Overweight father may have broken toilet?

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MrsS

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Hello! My 300+ pound father came to stay with us for a week. I live in an 11 year old house. We recently bought the place, and the toilet was fine. After dad left, I went into the bathroom to clean, and noticed the white seal around the bottom of the toilet looked broken. Before when I cleaned there, it was like there was a strip of white calk between the toilet and the laminate floor. Well tonight I got down and saw the gap between the toilet and the floor. I also noticed an odor from that area. Do you think he broke the toilet? Or do you think I just need to calk it? It makes a faint squeaking sound now in the floor when you put weight on the toilet. My husband and I don't know the first thing about plumbing, and I don't want to get taken for a ride if it sounds like something I could fix myself. Thank you so much for your help! :)
 
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Terry

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He could have moved it a bit. It's easy enough to pull and reset, shim if needed and caulk the bowl back in though.
Parts will cost a whopping $12.00 at a hardware store.
If the bowl moved, then it wasn't set very well to start with.

300 pounds isn't all that much. Now if you said 600 pounds, now that would be heavy.
When I was younger, I played with my family and some were large, fast and quick. You didn't want to block them head on on you would be on your backside real quick.

polyseamseal_clear.jpg


 
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Jadnashua

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A toilet must sit flat without rocking; if not, it can break the wax seal (wax is moldable, but not resilient). If it did rock at all, the seal could leak, and the floor might be compromised. As Terry noted, shim it well, then recaulk. Caulking is done for two reasons, mostly to prevent stuff from getting underneath, but second, it also helps keep the thing in place. If you use something like polyseamseal, you can clean it up without a real mess. Silicon may be more permanent, but is a real bear to impossible to remove.

You'll need a new wax ring, some caulk, and maybe some composite door shims to shim the toilet so it doesn't rock.

loctite-tub-tile.jpg
 
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Cacher_Chick

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I just finished replacing a rotten floor under a toilet which was caused by a leaking wax ring.

Don't put it off, it only gets worse and more expensive if you do.
 

MrsS

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Thank you for all of the help

So I looked with a flashlight tonight. I tried moving the toilet, and the only place that it very, very slightly moves is in the very front of the toilet at the base (it moves up and down.....very, very little). This is the spot where the caulk is not connected any longer--there is a slight gap. The toilet doesn't move in any other place other than that......do you think it's possible that I might just need to caulk there, or should I should I take the thing off and do the wax ring?(which I have no clue how to do, but will look up a You Tube video, I suppose). Thank you all, again. I am so thankful for your help and this service!
 

Jadnashua

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The most common way to make a waterproof and gas (sewer) seal between the toilet and the toilet flange (and the drain) is with a wax ring. If the toilet moves, the wax gets squished thin, and when the toilet rocks back, it leaves a gap. Wax isn't a spring. The only way to keep it intact is to prevent the toilet from rocking. So, since you can verify it is moving, the wax needs to be replaced, and when resetting the toilet down onto the wax seal, you need to shim it so it can't move again. Terry has a set of instructions that discuss this...he'll probably insert a link, but it's easy to find with the search function. Other than being heavy, it's not hard, and the parts are cheap.
 

Kreemoweet

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All too often, when the plumbing for the toilet is installed, the floor and framing are hacked up and weakened terribly. I have repaired many, many bathroom floors that were in a
state of partial collapse due to this. A 300-pounder flopping down on a toilet could conceivably have caused the floor to permanently deform, thus causing the gap you are seeing.
It would be good to inspect the floor structure around the toilet if it is at all accessible. To be on the safe side, you really should replace (or have replaced) the wax seal, although
it is not for certain that it is damaged.
 

Redwood

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If a 300-pounder did anything to the floor or the seal that wasn't well on its way to being junk anyway I'd be amazed.

I frequently see rotted out floors where the only thing keeping the toilet out of the basement is a well supported cast iron pipe.
The customer thinks that I can just reset the toilet!
It's more a case of get a new floor then call me.
The small leak you should have fixed 5 years ago is now telling you to buy a new floor.
 

Cacher_Chick

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You do not want to caulk until you have the toilet properly stabilized and are confident that the wax ring is sealing. Caulk can hide the problem, and should be used sparingly only to keep liquid from cleaning or peeing on the floor from getting under the front of the toilet. It only takes a few drops of water leaking every time you flush to eventually rot out the floor.
 
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