Mastic gap between toilet and tiling

HungryHippos

HungryHippos

HungryHippos

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Joined
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Fareham
Sorry ahead of time here, this is not exactly that interesting.

I live in a new build, and the developer completely failed to install a flat floor in the bathroom, so they've had to rip out the toilet, the vinyl flooring, and go to town with the sander.

The floor is now reasonably flat and about ready to accept the new flooring (Amtico spacia). The problem I have is that when the toilet was reinstalled, the mastic job they did was a bit shoddy. See: https://i.imgur.com/bqmQoRyh.jpg

I asked them to come back and remove it/re-apply, the mastic gap was much larger than it was previously.

It's become apparent that the reason for this is that the floor is still not totally level, I have quite a long spirit level (about 1M) and I need to lift it up a few MM to get it to be level at one end (when placed against the tiles and directed into the centre of the room).

The tiling is also slightly off somehow as it seems to have a slight concave to it.

The toilet is flush to the tiles at the bottom, but the gap at the top between the toilet and the tiling is roughly 1CM as a result of both the flooring and the tiling being out of square. See: https://i.imgur.com/oc1s2muh.jpg

The sanding activity must have lowered the front of the toilet unit a bit.

Is it worth my time asking the developer to do anything about this? If so what should I even be asking them to do? The only thing that comes to mind is to level the floor more thoroughly, possibly some kind of screeding?

I don't want to get the flooring reinstalled until this issue is put to bed. The Amtico will be installed on top of plywood. the floorboards look like the standard chipboard flooring that is probably used in most new build houses these days.
 
I’ve no doubt you’ve spent a lot of cash on this house. You’re entitled to have it spot on. Get the developer to sort it out. It’s not down to you to provide them with solutions to a problem of their own making so just say you want the problem fixed.
 
Sanding a floor is not a cure if the floor is more than 1cm out then you have a case for it to be completely ripped out and relayed. It all depends on who your developer is and what they feel the tollerences are.
 
Are you sure the toilet is square? It's fired clay and sometimes aren't square.

They could use latex to level it spot on before the flooring.

They shouldn't be sanding your sub base flooring which looks like caberdeck.
 
Is it definitely the floor that's the problem rather than the walls?

I'd just send that WC photo to the head office and tell them to get everything square in your expensive house.

If the pan is out of square by that much as per maccapacca's post, then the pan is faulty and should be replaced. No way should it be so wonky.
 
The tolerance for flooring is 5mm over a 2m straight edge then if it's tiled reduced to 3mm over a 2m straight edge.

That's nhbc guidelines.
 
I believe normally they screed with a latex floor leveller over the plywood before putting down the tiles.

Example of my karndean below:
Nm https://imgur.com/gallery/rlWJ2

Note they have to do it well! Mine was matching up 3 different types of floor across 30m2 and there were parts not level, but overall you can't see it. I only realised later when I did the skirting boards.

I assume it's significantly out of level (by eye) as I know theres barely a single completely level wall in my 1960s house :p
 
Having had the developer send professionals in who used too much self levelling compound to sort a bathroom floor and who are now having to rip it out, potentially having to redo the tiling which may have a knock-on effect on the bath and mirrors - I feel your pain!

Our floor had dropped by 15mm in one corner. Instead now it's 45mm higher than the hallway...

Get your builders to explain clearly what they are going to do to resolve it before hand and check it during and after. Bathrooms are expensive, messy and time consuming to fix after a cockup.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the replies everyone! :)

I have taken a picture of the overall floor, you can see it's in a bit of a state: https://i.imgur.com/keAajbB.jpg

Pretty sure the toilet is OK and the problem is either the floor, or the wall being slightly out (or a combination of both).

The problem I had originally was at the seams between the boards, I don't know how, but it seems like the boards had shrunk except where they were glued together at the seams. This meant I had peaks and troughs which could be felt when walking on it. Maybe they installed damp boards or there was a leak or something. Either way the vinyl went over the top even though I'm pretty sure they knew it wasn't prepared properly for the install and would need to be ripped out anyway once I noticed it!

Developer has been kind of useless as I've had this on my snagging list since day 1, and it's now day 500 odd. One of the reasons I wanted to suggest a fix instead of leaving them to work it out. If I left them to it I think they'd probably mess it up even more :(

The bathroom runs directly into the hallway at the same level, I think screeding it might be an option but as per your reply skyripper it must needs be done carefully to avoid making a big mess of it.

The plywood they put down for the Amtico would only run up to the toilet base and not under it, so even if they levelled the rest out perfectly it would not solve this particular problem :(
 
You talking about the height of the tiles to the right of the toilet base along the floorline? If so I took a tape measure to it and the one to the right of the toilet is 12.5CM tall, the one next to the bath is 13CM to the grout line.
 
To get the toilet pan flush with the tiled boxing all they have to do is put some packers (varying sizes/qty's) underneath the front/sides and just mastic around afterwards. Could be the floor and/or the China (rarely perfect) that's out as someone previously mentioned. I would not be happy with a 10mm gap at the top as stated.
 
Not 100% on this, but I think the front of the toilet is not solidly connecting to the floor, so whatever you pack it with would only have leverage on the lips/edges. The packing would need to be a very specific, almost custom shape to work properly I think, otherwise it would foul the plywood installation that is meant to go up to the base of the toilet. If it was solid then I think it could work as you'd have a much larger surface area to work with, but it would also need to be done carefully as it would need to be slightly wedge shaped.
 
HungryHippos said:
Thanks for the replies everyone! :)



The plywood they put down for the Amtico would only run up to the toilet base and not under it, so even if they levelled the rest out perfectly it would not solve this particular problem :(
Click to expand...

why is the flooring only going round the toilet, every job i've been on the flooring is done first, then the toilet fitted.
 
They may have not installed the finished floor until the units were sold and the floor choices were made.

The plumber probably finished long before the floor layer.
 
suppose i can understand that. any new builds i've worked on are being built by the owner and not to tight pricing.

the toilet will never sit perfectly against the tiles, none do even very expensive ones but it shouldn't be anything like as bad as that. usually a normal thickness silicone bead covers it. i would say best option is self level whole floor, fit the toilet and then the floorers can work from there
 
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