Small leak at toilet base - bad wax ring?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Sep 20, 2014
Messages
3,327
A toilet has a small leak suddenly at the base. It will have a small mount of water around the porcelain base and on the adjacent linoleum. I dried everything last night before bed to see where it would come from - in the morning, it was just around the base that had a small amount of water and nothing appeared to have down from the tank above.

Anything else I should investigate before getting a a new wax ring and pulling it out? The construction is only ~9 years old, though it is not the highest quality construction, we have found. I have installed a toilet or two in the past and pulled one out and re-installed when putting in marble tile, so I know generally what is going on. But any advice from more knowlegdeable folks is appreciated.

I imagine if it's only a small amount of water showing, there must be a lot more going into the subfloor and I need to fix this asap.
 
If it's leaking into the subfloor that can be a bad thing. About two years after our house was built I was looking around down in the basement and I spotted this nasty looking growth of black furry mold underneath one of the upstairs toilets. It was one of the scariest things I've ever seen. I built a chute of plastic sheeting underneath it and sprayed bleach onto the whole area, then scraped the (hopefully) dead mold mass off. Once I removed the toilet I found the builder had rolled the wax ring during installation. So yes if you think it might be leaking I'd pull the toilet ASAP and check it out.
 
Before you pull the toilet, triple check that it's not condensation or a leak from the tank above. The 2-3 bolts that hold the tank to the base can leak (rubber washer wears) or the 'donut' type gasket between the tank and base can leak slightly and the water will often just go down the base vs dripping straight down.
 
Originally Posted by hallstevenson
Before you pull the toilet, triple check that it's not condensation or a leak from the tank above. The 2-3 bolts that hold the tank to the base can leak (rubber washer wears) or the 'donut' type gasket between the tank and base can leak slightly and the water will often just go down the base vs dripping straight down.

This. Then pull it and replace the ring if not. Not a hard job, just awkward depending on the toilet position in relation to other things.
 
Last edited:
Check the toilet carefully for condensation. Also, since this is sudden check for any cracks or the toilet shifting.

If you pull the toilet you have to replace the wax ring anyway. Is this a known brand like American Standard, Kohler etc or one of those cheap south of the border toilets?
 
Tanks can get hair line cracks that can cause water around the base. Some people flop on the toilets because they have to go really bad which is OK I reckon, but flopping and then leaning back on the tank damages the tank. Tanks are not cheap.
 
Fix it now. Water leaks can cause a ton of trouble.
If you don't wanna mess with it, find a retired plumber.
Personally, I hate wax rings as they are real messy.
There are reusable ones now that are much better, in my opinion.

Good luck.
 
Do you like the toilet? Nows the time to replace it if you don't. I'd pull it out ASAP as you might be looking at water damage otherwise.
 
OK, thanks for the ideas.

I will double check the tank-to-bowl bolts. Pretty sure it's not - I wiped the whole thing down with a paper towel last night and then the water was just right at the base. BUT - it was more about 1/2 way the length of the base vs. near the back where the ring is. So yes, worth double checking. I looked carefully for cracks last night (none found), forgot to mention.

And I will work on it this afternoon/tonight as I am definitely not content with water leaking anywhere unknown for any period of time.
 
Just replace the wax ring and see if it stops the problem. If not then buy a replacement kit and get a better toilet. Less than $200 now at the home improvement stores.

I use to live in a town where they made toilets in a huge kiln plant. The ceramic seals the porcelain but is very thin, any cracks and you will not be able to fix it.
 
So in fact it was the tank leaking, I think mainly through one of the bolts. The wax ring is OK.

Getting a tank-to-base kit to reseal it. Thanks for the help. I dried it all up again, and laid out paper towels to see what wetted first. It was dripping down a bolt, then to the floor and running to the base, making it look like the base.

Looking at it up close now, it is a Chinese made unit and I could find no name on it. If it has a problem again, I will just get a Kohler, etc. and put in something more robust.
 
Just replace the toilet, it's not worth dealing with. The guts in the tank are 9 years old and you'll be fighting with those soon. When I remodeled I bought some nice 1 piece dual flush units from Costco, think I paid $89 each.
 
Originally Posted by dishdude
Just replace the toilet, it's not worth dealing with. The guts in the tank are 9 years old and you'll be fighting with those soon. When I remodeled I bought some nice 1 piece dual flush units from Costco, think I paid $89 each.

If it's a good old flusher (in other words, not a late 90's high flow toilet with a federally mandated low-flow tank size), it's worth rebuilding.

If it's a craptastic late 90's pretend-low-flow toilet, better just replace it. I bought the one that advertised it can flush a bucket full of golf balls, when I did I got an oval and tall size. Since it is tall, it is not a favorite of the wife or younger kids so I get it all to myself. But that's OK we have others.

I completely rebuilt a leaky small round toilet and put it on a new wax ring while I was at it. It was much cheaper and simpler than I expected, and it has since given several years of good, trouble-free service. The trigger to do so was leaking through the rubber washers around the through bolts on the bottom... just as hallstevenson describes.
 
You may already be covering this but get the 'donut' gasket as well as the bolts/washer kit and while you're at it, may as well replace the flush valve if you haven't before. The tank will be drained anyway. Some will repeat "you might as well replace the entire toilet if you're doing that much work" but these parts will be $25 or so only. I'll do this every 10 years vs dealing with a wax ring! If your floor is sturdy, toilet is level, and people don't jump on the toilet or rock side to side on it, a wax ring can last decades.
 
Tank bolts are usually rusted up ,get new set and r and r them.don t over tighten,might crack tank or bowl.good luck!
 
Just got done replacing a too small toilet with a one piece jobbie. I like it. I have heard it's code to caulk around the base but I recommend waiting a week or two before doing that just to make sure the wax ring sealed up good. If everything stays nice and tight and dry, then caulk it up. Having said that, none of my toilets are caulked at the base because if there's trouble I want to know right away. Caulk may conceal a wax ring failure which, as noted here can be disastrous.
 
X2 Costco toilets are a good deal. I have 2. Don't tighten the tank tight. Leave a tiny bit of give on the rubber. People leaning back will crack a tight tank fairly quickly.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top