Replacing toilet wax ring - how difficult is it?

[Anonymous]

Anyone replace a wax ring in a toilet before? How hard was it? Hoping we can get by without hiring a plumber...

[Anonymous]

We've done it every time it needed to be done. Go on YouTube - there's a video that will teach you anything.

[Anonymous]

It's super, super, SUPER easy. If you don't mind getting your hands a little bit dirty, there is no reason to have a plumber do this.

[Anonymous]

Not hard at all-doable by Jo be person but easier to get the alignment right immediately with two people. Also only lightly dirty. Easily done in the time it takes to wait for a plumber.

[Anonymous]

Very easy, but have a helper. You need to set the toilet down and two makes it easier.

[Anonymous]

I did it myself. I found removing the old wax ring to be really gross, but it was easy. The hardest part was when I removed the old wax ring and discovered the metal part had broken. But a quick google and a trip to Home Depot later and I repaired it.

Definitely recommend watching You Tube videos, but overall this is pretty easy to do.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, all! Thank goodness for youtube

[Anonymous]

Why are you changing the wax ring? It is usually because you have some water leaking from underneath the toilet. This happens because the toilet was not well secured to the ground and was moving around. Be ready to check for any water damage around the pipe.

A couple of tips -

1) drain the toilet as much as possible. The toilet itself is not that heavy, but can be tough to move if it has a lot of water inside.

2) have a putty knife ready to scrape up the old ring.

3) when you remove toilet, be careful with the metal bolts that hold the toilet to the toilet flange. The bolts can fall down under floor, and you really, really, don't want to have to reach into the pipe to pull them out if they fall in (yuck!). It is easy to buy replacement bolts, but I find they sometimes don't fit well in the older flanges.

4) I like the wax-less rings because they are easy to install by yourself - you can tip the toilet onto the ring, but the wax ones really work best and are cheaper. Just note that you have to pickup the toilet and lower it straight down on the wax ring. If you tip the toilet during installation and squish one side of the wax ring, it will leak, so you will need to get another wax ring

5) when you are tightening the nuts to attach the toilet to the flange, you need tighten firmly but evenly on both sides (e.g., alternate turning the nuts on each side). Don't go overboard or you will crack the toilet base

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are you changing the wax ring? It is usually because you have some water leaking from underneath the toilet. This happens because the toilet was not well secured to the ground and was moving around. Be ready to check for any water damage around the pipe.

A couple of tips -

1) drain the toilet as much as possible. The toilet itself is not that heavy, but can be tough to move if it has a lot of water inside.

2) have a putty knife ready to scrape up the old ring.

3) when you remove toilet, be careful with the metal bolts that hold the toilet to the toilet flange. The bolts can fall down under floor, and you really, really, don't want to have to reach into the pipe to pull them out if they fall in (yuck!). It is easy to buy replacement bolts, but I find they sometimes don't fit well in the older flanges.

4) I like the wax-less rings because they are easy to install by yourself - you can tip the toilet onto the ring, but the wax ones really work best and are cheaper. Just note that you have to pickup the toilet and lower it straight down on the wax ring. If you tip the toilet during installation and squish one side of the wax ring, it will leak, so you will need to get another wax ring

5) when you are tightening the nuts to attach the toilet to the flange, you need tighten firmly but evenly on both sides (e.g., alternate turning the nuts on each side). Don't go overboard or you will crack the toilet base

Thanks for the tips! We are replacing the ring since the toilet is wobbly.

[Anonymous]

Try shims if it's not leaking

[Anonymous]

Yikes. So your toilet is wobbly. We had this happen but it wasn't the wax ring. The pipe was actually cracked underneath. So that's always a fun possibility (but still a DIY).

[Anonymous]

wobbly? not the wax ring. changing ring is not hard as others have said... but you need to do it right so your sh*t water doesn't leak all over the place.

[Anonymous]

We are the least handy people on the planet and we did it when we decided to replace a toilet. We couldn't get a good seal with just one wax ring, so a friend who does a lot of handy work suggested using two. We did, and it worked like a charm. So pick up an extra one just in case.