My Toilet is leaking

[Babba_not_Gump]

I was downstairs and noticed some fresh water drippings on the bathroom wall. Immediately above is the toilet of the other bathroom.
I pulled off a couple of ceiling tiles and sure enough there is some moisture around the drain that goes through the floor.

So is this most likely caused by the seal between the toilet and the floor failing?
And if so, is it an "easy" fix?

I could YouTube it, but they make everything look so easy when often enough it isn't.

[vegas1500]

Get someone to go flush it and watch (wipe it all clean and dry first) For he leak. Make sure there is no water around the tank of the upstairs toilet....and if it is the seal between the toilet and floor, very easy to change

[seewood]

Trick I find is snugging down the two nuts, after replacing seal, enough to keep the toilet from rocking at the same time as not being too tight and breaking off the porcelain flange on the toilet.

But, regardless, not a difficult thing to do. Not a bad idea to purchase two seals as if you don't line up the toilet and wax seal the first time and plop the toilet down, the wax turns into a mess. Take apart and repeat.
They are not expensive.

[polelady]

Also just a suggestion... if you have a shop vacuum.. that can be used for water.... use it to remove all the water in the top tank as well... as the flush water... just in case you have to tip the toilet over to work on the wax seal.... just FYI cheers

[Bsuds]

We had a slow leak in the supply hose in an upstairs toilet. By the time we noticed the leak it was too late.
Insurance claim in the thousands of $, but we did get a new tiled floor upstairs too because some tiles cracked. Bad news is I need to paint the bathroom to match better.

[Babba_not_Gump]

Thanks for the ideas.

The plan is to give it a try this afternoon or tomorrow. I'm just waiting for someone to bring over a wet vacuum. Thanks polelady.
If you happen to see me on Referrals looking for a plumber, you'll know I screwed up.

[mexi cali]

All good advice. One additional cautionary note; porcelain is brittle so whenever you are reattaching parts and tightening nuts etc, be careful not to over tighten. Nothing worse that the "ting" you hear as the porcelain cracks.

The flanges are cheap and buying two is a great idea, as posted above.

You will also need towels to lay around the drain hole and the general area where the toilet sits because, no matter how careful you are, when you least expect it, you will spill some water.

It's also a great opportunity to really give the toilet and the area in behind it a really good clean.

Good luck.

[Babba_not_Gump]

very easy to change

Nope.

I turned off the shutoff tap off but it kept on dripping, very quickly. So a trip into town for a replacement tap, shut the water off for the entire house and got the new tap back on.
Water turned on and no drips. Great. Its looking good.

Now to the toilet.
OMG, what a mess underneath it.
The wax seal was shot, the metal toilet flange had disintegrated and the bolts had come out of the subfloor.
And the PVC flange was broken. Oh, and its glued in!
Now for the subfloor. It's wet, very wet.
So that toilet is out of action for a few days while I allow the floor to completely dry, then I'll assess the damage.
Time for a plumber/carpenter? We'll see.
What a cluster .

One small glimmer of light, we've been discussing finally updating our '70s bathroom this spring.

[Bsuds]

You might want to advise your insurance company of the leak. They will send someone out to assess the damage at no cost to you and you can decide from there if it is cheaper for you to fix it or pay the deductible.

At least that's what our insurance did with our leak.

[TylerM4]

Wax seals fail, but honestly it's not that common. In most cases, a toilet can be installed with no wax seal at all and still not leak.

More common is the following:
- Water on the floor of the bathroom above has found it's way down to the room below (anyone overflow the toilet recently? Kids splashing too much in the tub, 2 piece toilet leaking between the tank and bowl seal, etc)
- Partially obstructed drain which doesn't allow the water from the toilet to drain down the pipe quickly enough. Wax seals are more like "seals to prevent leaks due to splashing water" and are not designed to "hold liquid from escaping". Kinda like window seals in a car - they keep the rain out but submerge the vehicle under water and they'll leak like crazy.
- Problems with toilet mounting resulting in rocking, miss alignment with drain, etc. In this case the seal has failed but it's was another problem that caused the seal to fail.

I've pulled and re-installed a toilet on about 6 occasions. It's absolutely one of those jobs that can be a "quick 15min thing" or something that can turn into a week long project. Generally speaking - home built in last 10-20 years and toilet hasn't been leaking for long is an easy job. Older homes it's a real gamble as to what you may experience.