Why Toilets Are Caulked To The Floor

Why Are Toilets Caulked To The Floor?

The Ohio State Plumbing Code requires toilets to be caulked to the floor. Some builders and homeowners don’t like that. They think it doesn’t look that good. There is a very good reason they are caulked to the floor.

It usually starts with a phone call from a very frustrated housewife. By the time she calls me she has cleaned the house like the white tornado came through. It’s spotless and yet she is about to break down because the house smells like a cats litter box. It’s a smell that must be unique because only on these service calls do I ever smell that particular smell. I ask if she has little boys. So far everyone has said yes. I’ll then ask which bathroom they use. That smell, by the way is what I call fermenting urine! And it smells like no other smell. I inevitably pull up the toilet and beneath the toilet is a puddle of urine. A little Lysol and were back in business.

It’s funny because I’ll usually make some comment like ‘I know this is hard to believe, but, but, but, sometimes guys miss the toilet’. The husband starts stuttering, no, no, never. All the while the wife’s nodding in agreement. See, she cleans the bathroom so she knows!

Now you know why the toilet should be caulked to the floor surface. It’s not to stop something from getting out. It’s to stop something from getting in.