How do you properly replace a toilet floor gasket?

Answer 1

Actually, it's quite easy with a few precautions. First thing is to turn off the water supply, and disconnect the water line connected to the toilet. If the toilet isn't leaking all that bad, after turning off the water supply, flush the toilet, and hold the handle down to allow as much water as possible out of the toilet as this will prevent a mess later when you remove the toilet.

When removing the toilet to replace the gasket, be very careful with the nuts and bolts that hold the toilet to the flange. The Flange is the part that holds the toilet down to the floor, and connects it to the sewage pipe (the gasket is actually in between the flange, and the toilet).

The nuts shouldn't be much more than "Just Snug", and hopefully once you've "broken" them loose, you will be able to remove them with your fingers without any tools.

If the existing bolts are made out of brass, you are in luck because you can usually unscrew the nuts without any problems, and then simply lift the toilet up off of the flange, but if they were made out of steel, they are very likely rusty, and you may not be able to remove the nut easily. It's Okay if the nuts are a "little" too tight to be removed by hand, but they should be easily removed with a small pair of pliers. If this isn't the case, and it seems to take more than "minor" effort, I would recommend that you stop trying to unscrew the nuts because it's possible to damage the flange, and if the flange is damaged, it can be quite a job to replace it.

If the nuts seem to be pretty hard to unscrew, it would be better to cut them off, and replace them, and actually they are very easy to replace so it may be better to be safe than sorry. The bolts don't have a normal bolt head, but instead have a special "T-Head" shape. The "T" fits into a slot in the flange which prevents it from turning when being tightened. That's why I recommend not attempting to use too much force to remove the nut because it can cause the "T" in the flange to break the flange. Don't worry about finding new hold down bolts because you can find them just about anywhere, and if fact, I've even seen them in the local Walmart.

If you have to cut them off, you can easily do this with a cut-off tool such as a "Dremel" tool with a cut-off wheel, but if you don't have one of these, you can just as easily cut them off with a hacksaw. The only real precaution is to be carefull not to scratch up the toilet if possible.

Once you have removed the nuts and any washers (or bolts if necessary), simply lift the toilet straight up off of the flange. What I try to do is to lift the toilet straight up, and then place the toilet in the bath tub to clean it up because when you lean the toilet in any direction, trapped water is going to pour out. Once you have done this, you will need to clean the bottom of the toilet, and the flange as much as possible. It doesn't really need to be spotless, but you don't want to leave anything that would prevent the new gasket from making a good seal.

If you had to cut off the bolts to remove the toilet, now is the time to replace the bolts. If the existing bolts were made out of steel, I would recommend replacing them with bolts made out of brass because it may make your life a lot easier if you have to ever replace the gasket again.

Some of the gaskets are made out of rubber, but most of the gaskets are made out of wax (at least down here in Texas), and may be referred to as a "wax ring". Both basically require the same precautions, so I will focus on the wax ring. Place the wax ring onto the flange, and then carefully lower the toilet down onto the flange (to make it a little easier, you may want to get someone to help guide the toilet down to make sure that the bolts are aligned correctly). Once the toilet makes contact with the wax ring, try not to move the toilet around such as side-to-side, twisting left or right, or by tilting the toilet in any direction other than straight down. Once the toilet is resting on the flange or now the floor, press down (again being careful not to move the toilet around) until it's resting firmly on the floor, and then place a washer, and nut on each bolt.

Tighten the bolts snug, but be careful not to get them too tight because you can crack the base of the toilet if you get them too tight. Once I've done this, I sit down on the toilet to make sure that it's actually all the way down for a minute or so, and then I retighten the nuts once again while being careful not to overtighten the nuts.

Replace the water supply line, and turn on the water. Once the toilet has filled, flush it a couple of times to make sure that there are no leaks.