rocking toilet

[stevensee]

After replacing the wax ring on my toilet my toilet continues to rock. I have a ceramic tile floor under my toilet and it's not allowing my toilet to sit level. What material would work best to allow a tight secure fit between the toilet and the tile? I don't want to use shims. I've heard of using all purpose waterproof bath caulk, or a waterproof mortar. Any suggestions?

[Hawk]

Toilet shims would help. Available at most hardware or plumbing shops. Once stable, grout the bottom edge and let dry. Should last for years. [8D]

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Saftey First! </center>

[mrcaptainbob]

Shims would work, but I've always been more comfortable with penciling the outline of the bowl on the floor and placing a a halfinch bead of grout all around. Set the toilet on that and press down and make sure it's level front/back and side/side. Clean the stuff that squeezes out and seal to prevent moisture intrusion and make cleanup easier. Gives a nice firm 100% support to the entire surface.

[LazyPup]

While the introduction of shims or grout will stop the rocking I would prefer to find out what is causing the rocking and correct the problem if possible.
I would begin by lifting the toilet and using a putty knife thoroughly cleaning the flange. Quite often you will find that in times past someone has used wax rings with a plastic guide flange and failed to remove the old plastic flange before installing a new wax ring. The end result is two or more plastic flanges are now stacked upon each other thus elevating the toilet above the floor and causing the rocking action. Once you have the flange thoroughly cleaned check the level of the top of the flange in reference to the adjacent flooring. If the top level of the flange is now flush with the floor or perhaps 1/4 of an inch above the floor a new wax ring without a guide flange should suffice, however, if the flange is more than a 1/4 of an inch above the floor you will need to build up the floor.
Most commercial plumbing supply stores carry a 1/4 inch thick white vinyl pad that is made for building up the toilet base. The pad is predrilled to slip over the flange, then you trace the outline of the toilet base on the pad and cut to fit with a jig saw. Once the pad is set in place, you replace the wax ring, set the toilet making sure you gently rock it back and forth with strong down pressure on the toilet to expand the wax and allow the base of the toilet to make firm contact with the floor. Once you have pressed the toilet in place so that it has firm contact with the floor, they you can tighten the flange bolts to hold it in place. Do not use the flange bolts to pull the toilet down on the new wax ring or you run a serious risk of breaking the ceramic base of the toilet.

[Ken]

I had a similar problem. We replaced out bathroom floor (some really old vinyl tiles with new ceramic tiles). Unfortunately, being newbies, we didn't do a good enough job keeping the floor level around the toilet, which caused some rocking. We made some plastic shims and used them to level the toilet. Once they were in, we caulked them in and around the toilet. Now it works wonderfully Thanks for the tip.

-Ken