Should You Caulk Between Toilet And Floor

This may damage or break the wax seal resulting in leaks.

Should you caulk between toilet and floor. These clients say that caulking around the base of the toilet would trap water from a leaking toilet causing damage below and around the toilet since it has no place to leak onto the floor. Doing this would cause more harm than good. Cut the tip from a tube of silicone caulking with a utility knife at a 45 degree angle. Always test flush a newly installed toilet multiple times before sealing it just to rule out the chance of a hiccup in the installation process.

If you aren t sure what you are doing however a simple diy job can turn into a messy ineffective nightmare. Caulk should appear seamless while keeping your walls windows floors and ceilings. You don t know how to caulk. It s not done to prevent water from leaking around the base.

Caulking this connection is fine if the wall is some sort of one piece sheet or enclosure but with tile it should not be there. According to structure tech people will bring up the argument that not caulking a toilet to the floor can help you identify a leak. Toilets should be caulked to the floor to prevent side to side movement that can break the wax seal and to prevent splashes or overflows from puddling under the toilet and rotting the floor. One argument which most experts agree upon is that caulking the base of a toilet to an uneven floor will improve stability and greatly reduce the risk of a leak forming.

The grout joints are designed to prevent water from penetrating the wall but any small amount that does penetrate is able to evaporate out and or weep out along the bottom. Caulking around a toilet is usually done to hide the gap between the toilet s base and the floor for cosmetic reasons or to prevent odor leakage. I prefer to seal the bowl with phenoseal caulk which cures to a flexible durable watertight finish. Diyers often set the toilet and then apply a tiny bead of caulk along the outside edge.

If you fill an empty tub the caulking might bulge out of the joint when the tub is in use.