The other day we received a call from a very frustrated homeowner.  She had a toilet on the main floor that was leaking down into the family room in her basement.  Normally this wouldn’t be too big of a cause for concern.  Unfortunately, she had already paid to have it fixed 3 times by other plumbers.  While this was a little intimidating accepting a job that three other plumbers had failed to correct, it was tugging at my curiosity.  After inspecting it from below (removable ceiling tiles are great!), we determined it to be a bad seal at the wax ring.  Once the toilet was pulled, there were three red flags that stood out.   

The first was that the flange was too low.  The correct position for a closet flange is to be on top of the finished floor.  Sometimes this is not the case due to a new floor having been installed.  If the flange does end up being too low, the correct fix is too raise it up with flange extenders.  These are thin Frisbee like piece that stack on top of the flange and each other to bring the flange up to the proper height.  If the flange is flush with the finish floor or just barely above, it is acceptable to use a thicker wax ring.  The problem in this house was the flange was below the finish floor and they attempted to use a thicker wax ring.  This resulted in almost no squish of the wax, and a weak seal.  

The next problem we saw had to do with the flange itself.  At some point the cast iron flange and elbow in this house was replaced with pvc.  This is usually a good thing, except the plumber did not use an acceptable flange.  The new pvc flange that had been installed was designed to fit INSIDE of the 3″ pvc, instead of the outside like it should have been.  This gave it sort of a “shelf” right where it accepts the discharge of the toilet.  The problem is that that when the water was hitting the “shelf”, it was most likely causing a lot of unnecessary splashing and eroding of the wax seal.  

The third problem, and the most common problem we see, has to do with the wax seal itself.  While the wax rings with the plastic “horn” seem to make a lot of sense and appear safer, they actually cause more problems than they solve.  The plastic horn disrupts the water in exactly the same way that the shelf was with the bad toilet flange.  When the toilet is flushed and the water goes rushing through the wax seal and flange, it hits the plastic horn and causing a lot of excessive splashing around the wax.  In due time, it will eventually cause a leak.  There is no need for the plastic horn, ever.  A basic wax ring is all you will ever need (if you have a good flange).  

Since the homeowner in this did not have an ideal flange, we used neoprene toilet rings instead of wax.  This will ensure that the wax is not washed away and caused to leak by the excessive splashing.  Yes, it is true, time will have to tell on this one, but in the meantime, I will sleep very well.