Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Hi all,

Hope this is the right place for this. This morning when I woke up, after I went to the bathroom in my spare bathroom I looked down and saw a bit of water on the floor as it appeared to come from the base of the toilet. I checked the base of the toilet for leaks/cracks and did not see anything, and there was still water in the bowl after I flushed.

It wasn't a crazy amount of water, maybe spread 4-5 inches from the base of the toilet. Not sure what else it could be from. Since I didn't have time to really dig in and figure out what was wrong as I had to go to work, I did not flush again to see if it leaked (and didn't want to make it worse).

Has this happened to anyone else? And if so was it a difficult fix? I would much rather fix it myself, though I also don't want to make it worse, as I'm not overly handy and certainly not a plumber. Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Thanks

It is likely you just need to replace the wax ring around the toilet drain. I've done it a couple times, and it is pretty easy.

Yep. Sounds like a wax gasket. YouTube is your friend.

My most recent leak was puzzling because the bathroom had been tiled over. This had raised the floor and the gasket I’d bought at Home Depot wasn’t tall enough to span the distance between the toilet flange and the toilet. I changed it twice before I figured out the flange was a 1/2” too low. Duh. So I tried stacking two gaskets. YouTube again. Worked.

Thanks! Oddly- I came home and there's no leak. Flushed it too. Nothing. Wife checked it during her lunch break and no water either. I have no clue what happened. Perhaps it's an extremely slow leak. I'll check again in the am. Thanks for the responses!

My wax ring job turned into a "rip off four old flooring layers, replace the subfloor, install a new floor, and a wax ring" job.

Check carefully for water damage (rot) to the floor.

Before trying to replace the wax ring check the water supply line to the tank. This is the usual cause for this type of leak. It may only show up when you flush several times.

Ego wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 23, 2019 1:27 am

Before trying to replace the wax ring check the water supply line to the tank. This is the usual cause for this type of leak. It may only show up when you flush several times.

yeah it was bizarre- before attempting to fix it I checked the floor which was completely dry, then flushed- and nothing. Completely dry again. Even checked after several hours. Not sure if it overflowed from the supply line as you mentioned or what. A little bizarre. Only other explanation is that my German Shepherd drank out of it late at night and splashed tons of water on the floor, which would be highly unusual for him LOL. Thanks again

Was there a period of time before the leak that it would have been unusually humid in the bathroom? Keep an eye out for condensation if the water in the tank is cold and the air is very humid. Doesn't sound like that's the problem, but if it is, there are valves that can be added to the supply plumbing that mix in a little hot water with the cold to avoid condensation.