Toilet Leaks - Bath Tub Fills

First off, it's "seal" singular, not "seals" plural. There's one wax ring that seals the base of the commode to the flange on the end of the soil pipe, and that's the only seal there is. The bolts just hold the commode to the floor. Water's coming out around them because (a) it's getting past the wax ring, (b) it has to go somewhere, (c) there aren't any gaskets that stop it from coming out around the bolts, and (d) if there were, it would just come out somewhere else instead.

And yes, the seal needs to be replaced -- *after* the sewer line has been snaked, and it's confirmed that the toilet drains properly after flushing.

IMO you should not attempt this yourself. This sounds more like a job for a pro, with heavy-duty equipment. You probably have a blockage in the sewer line somewhere between your house and the street.

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his butt. And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?

Shower doesn't put water into the drain as quickly as a toilet. If the blockage is only partial (as it must be, or you'd have dirty water going

*everywhere*), it could be draining through the blockage nearly as fast as it comes out of the shower head. A toilet, on the other hand, dumps at least 1.6 gallons (and maybe as much as 7, if it's a really old one) into the drain pretty much all at once.

That doesn't mean that the problem is confined to just the one toilet where you see the problem. I can think of at least two explanations for why the other toilet _appears_ to work normally:

1) There's enough pipe between the other toilet and the blockage to hold all the water contained in a normal flush, without backing up. The blockage is only partial, and the water drains out eventually. What happens if you flush the other toilet several times in quick succession, or pour a couple of five-gallon buckets full of water down it? 2) There may be two soil pipes leaving your house, that join somewhere in the yard in a single line to the sewer. The blockage is in only one pipe, between the house and the joint.

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his butt. And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?