What home improvement work did you do today?

If it helps, every room I've done in our house on the main floor with 9-10ft ceilings, I spaced our multipack round 6" LED flat lights 24" away from walls, and 8ft apart from each other in each direction and find that provides a "warm" environment for living rooms and dining areas.

In the gym we just built out with 8ft ceilings, and in our kitchen and baths with 9-10ft ceilings where you want to be able to see with more contiguous light, we went with 5ft spacing light to light.

We used the Commercial Electric ones from big orange.

 

Nah, there's water under the toilet, it's leaking forward in the seams of the woodgrain floors, and the caulk bead is breach. 90% positive wax ring is jacked, I'll be shocked if not. I'll post pics tomorrow when I lift it off, then hit Ace or big blue/big orange to get a new seal.

This has to be recent, I do see a bit of discoloring there, but that's how far out the water staining was when I noticed it this AM. It wasn't leaking when we had a dozen ppl over here for t-giving a few days ago.

 

I think you have no choice but to remove the toilet and check out what is really going on. If it’s an old toilet, I’d think about updating it with a new one. Minimal fix is new wax seal(s) and new water supply line imo.

 

Supply line is fairly new, braided, awesome. House is hitting 20yrs and this toilet is relatively new TOTO Drake unit, about 12yr old. Definitely had some breach happening somewhere but it looks almost like a tiny amount of water was breaching over the wax ring at roughly 5 or 7 o’clock? There was a smaller-based toilet here before which leaked too, IIRC. Anyway, grabbing some plastic flat razor blades and TSP to clean the floor, then drying it out, then running to grab a new seal. Debating whether I should try one of the new “waxless” seals that costs 2x as much but supposedly won’t fail? We plan to sell the house in the next 8-10yrs and buy land elsewhere to build out as a home base so we can enjoy life.

 

Leviton. Gross. I'm more of a P & S kinda guy.

 

Pretty sure this rust stain suggests the breach happened on this side of the wax ring. Bring of the water damage is on this side. Probably need to dry out and re-clear the wood. Will see, I guess.

 

I like Legrand a lot. Aren’t they part of the same group now, though?

 

I got hooked on those Korky "reuseable" wax free seals. Just too damn clean and easy. I have a few johni rings on my shelf and last time I had a leak I just bought enough Korky's for the whole house. As I renovate or get a leak I replace! The height adjustability is great for any wonky floor situation.

 

I was looking at the “Better Than Wax” one, it’s blue. I like Korky products, overall. It’s gonna boil down to whatever the local Ace has. I always kick them business first before hitting the big box (orange or blue). Heading up there in 45. Floor almost dry now, trying to let it dry up naturally.

 

Yes sir, Pass & Seymour Legrand. I just like the way their plugs/plates look. They're also a bit better on actually hooking them up. Also, I'll NEVER use Leviton GFIs. They go bad in 6 months to a year if used outside.

 

You can post a pic and I can (probably) tell you what brand they are. I'm betting since the switchers are P&S, the outlets are too.

 

I've used these on every toilet in the past 10 years or so during our many remodels. No issues. Very clean installs. And I also caulk around the toilet. Not to keep the leaks or gasses in, but to keep any liquid on the floor from the tub or poorly aimed younguns from getting under the commode.

 

Ive yet to use that kinda gasket, but I have used the green foam one...worked good for the 4 years we were there. I tend to leave the back of the toilet caulk-free so it leaks from back there in situations like this. Were slab on grade, so no wood to rot, but still would want to know.

 

I may be in a pickle, reading through the reviews it looks like the Fluidmaster (blue one) isn't compatible with the horn on newer Toto toilets (we use Toto Drake or Drake II throughout the house, dunno if it qualifies as "newer" or not). Found some guy on a random forum saying he could make it work on his Drake II if he lubed the horn on the bowl first so it didn't bunch up. But virtually all other reviews on the big box store sites and scAmazon point to "doesn't work with Toto". Searching reviews on the Korky units, Toto users appear happy. I may just end up going with wax again, forego any headaches. I've set enough bowls in my lifetime to have a feel for it.

 

For S&G I grabbed the Korky and a standard wax ring, knowing I'd be back if the Korky sucked. Where the Korky waxless should intercept the horn, it's not suitably sized, and using the thinnest foam, the toilet is unstable as shit, even while sitting on it, and I'm not risking cracking the flanges on my toilet on a gimmicky product that appears incompatible. So back in the box it goes for return. I'm running with wax.

 

And decora! Look at you go fancy pants!

 

Back in the shittin’ business again. Will go with my gut next time and skip the newfangled crap; what a waste of gas and time. These Toto toilets flush way too good to bail, just gotta deal with weirdness of Thor bottom half. Although I gotta say, this system to mount toilets is nonsense. You’d think someone decades ago would have created a no-brainer system you bolt to the floor and slide the toilet over which didn’t rely on the use of wax or foam to seal it to a drain, and was easier/cleaner to replace, or better yet was such a solid system that failure was virtually impossible...

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no wax rings needed with outhouses

 

I used one similar to the Fluidmaster kit when we built our house in 2005. Four water closets, and there's been no issues with any of them.

 

$64 Legrand radiant R26USBCC6W 15 Amp Tamper-Resistant Decorator Duplex Receptacle Outlet with Ultra Fast USB C/C 6.0A Charging Ports, White (1 Count)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Q41Q1GY

Put one of these in my kitchen where everyone seems to plug in for charging. Will probably be adding another couple in the house before too long. It's been great, and I can still use the two regular outlets while the USB-C cables are plugged in.

 

It’s just this Toto toilet. The horn underneath is not only thicker rimmed, but is also slightly elongated. Everything I’m seeing online says you can technically make the Fluidmaster or the Korky wax less work with my toilet, but you’ve got to do one of two things: lube up the horn before laying it over OR hit the horn with alcohol so the gasket will stick to it; then l stretch the waxless ring gasket over the horn, then try to drop it on the flange with all the holes lined up.

I tried it with the Korky a few different times/ways, but the sad fact of the matter is, due to the thicker and non-round horn flange on this toilet, the thing got so distorted that I highly doubt we wouldn’t see a leak, and I’m not wasting $15 on something I need to finagle that hard that may leak, esp when a $4 part I’ve been using for decades just “works”, yknow?

I dunno. I believe the Fluidmaster and Korky probably work awesome with other toilets, Kohler, American Standard etc. this Toto Drake elongated is an awesome toilet, and I guess old school ingenuity is what works with it?