Fix It and keep it

Most toilets are constructed to have two joints where a leak may occur during a flush. After a toilet talk fills the only thing preventing the water from flowing out is a rubber flapper covering the water exit in the bottom of the toilet tank. The water is released when the flush lever is pressed. Once the flush lever is pressed the water begins to flow out of the tank and into the bowl where it washes away whatever is in the bowl at the time. As the water is flowing out of the tank it passes a gasket between the toilet tank and the toilet bowl, and then it passed the wax gasket that is between the toilet bowl and the drain pipe. Water rushing past either of these gaskets can leak out if the gaskets have deteriorated enough to create a seem for the water escape through.

Sometimes the wax gasket under the toilet can develop a leak, especially if the floor that the toilet is sitting on isn't completely flat. If the floor has any give to it the toilet will move and eventually separate itself from the wax gasket. When that happens the only fix is to replace the wax gasket. To do that you will need to shut off the incoming water to the toilet and drain it completely. Once the tank is completely drained you can remove the tank with the two bolts under neath the tank. They will be the two bolts holding the toilet tank to the toilet. Remove the water supply line and the two bolts and remove the tank from the toilet. Once the tank is removed you will need to loosen the bolts on the bottom of the toilet bowl. Once the bolts are loose you can lift the toilet off of the floor and lay it on it's side so you can see the wax gasket. The wax gasket will be surrounding the outlet on the bottom of the toilet. There may also be some wax gasket stuck to the pipe flange that the toilet was bolted to. Use a narrow putty knife to scrape off the old wax gasket from both the bottom of the toilet and the pipe flange to prepare the surface for the new gasket.

When you unwrap the new wax gasket it will be sticky and will want to stick to anything it touches. You should hold it with the wax paper that it came in or get a piece of wax paper to hold the gasket with. Stick the new gasket to the bottom of the toilet where the old gasket came from and make sure it sticks and seals all the way around. Prepare the bolts on the flange where the toilet will attach and make sure they are straight and stay up straight as you slide the toilet down over them. It is important that you make sure the bolts will stay up as you put the toilet down because you don't want any interference when you are attaching the toilet to the floor. If you make contact with the new gasket and the flange you don't want to have to lift the toilet up again because that will ruin the new gasket. Wax gaskets are made to make contact once and stay in position to form a tight seal.

As you tighten the bolts that hold the toilet down do so gently as they are not meant to be made really tight. You may need to sit on the toilet to make sure the wax gasket compresses fully so the toilet doesn't move as it is being used or when water enters the tank. The toilet has to be flush with the floor then tighten the bolts just snug to keep it there. Once the toilet has been installed you can replace the toilet tank. You will notice a gasket between the toilet tank and the toilet bowl. If you haven't had a leak there just re-use the old gasket as it has formed to the toilet and the tank already. I was trying to be too much of a perfectionist once and replaced all of the gaskets, to be on the safe side, only to have the gasket between the tank and bowl leak. I replaced the new gasket with the old one and the leak stopped. The porcelain tan, on the toilet that I was working on wasn't formed square so the original gasket formed itself around the irregularities and created a tight seal. The new gasket was too hard to conform to the irregularities of the tank material.

To insure against the possibility of the toilet tank bolts leaking from the inside which would require you to remove them again to fix the leak, put some putty on the inside washers before you re-install the tank. The putty will fill in any void and help prevent any leaks.

Re-attach the water line and fill the tank checking for leaks as it fills. Once it fills flush a couple of times to check for leaks, if you don't find any leaks you are done.