How To Measure A Toilet Seat

  • Learn how to measure your toilet for a seat that fits well.
  • Why a well-fitted seat is important.

There’s nothing worse than receiving a toilet seat to replace your old one that doesn’t fit. Taking accurate measurements before buying is the best way forward.

Why measure your toilet

Though a lot of toilets are a standard size and will accept the average store brought toilet seat, this is not the case for all toilets. Occasionally, you may move into a property that doesn’t have the regular oval-shaped toilet bowl, or you may choose to install a more unique toilet in your bathroom.

When this happens, your toilet seat won’t be the same as a regular oval toilet’s seat that can be picked up from a number of stores on the high street or online with ease. You may need a certain type of toilet seat to match your toilet system.

Measuring a toilet seat
A square toilet in the corner of a bathroom.

How to measure your toilet

When buying a new toilet seat, you’ll want to measure your toilet in three different places. Unlike the US, there is no standard toilet size in the UK. It just so happens that a lot of toilets are similar and can use off-the-shelf toilet seats.

Remove the old toilet seat if you haven’t already done so, and then measure in these locations:

Between the bolts

Toilet seats are bolted to the back of the toilet, near the tank. Having removed the old toilet seat, you should be able to see where the screws were (or still are) without any trouble.

Take a measuring tape or other measuring tool and measure the distance between each bolt, from edge to edge of the bolt hole.

The toilet bowl

At the widest point of your toilet’s bowl, you will need to take your second measurement. Lay a measuring tape across the toilet’s widest point, keeping the end of the tape on the outside of the toilet’s brim.

Toilet length

The last measurement is the length of your toilet’s bowl. This measurement starts from the centre-back, right between the bolts, and ends at the front of the bowl, resting on the outside edge.

What next?

Now that you have all three measurements, you should be able to comfortably go to a nearby hardware store or high street store that sells toilet seats. You could even order online without any issues now that you have these three measurements to hand.

As well as these measurements, you should also take note of the shape of your toilet bowl. Typically, this is either square, rectangular, or oval. These are common toilet shapes, and your seat will usually match the shape of the bowl for better coverage and comfort.

Without a toilet seat that is fitted to your toilet bowl, you may find that the seat does not cover the entirety of the toilet bowl and is, therefore, unsuitable for the toilet you have.

You could try to use an ill-fitting toilet seat, but it’s likely to be quite uncomfortable.

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