Causes Of A Wobbly Toilet

Close up of a toilet

Imagine sitting down to use your porcelain throne; then, all of a sudden, you feel the bowl wobble from side to side. What can be more annoying than that wobble? We know there are far worse things, but roll with us here. These are some of the reasons why your toilet might feel like the leaning tower of Pisa.

Uneven Floors

The only way to properly secure your toilet to the floor is to have an even flat surface, so if your toilet itself is fine, your issue might be your floors. Homeowners can often overlook their floors when trying to identify the cause of a wobbly toilet. Damaged bathroom tiles or improperly renovated floors can create an uneven surface that will cause the flange not to secure tightly and leave you with a wobbly toilet.

Loose Flange Bolts

If you take the time to inspect your toilet, you may notice metal bolts near the base of your toilet. Those flange bolts help keep your toilet fastened to your floor and secure your porcelain throne quite well. However, when flange bolts become loose or damaged over time, you can notice the base of your toilet shift.

Not only can a rocking toilet be uncomfortable when you go to use the bathroom, but you can also damage your floor tiles. Thankfully, loose flange bolts can be fixed by tightening the bolts quick DIY project.

Flange Issues

While the flange bolts help make your toilet sturdy, you may have issues with the flange itself if your bolts are tightened but still notice a wobble. The toilet flange helps connect your toilet to your sewage drainage pipe and helps mount the unit to the floor. If there is corrosion or issues with wax seal rings on the flange, the flange bolts will not have anything to latch onto securely.

Flange damage can also cause you the unfortunate side effect of leakage at the base of your toilet, which means a slew of water damage issues. Unlike tightening your flange bolts, fixing a broken flange is best left to the pros as you need to move your entire toilet and take apart the unit from the base.

What Should You Do?

While you can quickly tighten flange bolts to help fix a wobbly porcelain throne, we honestly would not recommend taking the DIY approach to fix your toilet. When it comes to moving and disassembling a toilet, it can be easy to damage your floors or even your toilet's components potentially if you're not careful.

Avoid adding a broken toilet to the list of repairs by calling the professionals at Advanced Air Home Services. Call } today; our plumbers are ready to help you fix that wobbly toilet to help avoid potential leaks, which can be pricey to fix!