Hello everyone!

I finally just about finished our boys upstairs bathroom after an overflow last year that required the floor to replaced, and the kitchen ceiling to be redone.

Long story short, I replaced everything on the toilet with new parts and used an XL wax ring. After getting everything in place, I turned the water on to check for leaks and to make sure everything filled properly, and no water dripping externally.

After a few minutes I heard what sounded like a dripping noise coming from beneath the toilet and the bowl draining ever so slightly with the drip. The water in the fresh water tank stays the same and does not run.

Any ideas what could be causing this? The house was built in '96 and I suspect the toilet is original. Could an old toilet just drip for no reason or do I need to try to find an even bigger wax ring?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

 

This sounds like the toilet bowl may have a small crack in it.

Since it sounds as if you did a remodel, You may not have the bowl set level, thus the water is going over the top part of the trapway and draining. They can be shimed up to level. Or as I mentioned, the trap way or bowl is cracked and leaking. If that is the case, replacement is needed.

 

Did you ensure the wax ring was warm and soft before putting the toilet on, if not the wax will split and cause a leak externally when it's flushed.

Any fluid added to the bowl will overflow and drip into the waste pipe, a small amount of excess fluid can be heard dripping onto the 90deg fitting just below the floor, of course the fluid has to come form somewhere. If there is no water going down the overflow stand pipe from either the rinse tube or overflowing then the flapper might be the cause. I have seen imperfections in the molded plastic that the flapper seals to, running your finger around the edge would check this. The water level in the tank has to drop quite a way to open the fill valve so it would have to leak for a long time at the flapper for this to happen. If the sealing edge is good then I would try replacing the flapper with one from a different manufacturer.

 

I stopped using wax rings years ago after I found this..

Fluidmaster # Model # 7500P5 Homeodeepeblow sells them.

https://www.google.com/#hl=en&sugexp...w=1401&bih=682


You can buy them just about anywhere, and if need be, the toilet can be removed without any mess, and the seal be reused.

No more wax for me.....


BTW, the dripping ? Replace the flapper with a new one. The last time I had the problem you're describing it turned out to be a flapper that hardened up and wouldn't seal properly. After renovating 200 + bathrooms, you tend to come across just about everything...

there is the slight chance that your toilet is "dripping" on the ceiling below if the wax ring wasn't set right, or cracked as others have mentioned. Personally, I would replace the gasket / seal and the flapper at the same time. Make sure you follow the directions implicitly on the seal, as they can be tricky to install the first time.

 

Thank you all for replying! I apologize it has taken me a couple days to respong. Working midnight - ? takes its toll sometimes.

It sounds like the dripping noise may have stopped.

Dr.D thanks for the input. I made sure everything is level when installing.

Busboy, thank you as well. I followed the instructions that came with the wax ring - ensure it is 70deg or above when installing, lol. I've done a few these between our house in MT and down here and never had an issue, but I suppose there is always a first. I'm thinking after a few flushes and letting the wax settle it may have helped, but I don't know.

NJT, thanks for the suggestion on the wax-less seal. I wish I would have seen that when I was at the Home Suppository getting tile sealant. Instead, I forgot to grab one and went over to Lowes, which is a lot closer and grabbed the thickest ring I could find from their limited selection.

Flapper/everything but the porcelain is brand new, Made In the USA, except for maybe the wax ring (forgot to look). The flapper is holding the water in the tank as it should. If I do run into problems from the wax ring, I'm going to get one of those Fluidmaster wax-less rings to try out.

So far, no water spots coming through the ceiling - thank God. So probably no external water leaks. I do not want to go through that again. I got worn out from remodeling our MT house and ended up hiring a drywall guy to come out last month after getting sick in tired of the hole in the ceiling in the kitchen (since Oct last year). We just finished painting it too!

Thanks again everyone! I will update some more if new issues arise. Hopefully nothing will, as I am ready to be done (clean/seal tile and re-tack the carpet in both bedrooms) and give our youngest boys there own separate bedrooms again!

 

Adding a few drops of food color will tell you if it's leaking from the tank. Don't forget about looking at the gasket between the tank and bowl. Wrapping the inlet line with a paper towel at the fittings will tell you if it's leaking there.

 

Thanks for the tips 1-2-3. There isn't any external leaks from the fresh water tank and all appears to be working fine. I went ahead and caulked the bottom of the toilet since no water ever seeped out and the dripping sound stopped.

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2

 

Good rule of thumb when you caulk the bottom of toilets.

#1. Make sure the mounting flange on the waste line is secured to the sub flooring. Loose flanges cause toilets to rock, damaging the wax seal over time. Toilets that don't move at all don't lose their seal.

#2. Use a cheap caulk that won't harden completely. When you use a super high quality caulk, or a polyurethane caulk, it makes it almost impossible to remove the toilet without breaking or chipping the mounting flange. Gluing the toilet down won't make it any better of an installation. Personally, I like Phenoseal, but it will harden quite a bit over time and make removal more difficult than a cheap caulk.

#3. Don't caulk the rear of the toilet where it faces the rear wall (1"-2" section left uncaulked). This will allow water to escape out the rear of the tolet and cause an "alert" to a user that there is a leaking issue should one occur.

#4 Plaster of paris works better than shims as a permanent solution to leveling.
a. Test fit the toilet to get it level (without the seal).
b. Pull the toilet back off without disturbing your shims under the bottom of the toilet and keep them in their respective places on the floor.
c. Install your seal, plop a mound of plaster of paris under the toilet while soft, and install the base back where you had it when you had it level on the shims.
d. Tighten your johnni bolts to spec. and put your decorative caps on
e. Let the plaster harden and remove the shims. Caulk as necessary.

I learned this from an old timer who never had a toilet rock after install.


The colored water trick works great, btw.

 

Thanks for the tips NJT! So far the handful of toilets I've done has always been rock solid and level. But I never did take into account the mounting flange. Thankfully though, I know for a fact the one on the toilet I just did was properly secured with no movement.

About the toilet caulk...yeah I already caulked all around it (the toilet was originally installed with caulk all around). But after reading your tips, I may go open up the back side a bit.

I like the thought of using plaster of paris to level it. When I get ready to re-tile my daughters bathroom, definitely going to consider all your tips (and others) when installing the toilet. The wax seals are no more for me!

I wonder if there is a Home DIY Repair category that can be added under the "Other / Non Diesel Related" forum?