ShareThisQ: The advice you gave about setting a toilet without sealing the fixture to the floor sent me to my code books. According to my code books: "Joints formed where fixtures come in contact with walls or floors shall be sealed." My jurisdiction has taken this to mean the joint between the toilet base and the floor must be caulked or sealed with grout on tile floors. I would hate to have the homeowner follow your advice and get a red tag upon job inspection. --Wally in FloridaA: First let me explain to readers what the dreaded "red tag" means. It usually means someone did not follow the local codes and the "tagged" issue needs to be corrected.In all fairness, though, I was not advising to set a toilet without sealing it to the floor; the issue was shimming a toilet.It looks like you did your homework, and if your local codes require that the toilet base be "sealed," then there is no disagreement: we seal the toilet base to avoid the red tag. However, there is a difference between "sealing" a toilet base and "caulking" a toilet base with adhesive caulk.My advice was that: "Most of the plumbers I know do not caulk around the entire toilet base." The reason for this is that a toilet glued to the floor can be difficult to remove without damaging the floor or breaking the toilet. Now, if you seal the toilet base with a non-adhesive material like tile grout, you can follow your local codes and avoid a problem down the road.Keep in mind also that a completely sealed toilet base may hide a leaking toilet flange and this may damage the floor under the toilet over time. For that reason, once again, myself and most of the plumbers I know will leave a gap in the seal on the back side of the toilet base. This way, the front of the bowl is sealed from urine or other moisture that may get in under the toilet, but if there is a flange leak you can usually spot leaking out the back. Bottom line: Do what the local inspector says, and that should seal the deal with this issue!Q: Can you resolve another husband/wife dispute? During the heating season, we run an electric humidifier to put moisture into our home since we heat with a wood stove and the air can get very dry. When taking showers I leave the bathroom door open with the fan off to let the moist air dispense into the house. I feel this helps keep our house extra-moist during the heating season. My husband insists that we keep the bathroom door closed tight with the bathroom vent fan on to prevent mold from building up in the bathroom. What do you think? - Jayne in New HampshireA: Both of you bring up some very credible points. You are correct that moist air is moist air and the extra shower steam may feel good in a dry house. Your husband is correct that good airflow from a vent fan may prevent mold from building up.I have the perfect solution: Continue to take your showers with the bathroom door open, but run the vent fan while taking your shower. This will give you a nice mix of fresh airflow and extra moisture throughout your home.(Master Contractor/Plumber Ed Del Grande is known internationally as the author of the book "Ed Del Grande's House Call" and for hosting TV shows on Scripps Networks and HGTVPro.com. For information visit eddelgrande.com or write eddelgrande(at)hgtvpro.com. Always consult local contractors and codes. For more stories visit scrippsnews.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)
Sealing toilets ... A shower dispute
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