Toilet Height/Caulking

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Lzyby57

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I just installed a new toilet and it is currently 3/4in off the floor. I have used shims on the floor. I’m wondering if I can just caulk around the toilet or should I put plaster around the bowl first? Thanks for the help.
 
Yes, the flange is high compared to the floor. I hadn’t realized it until I pulled the old toilet off.
 
To shim it up, uyou need to use something solid, and something that won't be affected by water, wither under the toilet, or from cleaning around the toilet. Last time I ran into this problem, used shards of tile to level and hold toilet up, then grout, or was it cement, that held tile in place.
 
Personally, I'd try a color match grout. To try to caulk that gap would look horrendous.
 
You might be right on that one i like the groout idea
For grout though, wouldn’t it have to set for at least 24 hours? My other idea was using plaster at the bottom and then caulk around the plaster to make it waterproof. Do you think that would work? I know you said about plexiglass shims, currently I am using plastic door shims since I read that those are better than wood obviously.
 
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Just pull the toilet and lower the flange.
There are various ways to do that, post pics of the flange from several angles.

3/4 inch high toilet is subject to cracking, if you don’t have tons of perfectly installed shims.
Which tend to slip and move with use.

Why is the flange so high anyway?

You might have an older house which used to have a thick mortar bed under tile, which got torn out and new thinner flooring put in.
 
I
Just pull the toilet and lower the flange.
There are various ways to do that, post pics of the flange from several angles.

3/4 inch high toilet is subject to cracking, if you don’t have tons of perfectly installed shims.
Which tend to slip and move with use.

Why is the flange so high anyway?

You might have an older house which used to have a thick mortar bed under tile, which got torn out and new thinner flooring put in.
I’m not sure why it’s so high because I didn’t pull up any floor, I just replaced the toilet and that’s what I found. There looked like dried up plaster underneath the toilet since the floor may not be perfectly level. Thank you for the advise to just lowering the flange.
 
I
Just pull the toilet and lower the flange.
There are various ways to do that, post pics of the flange from several angles.

3/4 inch high toilet is subject to cracking, if you don’t have tons of perfectly installed shims.
Which tend to slip and move with use.

Why is the flange so high anyway?

You might have an older house which used to have a thick mortar bed under tile, which got torn out and new thinner flooring put in.
I’m not sure why it’s so high because I didn’t pull up any floor, I just replaced the toilet and that’s what I found.
Are your drains PVC or cast iron. You may not be able to lower the flange.
I believe they are cast iron. Definitely not PVC
 
Cast iron is tougher to cut down to lower it.

Probably just better to shim it with about 12 or more stacks of shims.
I would use some glue or caulk to hold the shims to each other and to the floor, and slide them almost out of sight under the toilet, but still getting a good grab on the porcelain.

Then you could fill in the gaps with mortar or plaster mix, and caulk all around when dry.
Leave a small gap for air flow and leak escape point at the rear of the bowl.
 
If the floor was not lowered by someone in the past, you may have done something whacky when you mounted the toilet.

But we can’t see under it now.
 
Cast iron is tougher to cut down to lower it.

Probably just better to shim it with about 12 or more stacks of shims.
I would use some glue or caulk to hold the shims to each other and to the floor, and slide them almost out of sight under the toilet, but still getting a good grab on the porcelain.

Then you could fill in the gaps with mortar or plaster mix, and caulk all around when dry.
Leave a small gap for air flow and leak escape point at the rear of the bowl.
Hey Jeff, thanks for the advise about the stacks of shims. I think I'm going to try that and see how it works out. Would you use mortar or plaster? Do you have a preference when doing this? I know plaster isn't water resistant is what DAP told me, but I also don't want something that will be so permanent that if I need to take out the toilet that it will break.
 
I have never done a huge number of shims like that.

I would cut the flange off, and insert a new flange that seals inside the pipe.

But it is not easy or for beginners.

I usually shim toilets with stacks of coins glued together, but only in maybe five or six places where there is a gap from the uneven floor.

Ask at a tile shop for a flexible bagged dry mortar mix for floor tile, that should be fine.

If you use tapered shims, you can cut them in pieces, and point them towards each other to create a flat surface.

Mortar is strong, but not as adhesive as thinset adhesive, so I think it is a good choice.
Push some in at least an inch under the edge of the bowl, and tool it nice with a wet finger.
Don’t push any mortar too deep into the wax ring area.
 
If you set the toilet on the flange with no sealing ring, the toilet should rest on the floor with no rocking. If it rocks, you've got to lower the flange or raise the floor. I believe they market toilet-base-shaped plastic gaskets to effectively raise the floor, and they don't look too bad. Lowering the flange is usually very difficult, particularly if you don't have access to the waste plumbing below.
 
Mikey, could you find a link to a gasket like that?

That would be ideal for this situation.
 
A 3 1/2" "Toilevator" is pretty common (Walmart, Home Depot,...). It's designed to raise the toilet 3 1/2" to ADA height, and is probably overkill for the OP's situation. Home Depot shows a more gasket-like thing that's either .1", 1/8", or 1/4" high, depending on which reviewer you trust, but didn't get a lot of rave reviews. I'd probably measure the height required and cut a piece of vinyl flooring or some other pliable, waterproof material to the shape of the toilet and make my own to bring the floor under the toilet to the height of the flange. A little caulk, and Viola!
 

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