those is they likely won’t match the rest of your bathroom decor these days, as I’ve only ever seen them in chrome finish.
Best Installation Method of Toilet Paper Roll Holder
The best way to install these is to:
- Design the bathroom, or commode stall, large enough that most people aren’t likely to bang into the darn thing in the first place. If you have elderly or infirm individuals, install a secure hand rail for them to use, the TP holder is NOT a hand rail!
- Pick the right spot in the bathroom, also for the above reasons. Further, save yourself or someone else some future headache and add a scab board (new construction or remodel) where the TP holder is going to go! (Yeah, never thought of that did you?)
- Secure one side into the stud.
- Secure the other side, if not into scab board mentioned above, with the kind of wall anchors that actually LOCK on the backside of the drywall. I don’t mean just “smush out”, I mean a bar that flops crosswise and locks.
Whoever thought something so simple as a toilet paper holder could be so complex to install? Really it’s not, just use your head for something besides a hat rack!
Fixing A Toilet Paper Holder That Wasn’t Installed Correctly
There are basically two kinds of repairs for a toilet paper holder coming off the wall. The first is a first time fix where the drywall has not yet been destroyed by half-baked fixes.
The second is where there is no decent drywall to work with behind the very limited real estate of the holding post. In this second case your really need to cut a hole in the drywall, insert a patch with a small piece of 1×2 behind it (like should have been originally done though this won’t be fully secured to other studs) and match paint or other finish (yeah, can be a HUGE pain).
The first can be a fairly simple repair of heading to Home Depot and getting some better anchors, preferably the kind (mentioned above) that lock behind the drywall.
Or, if like this last repair shown at the top – sorry, should have taken pictures all the way through – the holes are shot from using aggressive anchors already but the drywall is not destroyed yet.
After evaluating the situation I decided to mix up some Bondo (yes, the auto repair kind) and smush it liberally into both lag holes and coat the front just a bit. (In my case I had matching wall paint but also didn’t really need it.)
If you manage the bondo correctly, no sanding will be needed. Just wait about 30 minutes and reinstall the best anchors you can get to work in the particular situation and re-assemble.
As you can see from the pic above, the result looks acceptable and, while I wouldn’t go hanging on it, it’s nice and secure.
Wow. I made it through without making any pun comments about “poor” workmanship 🙂
