Water on the bathroom floor around a toilet does not always mean the wax ring failed. On this call in West University Place, the leak was coming from higher up, where the tank meets the bowl.
Rusted bolts and a flattened gasket
The old steel tank bolts had rusted through and the sponge gasket between the tank and bowl had flattened and cracked. Every flush pushed a little water past the seal and onto the tile. Left alone, that slow drip finds the grout lines and the subfloor long before it ever looks like an emergency.
The fix: new gasket, brass hardware
We pulled the tank, cleaned up the mating surfaces, and installed a new sponge gasket with fresh brass bolts and washers. Brass matters here. Steel bolts are cheaper, but rusted steel bolts are also what caused the problem in the first place. The photo shows the new gasket and bolts seated on the underside of the tank before reassembly.
West U has plenty of older bathrooms where the original hardware has been in service for decades. If you are seeing water around the base of a toilet, it is worth finding out where it is actually coming from before it reaches the subfloor. Call Texas Premier Plumbing at 713-955-1919, or send a note through our contact page. Family-owned, Master Plumber License #16188, serving West University Place and greater Houston since 1989.