By Barry Stone
Dear Barry,
A home inspector discovered that both of my toilets are loosely attached to the floor. When I checked them, I found that they would slide easily back and forth on the ceramic tiles. Rather than hire an expensive plumber, I decided to tighten the bolts myself. With the first toilet, there was no problem. With the second one, however, tightening caused the base of the bowl to crack. Now, instead of a plumber's service call, I've got to pay for a new toilet. How should I have dealt with this repair? When the bolts were reasonably tight, the toilet would still slide on the floor. When I tightened them further, the toilet broke. What should I have done to prevent this? -- Arlene
Dear Arlene,
Loose toilets are among the most common of minor home defects, especially on ceramic tile floors. This is because toilet fixtures are also ceramic in composition, and the two slick ceramic surfaces slide easily against one another, owing to the lack of friction.
When loose toilet bowls are installed on linoleum or vinyl flooring, moderate tightening of the bolts will usually eliminate all movement. With ceramic tiles, there is a tendency to over-tighten the bolts, as you recently learned. The trick is to tighten the bolts only enough to make them snug, but not enough to eliminate sliding against the tiles. To complete the job of securing the toilet base, adhesive sealant should be applied at the perimeter of the bowl, thereby gluing the base of the toilet to the floor.
As a side note: Loose toilet fixtures often conceal leakage at the seal. If the subfloor is constructed of wood, moisture seepage at the seal can result is serious damage to wood members. To ensure against fungus and dryrot repairs, replacement of the wax seal is a wise precautionary procedure when repairing loose toilets.
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