Toilet bolt broke free from floor...recommendations?

Question

I was recently tightening the nut on a loose toilet (it was rocking) when the bolt surprisingly broke free and came up. There was no real "breaking free" feeling...it just seemed to be floating there.

What could cause this sort of thing to happen? My first thought was that the wax seal must be leaking and might have caused the floor to rot, but I have seen zero evidence of water and the tile surrounding it looks flawless. Additionally, looking up from underneath it (from the basement) I see no damage either.

My next thought is to completely remove the toilet and see what's going on, but that's an involved and crappy job, so I would appreciate any advice or wisdom you can offer.

Answer 1

Before removing the toilet...

As you were tightening it, it's entirely possible that the bolt turned 90°, coming loose in the flange slot, and that's the sudden loosening you felt.

Here's an image of a toilet flange. The nifty red line/oval are my own addition showing where the bolt is supposed to go. Note that this flange image is upside down from the way it's actually installed in your floor:

^{Flange image courtesy of homedepot.com. Red bolt courtesy of my excellent artistic skillz.
Hat tip to Steve Summit for suggesting inclusion of a picture.}

You can see that the bolt head is oval shaped to fit through the oval hole in the toilet. It also fits through the keyhole slot in the toilet flange. My guess is that nothing at all is broken and that it's a very simple fix. Even if I'm wrong, this is a cheap, simple thing to try before you start removing things and buying parts.

• Place the bolt down through the slot in the toilet, pushing it all the way down until it stops moving.
• Keeping the bolt vertical and applying light pressure, carefully rotate the bolt 90° (either direction).
• Once the oval bolt head lines up with the slot in the toilet flange, it should drop right through.
• Carefully rotate the bolt another 90° (again, either way).
• Pull up on the bolt.
  • It should now be caught by the flange, and should not start coming back up to hit the porcelain.
• Assuming the bolt is caught, hold the bolt and start the nut.
  • As you tighten the nut, continue to pull up on the bolt, moving your grip as necessary, to hold the bolt in its caught position.
  • Once the bolt is snug enough, it shouldn't spin as you finalize tightening the nut.

It might be helpful to take a Sharpie™ or other marker pen and draw a line on the flat at the end of the bolt (the part that will point up as you're tightening the nut down) that is in line with the length of the oval head. This line will help you to keep track of which way the oval is facing, and it will help you to keep the bolt aligned as you're twisting, turning and tightening.

Answer 2

The end of that bolt fits into a slot or keyway on the toilet flange which is attached to the floor. It's quite possible it wasn't properly installed or it's possible that the flange is damaged or something.

The only way to know is to pull the toilet and inspect what's underneath. Hopefully you just need to re-insert the bolt in the slot and be done with it.

It can seem like a daunting task but it's not that bad. Be sure to drain the toilet as best you can to make it lighter and cut down on the water mess. Remove the other bolt and disconnect the water supply. Then just pull the toilet up and away from the flange and it should be clear. The only thing other than the two bolts are weight and the wax ring.

Always replace the wax ring with a brand new one before putting the toilet back though.

Tolet Flange

Answer 3

I just want to add that if the bolt head came loose because the flange broke, you can get metal rings to screw to the floor to replace or augment the existing drain hardware, without replacing the pipe bearing the flange. I had to do this once, in a concrete floor.

Answer 4

Just put a silicone caulk joint around the toilet base. Clean the area, put the sealant using a caulking gun, then adjust the joint with your finger using soapy water. Thereafter let it dry for two days. At least in my country the bolts are used less and less.

Edit: You need to loosen the other bolt, tilt the toilet around and clean, and then tilt the toilet around when you apply the caulk. The best is of course to remove the toilet when you do it. Another option is to let someone lift it a centimetre or so.

Answer 5

Toilet bolt broke free from floor...recommendations?

You have a range of answers here, but I did want to suggest that it is possible to get your hands on a scope like this one, you probably can figure out what's going on. If you're a DIYer, a quality scope comes in handy for a variety of purposes like peering into drywall, into plumbing, through insulation, etc. I do like the answer that you can use clear silicone caulk to have the base adhere to the floor. If you do it, my advice would be to leave a portion unsealed in the back so that if for whatever reason the ring is compromised between the base and the flange, you'll see the leakage. Otherwise, it can build up belowboard and be a surprise to someone someday.

What could cause this sort of thing to happen?

Your setup looks like brand new construction (I don't see ANY corrosion) so it's either the plastic flange broke or slipped out of the notch as far as I can see. Using torque and the leverage of threads might have been enough, but with all of that wax on the head it might have slipped off. To begin with, it may have not been secured properly if someone down the chain of command was in a rush to get the job done.