Probelms With The Crapper

I went into the boys bathroom last night and there is water all over the floor. I search to find a crack in the toilet. How do you get a crack in the toilet?!?!!? Is there some kind of goop or glue to patch the crack or do I have to spend the money and buy a new toilet?

The first thing to do is to figure out where the water is coming from. Is the inlet hose from the water supply tight? Even a little leak here could cause lots of water. You can easily get new washers to fix this.

Does the water stop running when the float hit the right level?

If there really is a crack in the toilet, I’d recommend a new one. I don’t know if there is a patch or not, but the crack is going to get worse.

Voyager - who knows way more about toilet repair than he ever wanted to.

I think she’s saying that there’s an actual crack in the toilet itself.

The first thing to do is to figure out where the water is coming from. Is the inlet hose from the water supply tight? Even a little leak here could cause lots of water. You can easily get new washers to fix this.

Does the water stop running when the float hit the right level?

If there really is a crack in the toilet, I’d recommend a new one. I don’t know if there is a patch or not, but the crack is going to get worse.

Voyager - who knows way more about toilet repair than he ever wanted to.

Press down real hard.

You could probably drain it and apply some silicone caulk. This has worked for me with a chipped sink. Is the commode mounted firmy to the floor? I’m curious what short of a thunderous durf might have caused it to break in the first place.

I don’t know if it is firmly mounted. I will check when I get home.

I am not a handyman so I guess I will have to hire one. These kids are going to be the death of me!

It sounded like she was assuming there was a crack. First rule of repair is to trouble shoot and replace the cheap components first. Unless a tank or bowl is very old, or got hit by something, it is hard for me to imagine a small crack causing a leak. It is easy to imagine a washer wearing out.

The leak might come anywhere in the intake pipe, and would look like a toilet leak also.

If it is a crack, you can buy underwater rated caulking - I got mine at a plastics store. This might be a temporary fix, but I’d still recommend getting a new one.

(sorry for the double post - damn hamsters)

This question might belong in GQ, actually

Your toilet not being firmly attached to the floor is not a good idea (it breaks the seal which keeps the gas from escaping into your bathroom from the sewer line) but it shouldn’t cause a leak. One of ours was loose for quite a while with never a problem.

You don’t have to be a handyman to check out the inlet valve. Just find the only pipe from the wall or floor to the bottom of your tank, and check to see if it is wet. You can drain the tank, dry off the hose, then refill and look for a leak. You can get a replacement at any hardware store, but I can understand if you don’t want to fix it yourself. Still, if this is the problem, it won’t cost much more than the plumber visit, while a new toilet is fairly expensive, and takes a lot longer to put in.

Good luck.

Not a plumber, but the grandson of a plumber.

I was watching one of my favorite HGTV repair shows this weekend, and it happens that they installed a new toilet in one segment. One thing I remember the host saying is that once there’s a crack in the porcelain, there’s really no effective repair, so you really need to replace it. If you do, in fact, have a crack below the water line, it’s just a matter of time before you have a catastrophic failure.

I would recommend that you dry everything, put some food coloring in the tank, let it sit a while, then flush and let that sit a while. If you see colored water, you’ve got a big problem. If it’s clear water, it’s likely in the supply line.

Toilets aren’t all that mysterious or difficult to troubleshoot.

Ok I can do what Fairy Chqat Mom said with the food coloring. EXCELLENT IDEA!

I personally did NOT see the crack, my son did. I will have to investigate this further tonight.

The toilet is only about ten years old and there aren’t any fat people in my house so I don’t know how it could crack! Must have been those Gremlins. You know the ones that drink the last of the milk (and no one knows who did it)

Let me check the toilet and get back with ya’ll tomorrow.

Thanks for the great suggestions.

Food coloring works well to see if you have a loose flapper valve - the color will get from the tank to the bowl without you flushing.

I don’t think that’s your problem - when that happens nothing winds up on the floor, and they symptom is that the water runs for no reason every so often (which happens when the water level sinks enough to make the shutoff valve turn on.)

I assume this is a leak, not a flood. I’ve never been able to see the color of a little bit of water myself.

Of course if the crack is visible, the next step is easy.