Home Improvement Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for contractors and serious DIYers. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
The bathroom in my house was redone right before I moved in. After moving in, I noticed the toilet is loose. It seems to only stay in place due to it's sheer weight, and it has quite a lot of jostle whenever it's sat on. The floor in the bathroom is ceramic tile.
How can I safely secure the toilet to the floor without risking ruining the title? Also, are there any plumbing issues to be corncerned about?
On each side of the toilet base you should find a rounded cover. Pry these off and that should expose the bolts that hold the toilet to the base plate. Start by gently tightening these bolts. You should use a wrench, but don't over-do it.
If tightening the bolts on the toilet doesn't work, you may have a cracked flange underneath the toilet. You don't mention how much it moves but if it's a lot, I would recommend pulling up the toilet (make sure to plug the sewer hole with a towel!) and making sure everything still looks okay underneath, including the flange and wax seal. A badly rocking toilet can lead to a leaky wax seal. If nothing is broken try to determine if the floor is just sloped or something that can be fixed with a shim or something to level out the floor.
If the toilet isn't moving that much, you can slide a metal or plastic shim underneath from the outside.
Just be aware that a lot of plumbers consider a rocking toilet to be a precursor to a leaking toilet so if it's been rocking for awhile you might want to take a look underneath just to be safe.
