Toilet on slate...

RippySkippy

Very soon I'm going to install a toilet on a newly installed slate floor. and as you may know, by the nature of slate it's got a very uneven floor height. When the toilet is set, do I shim as normal and caulk around the base? There could be a pretty decent gap in places and just wanted to make sure I go about this correctly.

Thanks,

Rip

majakdragon

I agree that with slate you will probably need to shim. They sell plastic shims at Home Centers made for toilets. Some areas require caulking around the base but I like to leave the back open for leak detection. If you enclose the whole base and have a leak, you will not know until your tile starts coming up or the floor gives way. Good luck.

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Tmb9862

You can shim it using lead, just fold it over until it's the correct height.

To go a step further (in addition to the shims) and give the toilet a totally flat surface to sit on put some plaster around the edge of it. Put the bolts on and put the toilet down with no ring. Trace the outline of the base of the toilet onto the floor and pick the toilet back up. Put the wax ring on, mix up some plaster of paris and put a generous bead of it around the outside of the toilet. Put the toilet down and snug up the bolts. Have a bucket of water and a sponge waiting and wipe up the excess plaster kind of pushing it under the bowl. You can either make it flush with the edge of the toilet or push it under a little more to give you some room for grout or caulk, that's purely cosmetic though.

Edit: You can use wide masking tape around the outside of your toilet outline to make cleanup easier.

RippySkippy

I've never messed with plaster of paris, I always thought it was kinda like gypsum or drywall mud... i.e. somewhat soft and not durable. Will it make a solid stable base and be removable when the time comes? I don't want to cement the stool in place!

The masking tape might be a good idea...we just got done removing the grout from the surface...and even with it being sealed...still somewhat difficult.