Toilet is leaking again, probably by plumber’s mistake?
live in an upstair condo(A201), and this incident involves ceiling & wall repair in downstair unit(A101).
The first incident happend less than 3 months ago, which was 4 months after I bought this condo. At that time, the plumber who was called in by an insurance company, reported this as an improper installation. The previous owner installed toilet AFTER she installed bathroom tiles and ON the tiles, so eventually the insurance company refused my claim. I had another plumber fix it, but he didn’t remove the tiles, saying if he leveled the flange on the same height of the tiles, he didn’t need to remove the tiles. So, he installed flange and wax gasket without removing the tiles. Needless to say, I also had to pay for the damage for A101.
It had been OK until leak happended again 3 days ago, wetting ceilings and wall in A101. I called the plumber who fixed it, but he refused to offer warranty for his work, saying the problem might be a different one. I opened the ceiling in A101, and found the water is leaking somewhere near the flange he fixed.
The plumber is trying to avoid my calls, saying if it’s been around 3 months, he doesn’t have any responsibility for it, WITHOUT even inspecting the toilet. Someone suggested me to report to CSLB(Contractors State License Board), but I’d like to find out if this could be the plumber’s fault. I’m desperately seeking your opinions on this. Please save my Christmas! Thanks in advance!
Dear klbytheba, Thanks for your answer. There has been no abuse or special circumstance in using the toilet. My wife is 100lbs, and I’m 140lbs. Almost no one has used the toilet. The only problem I found was that 2 bolts on each side of the toilet bottom are a little loose, but the toilet itself is stable and not moving.
The plumber replaced theflange with a brand new one. I’m sorry, but I’m really not technical on this field, so what I saw was that he installed a new black rubber(or plastic?) flange, then put a wax gasket on it. And the water leak was very strong, almost like splashing on the flange part if I look up from downstair unit.