Loading…
-1
Nearly ruined my neighbor's hardwood floor because I skipped the wax ring, and the toilet told me at 6am
Warning to anyone who thinks they can swap a toilet in an hour before work. I did exactly that on a Tuesday at my place in Akron, pulled the old bowl, scraped the flange, and dropped the new one down with the old wax ring because the hardware store was closing and I figured it looked fine. Two days later I walk in barefoot before coffee and feel cold water seeping between my toes, and my brain just goes blank. Turns out I had tightened the closet bolts unevenly, so the horn never seated, and every flush for 48 hours had been dribbling under the floor toward my neighbor's hallway. The tip off was honestly the smell in the bathroom, that damp cement thing I kept blaming on the shower curtain. I had to pull the whole toilet again, chip out the old wax with a putty knife, and set a new ring, and the ceiling below still has a stain the size of a dinner plate. So if you are doing this yourself, get the wax ring, set it in one clean drop, and do not tighten one bolt all the way before the other. Has anyone else had a leak show up days later in a spot that made no sense?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
the_oscar2d ago
Man, that damp cement smell is the giveaway every time and I still ignore it too. My sister had the exact same thing happen, water showed up in her basement like ten feet from the bathroom, which made zero sense until we traced it along a floor joist. Wax rings are like three bucks, so skipping one to save a trip is the worst trade ever. And yeah, you have to snug the bolts down even, little by little, or the bowl sits crooked and the horn never seals. Take it from me, do the ring, do it once, do it right.
1