How to Shim a Toilet
Imagine it’s 3 AM and you’ve woken up with a full bladder. It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes people will drink too much water too late in the evening. Or you might go out for a night on the town and get home realizing that you haven’t gone in a couple of hours and you need to go now.
You sit down on the porcelain throne and feel it rock, but chalk that up to sleepiness or intoxication. The truth is, a toilet should be and feel rock-solid on the floor. A toilet is an inflexible fixture of ceramic, but it sits on a floor that is made of wood. A tile floor might be easier to fix the toilet to, but true tile floors in a bathroom are getting harder and harder to find.
Most modern bathroom floor tile comes from a roll. Either it’s decorative tile over a hardwood floor, or linoleum tile again over a hardwood bathroom floor. Either way, if there are variations in a floor, the caulk holding the toilet to the floor can weaken over time, creating the opportunity for the toilet to wobble. If you know how to shim a toilet, you can avoid having to call a plumber for a simple fix.
Toilet repairs aren’t expensive or difficult
There are plenty of home repairs that are not difficult at all to do. A wobbly toilet is one of these things. Many homeowners assume that most home repairs require a contractor. Home repairs like shimming a wobbly or rocking toilet is something that any homeowner can perform with the right materials, a good mallet, and about 20 minutes of time.
Repair work on a toilet is especially daunting for the average homeowner. Toilets mean plumbing and moreover, they mean water that’s already stored in a position for gravity to let it out all over the floor of your home. If you’re looking to repair a toilet, the tendency is going to be to call the professionals every time, because they have the tools and know-how to do the job competently and without hesitation.
And thankfully the jobs are simple
The best thing about minor home repairs is that once started, they tend to be extremely simple jobs. A minor home repair can often be done without more than basic mechanical know-how – just enough to unscrew and rescrew a stripped screw hole or tighten a loose nut. Home repairs
However, some minor plumbing jobs are easy enough to handle without a plumber’s certificate, especially if there’s no actual water involved in the process. An example of this is shimming a wobbly toilet, which does absolutely nothing involving the tank and is a simple home repair job that can be completed in between 20 and 40 minutes depending on the homeowner’s level of mechanical confidence.
Plan on spending the larger amount of time, of course. “Measure twice, cut once” is an important rule of thumb when doing home repairs, and even more so when those home repairs are done on your bathroom. With that said, let’s dive right in with a basic overview of the terminology involved, starting with “what is this shim thing, anyway?”
What’s A Shim?
If you are an experienced homeowner you probably know this already, but a shim is an extremely useful household tool. A shim is a very thin wedge, which can be used to prop up, stabilize, or level a piece of furniture. Shims can also be used in carpentry to correct a piece of wood that’s just too short or cut slightly unevenly.
Carpentry shims generally come in metal (typically aluminum) or wood. Plumbing shims are typically made of plastic or rubber, on the other hand. They are usually called toilet shims because they’re almost always used specifically to prop up a toilet. A plumbing shim is designed with a ribbed surface to fill in the gap, grip sealant and keep the toilet from rocking the shim out of its space.
A toilet shim’s goal is to keep plumbing – specifically a toilet, level. Remember that water intrusion could cause a wooden shim to rot or warp. Therefore, only use plastic or rubber toilet shims with a toilet – never a wooden shim. Aluminum shims could also work, but generally are the wrong hardware for the job as aluminum shims generally take the form of washers. Wedge shims can be slid in and out to multiple heights, using their ribbed surface to measure the space.
Why do you want to shim a toilet?
A toilet typically needs to be as level as possible. The most relevant reason for this is that the toilet is a slightly slippery seat. People will sometimes have to use it while drunk, or sleepy in the middle of the night. Under those conditions it’s already easy to fall off, and wobbliness can The leveling action of the shims will counteract an uneven floor or one that has no
How to put shims into place
Shims require a few minor mechanical skills to put into place. The toilet must be leveled without lifting it, either by the shim or by main force. If the toilet ends up getting lifted, it can cause damage to the plumbing. The might create a leak that could take thousands of dollars to repair.
Put the shims in place on the side that needs to be stabilized
Typically, with a wobbly toilet, only one side needs to be stabilized. Wobbles in furniture and home fixtures in general are normally only on one corner or one side of the furniture or fixture. Once that is isolated and corrected, the problem normally disappears.
Normally, 4-5 shims will be sufficient to stabilize the corner of the toilet that’s out of contact with the floor. Once the positioning of the shims is correct and the toilet no longer moves or wobbles, move on to the next phase.
How to keep shims from moving out of place?
Once again, it is essential to prevent the shims from actually lifting the toilet. Lifting the fixture will make the toilet’s stability problem worse by destroying the seal of the rest of the toilet with the floor. To avoid lifting the toilet using the shims, each shim should only be pushed in under the toilet until it passes the first ridge where it seats firmly. Once that ridge is passed, the shim should not be pushed in any further, to avoid lifting the toilet.
This procedure should then be repeated with each of the other shims going around the base of the toilet. Do this until every shim is properly seated under the base of the toilet.
Cleaning up
This procedure will like leave a toilet with an unsightly arrangement of plastic tabs hanging out from underneath one corner. It’s recommended to clean up by using a razor blade to slice away the exposed portions of the shims.
Once the shims are sliced down to the edge of the bowl, the toilet can then be neatened up further. Take caulking gun and run a bead of opaque silicone caulk along the base of the toilet. Make sure to fully hide the shims and protect them from sliding out as well. The result of this work will be a tidy, nice-looking toilet that neither wobbles nor leaks.
Conclusion
Home repairs can be satisfying to learn how to perform when you’re a new homeowner. Learning basic home repairs will also save the homeowner money. They won’t have to spend on calls that can be readily handled with just a little know-how.
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