How to Fix a Leaking Toilet

If the bathroom floor is getting wet and you notice it coming from around the toilet this is the guide for you.

If the floor is wet around the toilet this probably means that the toilet wax ring has became compromised. If the toilet can rock back and forth this is even more indication that the toilet wax ring has became compromised.

But don't fret this is something that you can fix and it isn't going to cost a terrible amount of money either unless you want to do that. You can call a professional but this is something the average home owner can accomplish on their own.

First you want to turn the water off to the toilet and flush it to get the majority of the water out of it. Then you need to remove the two bolts attached to the base of the toilet and after that you will be able to lift the toilet directly straight up.

Be careful with the two bolts holding the toilet to the floor when you are removing them. After you remove the nut from these two bolts you should be able to slide them one direction or the other and the bolts will come right up and out of the toilet flange that they are attached to.

The toilet flange is what the toilet wax ring is on top of, and the base of the toilet sits on top of this flange and wax ring. It's probably around a 3 inch pipe but will depend on your original plumbing installation.

After you have removed the toilet from its original placement you can begin to scrape off all of the old wax you find. Get a scraper tool or anything you care to throw away later because this is going to be quite messy. It might be a good idea for some gloves.

After you have cleaned off the toilet flange and the base of your toilet you can prepare to install the new wax toilet ring.

Get the new toilet wax ring and take it out of its packaging. You will want to place the new toilet wax ring onto the base of the toilet where the toilet connects to the toilet flange.

If you do not want to get wet you can take the toilet out in the back yard and lean it on its side to remove any remaining water inside. Rock it around and you'll get all of the remaining water out of it.

With the wax ring in place on the toilet base you will want to use your hands and form the wax around the base ring of the toilet. There will be a tapered end at on the base of the toilet where the hole is, form the wax ring around this.

It should be noted that most instructions on the packaging of toilet wax rings suggests leaving the wax ring in the room to acclimate to the room temperature for 24 hours, or a days time.

Next before you put the toilet back down onto the flange you are going to need to put your toilet flange bolts into place. These are the two bolts you removed originally. If they are in good shape you can replace or buy two new toilet flange bolts.

Place the toilet flange bolts into the toilet flange and adjust the plastic washers into place.

Now you can finally place the toilet down onto the toilet flange. You will need to make sure that the toilet base passes the two toilet flange bolts so that you can screw the nuts on to the top of these two bolts.

After you have adjusted the toilet base on to the top of the toilet flange appropriately to your personal taste we now need to put the flange bolt nuts on to the flange bolts and tighten them down.

Depending on who the company is who manufactured your toilet you may have a metal or plastic washer that will be between the toilet and the nuts.

In either case do not tighten down too much or you could break your toilet base and have to buy a whole new toilet. Tighten down just good enough so that you cannot move the toilet around.

And that should be it. There may be associated plastic caps that can go over the top of the toilet flange bolts but it depends on the scenario you are presented with. If the bolts are too tall for the caps you can use a hacksaw to cut them to size.

I hope you find this guide useful.