DIY toilet crack repair

In detail: do-it-yourself repair of toilet cracks from a real master for the site my.housecope.com.

Faience belongs to the group of ceramic materials, therefore, toilet bowls made from it, despite their apparent massiveness, are quite fragile thing, and if handled carelessly, they can easily crack. The causes of cracks in them can be very diverse. For example, if you live in a small-sized apartment with a combined bathroom, then surely your cabinet for storing household chemicals for washing and maintaining plumbing fixtures is suspended in order to save space just above the toilet. If something falls from it or from it, then it goes straight into the toilet, and a crack will certainly appear in it, and if the dropped object is heavy enough, it may even be split. Therefore, if you have such a cabinet hanging over the toilet, the toilet should always be closed with a lid.

Does not tolerate faience and hot water, and especially boiling water. So if you have a habit of pouring water into the toilet after boiling potatoes, you need to get rid of it. Hot water enters the bowl, which heats up and expands, but the rest of the parts remain cold! Internal stresses arise in the material, which lead to the formation of cracks. And many also pour hot water down the toilet, flushing the batteries. Cracks are almost inevitable here, especially if flushing is performed during the cold season.

Cracks in the toilet can also occur due to defects made during its installation, for example, too tight or unevenly tightened bolts. When installing the toilet or replacing the cistern, the bolts should be tightened without distortion, in pairs and alternately, making the wrench only a few turns each time. It is advisable to additionally support the cisterns with a separate shelf against the wall, since without it, over time, a piece of the shelf or the ear of the toilet bowl, due to the fragility of the faience, will not withstand the load and will fall off. The bolts that pull the toilet bowl to the floor should not be tightened all the way, but only if the toilet bowl does not wobble. Is there an ugly gap left? It's okay, dilute a special dry mortar or prepare a cement mortar, and cover it up. But your toilet will have a large supporting area, and thus the likelihood of cracking in it will be much less.

But - after all, your toilet has already cracked, and now all these tips seem to be somehow already useless - you need to fix it! However, you also need to repair the toilet in different ways, depending on what exactly happened to you.

If the tightness of the toilet is not broken, for example, the eyelet or a piece of base that fixes the cistern shelf breaks off, clean the splinter and splinter of dirt, dry them, degrease them with gasoline or acetone, smear the splinter with Moment, Moment-Super or Henkel glue, and tightly press to the place of the chip under load. We hold the load until the glue has completely hardened, this time is indicated on its packaging.

When various objects fall into the toilet bowl, a chip usually forms in the place where water accumulates in it. There will already be little universal glue - you need an epoxy resin with a hardener and a container for mixing them. We shut off the water entering the tank, wipe the toilet bowl dry, and dry it and the shard. Degrease the chip and splinter, as described above. We mix the epoxy resin and the hardener for it, grease the place of the chip and the splinter with the resulting mixture, apply the splinter to where it came from, and fix it with electrical tape or tape. If possible, we apply a load to the gluing site - for example, using a spacer.When the resin is completely dry, we grind the seams with fine-grit sandpaper "number 0" and a piece of felt cut from old felt boots.

Video (click to play).

If a crack has formed - a through one, and thus the tightness of the toilet is broken, it must be immediately restored. Prepare a grinder by placing a stone disc, felt, sandpaper, manual or electric door on it, inserting a thin drill into it that can work with tiles, epoxy resin and a hardener for it.

Now we drill through the crack from both ends with a drill, limiting and thereby preventing its further growth. We work intermittently so that the faience does not overheat. Using a grinder, we turn the crack into a neat groove. We mix the hardener and epoxy resin, completely fill the resulting recess and both holes drilled in the faience with the mixture. We remove excess mixture. After the mixture has hardened, we grind the restored surface of the toilet bowl with "rough" sandpaper and felt at the finishing stage.

If the toilet is cracked at its base and starts leaking, all that remains is to replace it with a new one. Filling the cracked base with cement mortar will lead to conflicts with neighbors from below - then their ceiling will be constantly wet, even a fungus may appear. You already need it yourself?

An unpleasant occasion - a crack in the toilet. It seems that the problem is not catastrophic, and the water may not ooze, but the appearance of the plumbing is spoiled, and the risk of a leak is high. It is all the more offensive when the toilet is expensive and beautiful. You can also close the rift with your own hands. There are several ways to do this: glue-sealant, epoxy resin, cold welding and others. Videos and expert recommendations will help you figure out how the repair process takes place.

The choice of a method for eliminating a crack in plumbing largely depends on its type:

a chip that does not break the tightness;
one-sided crack (most often inside the toilet bowl);
a bilateral crack that affects or potentially affects the tightness.

If such damage forms in a bowl or cistern, it is enough to simply glue them together.

There is another type of cracks - at the base of the toilet. They usually appear when boiling water is poured into the toilet, and are most dangerous because they will continue to grow steadily in size. It is almost impossible to repair them, it is easier to replace them.

Attention! Saw a crack - glue it up as quickly as possible. A delay in solving the problem threatens to increase the size of the fault.

The method is relevant in the case when a fragment that is not responsible for the tightness has broken off from the toilet. This usually happens at the junction of the bowl with the cistern (eyelet or edge of the base) or on the cistern itself, sometimes along the rim of the toilet bowl. For this purpose, ordinary all-purpose glue is suitable. It is important to buy a reliable one, because there are many models on the market, many of which do not differ in quality.

The process of bonding a broken-off ceramic element consists of the following stages:

Clean the surfaces of the fragment and the toilet bowl in the place of the fracture from mechanical debris and ceramic chips.
After drying, degrease the surfaces using acetone or gasoline.
Apply glue and press down on the broken piece. The time and force of pressing should be in accordance with the recommendations in the instructions for the glue.

Attention! No matter how good the glue is, it cannot restore the toilet bowl to its former strength. Therefore, do not put stress on the glued piece.

This method is great for a situation where an object has fallen into the toilet and damaged the ceramics. The crack turned out to be shallow, does not allow water to pass through and is not visible from the opposite side. All-purpose glue works too, but epoxy is better. More precisely, resin plus hardener:

Prepare both components and a mixing container.
Shut off the water supply to the tank.Dry and dry thoroughly.
Degrease it.
Mix the two adhesives according to the instructions in the instructions for the substances.
Apply the mixture evenly to the desired surface.
Fix the place of gluing in any way. Even tape will do. It is important that the parts to be glued are pressed against one another.

After the resin has dried, it is better to grind the seam. This is important not only for improving the appearance of the toilet, but also for practical reasons. Minor irregularities in the seam will accumulate dirt. For grouting, use M20 or M40 sandpaper and then felt.

These products also work well with shallow cracks and broken pieces of faience. Prepare silicone solvent and laundry soap with your all-purpose silicone sealant adhesive. It is convenient to carry out application work with a plastic spatula:

Sand the crack with fine sandpaper. The procedure requires caution and thoroughness: there should be no small particles left on the surface, which will reduce the quality of gluing.
Degrease with solvent the parts to which the sealant will be applied.
Saturate surfaces with silicone. Remove excess with a spatula.
Lather your hand and walk over the glued area, smoothing it.

If the procedure is correct, the sealant will harden in 20 minutes, and the toilet can already be used.

In the case of "cold welding", you will have to wait at least 4 hours. The process is similar:

Clean and degrease the glued area.
Cut off part of the substance and knead it in your palms (put on gloves first). You should get a homogeneous mass.
Apply the paste to the surface, tamping down into crevices as needed.
After 4 hours, the seam becomes accessible for sanding.

Advice. Once the seam has dried, it can be painted over to match the color of the toilet.

If the crack is double-sided and allows water to pass through, then a two-component epoxy resin is also used. However, in this case, the crack needs additional treatment:

Drill two through holes along the edges of the fracture. To do this, you need a drill with a special drill for thin tiles. Such a technique should stop the growth of the crack.
Using a grinder (disc on a stone), make a depression along the length of the crack in half the thickness of the toilet bowl material. It doesn't matter which side of the plumbing you do this work, because the break will still remain noticeable. Be careful not to overheat the faience.
Pour the resin and hardener inside. Remove excess in an uncured state.
Sandpaper the area after drying. Paint over as needed.

It is possible that after the procedure, the crack will continue to grow over time. In this case, you will have to buy a new toilet, because it will not be safe to use the old one. Faience forms sharp pieces when broken.

We went into the bathroom, and there is a puddle on the floor next to the ceramic toilet, and you are completely in the dark, because of what it could be? If the gasket at the entrance to the drain tank is leaking, work for a couple of minutes, it is another matter when the problem arose due to a crack in the same tank or the bowl of the plumbing fixture itself.

In this case, the job is not so easy, which may even result in a complete replacement of equipment. If you want to know how to repair a crack and how you can glue the toilet yourself, read our article further.

Typical damage to ceramics

Before we learn how to glue a ceramic toilet, let's understand where our crack came from, so as not to waste time.

No effort should be made in large quantities during the process.
Make sure that the bolts are tightened evenly.

Otherwise, these two conditions will become precursors of the appearance of cracks. In this case, the cistern and toilet bowl may burst after a while, even a very long one.

First dismantle, and then decide how to glue the toilet cistern

Close the toilet lid... A seemingly simple operation will help protect the bowl from foreign objects entering it, which can cause chips and cracks. In addition, your valuables will also not fall into the water.
Do not pour hot liquid down the toilet, be sure to let it cool down... Agree, purchasing a new toilet and installing it will cost much more than an old pot or frying pan.
This also applies to flushing the heating batteries in winter. Do not direct water with a temperature of 80-90˚ into the toilet bowl.

Tip: if there is no other way to remove water from the heating radiators, push the hose into the sewer pipe through the toilet outlet.

During assembly, make sure that there is no distortion, and do not use excessive force., remember that the product is made of clay, not metal or wood. If the toilet cistern is cracked, you will find out how to glue it in the article below.

So, we figured out what can mainly lead to cracks in a ceramic toilet or cistern. Now let's move on to repairing them.

This method will help to repair the product when a fragment has broken off, which is not related to ensuring tightness. For example, a part of the base and an eyelet for attaching a shelf.

Toilet bowl glue "Supermoment" (by Henkel)

Get any all-purpose adhesive from a reputable manufacturer, the price cannot be low. Henkel's Supermoment is fine.

Clean the surface of the defect from crumbs and dust.
Let the product dry completely.
Degrease surfaces with petrol or acetone.
Apply glue and press down on the broken piece. Fix in any way for the time specified in the instructions for the composition.

Advice: it is not worth loading the glue joint, since in terms of strength it will be much inferior to solid faience.

In this case, consider the moment when an object fell into the toilet bowl and damaged it. Replace all-purpose adhesive with two-component epoxy.

Prepare the resin and hardener components and a mixing container.
Dry the surfaces to be glued well.
Close the water supply to the tank, install a fan, wipe off any drops. Make sure the bonding area is completely dry.
Degrease surfaces.

Pictured is a two-component epoxy resin

Stir the resin and hardener together according to the manufacturer's recommendation.
Apply glue to the surfaces to be bonded.
Be sure to fix the gluing area in any way. For example, you can use regular tape by sticking it on the outside of the bowl.
When the resin is dry, lightly sand the glue lines where they are visible. First use M20 or M40 sandpaper, then felt. Otherwise, pollution will collect here.

Even such a defect in the toilet bowl can be eliminated.

Now we will find out how to seal the crack in the toilet, which affects its tightness. In this case, it is also necessary to prevent the defect from growing.

epoxy resin with hardener;
drill with a thin drill for tiles;
grinder with a stone disc;
sandpaper and felt for sanding the bonding area.

Can use cold welding for plumbing

It remains to find out how to glue the toilet with your own hands:

Drill 2 thin through holes at the ends of the crack. This will stop lengthening it.
Using the grinder, select a depression along the entire crack for about 50% of the thickness of the faience. At the same time, do not forget that overheating of the material will only aggravate the situation, it may begin to crack in other places. It doesn't matter where you do it - from the outside or from the inside of the bowl, the crack will still be noticeable.
Fill the prepared recess and holes with a mixture of resin and hardener, remove the excess immediately so that you work less with sandpaper afterwards.
Sand hardened resin.

Advice: if the toilet is cracked at the base and has lost its tightness, it is better to replace it.

Read also: DIY roof repair

Any glue is intended as a temporary measure for cracked plumbing. But, if you can ignore the aesthetic side of the matter, a toilet repaired with epoxy can last a long time. The video in this article will provide an opportunity to find additional information on the above topic.Why do cracks appear in the toilet bowl and cistern? What can you do to prevent this from happening? And since the trouble has happened - how to repair the crack in the toilet?Let's try to figure it out. Image - DIY toilet cracking repair

No one is protected from unpleasant accidents.

First, let's analyze where the cracks come from.

In the first place - falling into the toilet of various objects... In cramped city apartments, you want to use the volume of the room as efficiently as possible, and a cabinet with a variety of household chemicals and tools is often located above the toilet. The slightest carelessness - and please, the toilet cracked.
Faience does not like sudden changes in temperature... They cause uneven expansion of the material and internal stresses in it. The consequences are obvious: a crack appears in the toilet.

Please note: a faulty kitchen faucet at yours or neighbors' can lead to the fact that hot water begins to flow into the cold water riser and, then, into the tank.
This will deform the plastic parts. If the hot water abruptly changes to cold (or vice versa), cracks in the faience of the tank will become very likely.

In an honorable third place - incorrect assembly... Both excessive force and unevenly tightened bolts will lead to cracks. Moreover, the toilet bowl and cistern may not burst immediately, but after some time, sometimes very long.

It is sufficient to overtighten the screws when installing on an uneven surface.

This simple operation will help prevent foreign objects from falling into the toilet. A closed lid will not only save the toilet from cracks and chips, but also save many valuable items from unplanned bathing.

Have you boiled a burnt pot of baking soda? Is she shining with purity again? Awesome! Now, before pouring its contents into the toilet, let it cool down. A new toilet is clearly more expensive than an old pan. Even if she is very pretty.

Be aware of the possibility of cracks when flushing batteries in winter. The water temperature in radiators in cold regions can reach 80-90 degrees. Putting a hose with that kind of water down the toilet is clearly not a good idea.

Tip: as a last resort, if there is no other way to drain the water from the battery, push the hose through the toilet into the sewer riser.
Of course, the hose must be rigid enough so that it does not twist during this operation.

Rinsing the batteries is a must. But pouring boiling water into the toilet is not worth it.

If you undertook to repair or change the toilet cistern - when installing, tighten the paired bolts a couple of turns alternately, avoiding distortions. Faience is fragile, and gaskets are sometimes quite tough. First of all, this applies to old domestic tanks with a separate shelf.
The notorious tank with a separate shelf must necessarily have a support on the side of the wall. If it hangs only on the fastening bolts that pull it to the ears of the toilet bowl, sooner or later the chip cannot be avoided. Both the ear of the toilet bowl and a piece of the shelf can break off.
Large forces are especially unacceptable for tightening brass bolts that are tightened with a wrench. Remember, the lever arm of any adjustable wrench multiplies the amount of effort you pull on the nut. Overtightened a little - the toilet cistern cracked.
When installing the toilet, it is attracted to the floor exactly until it stops wobbling.
During installation, there are gaps between the toilet and the tiles, which it is advisable to cover with any building mixture or cement mortar. This will give the toilet a large footprint. It is much less likely that its base will crack under an uneven load.

Paired bolts are pulled together in turn, without distortions and great efforts.

How to glue the toilet bowl if a fragment has broken off that has nothing to do with ensuring tightness?

For example, an eyelet for attaching a shelf or a piece of base?

For gluing, any universal glue from a decent manufacturer is used. Henkel's Super Moment is fine.
We clean the surface of the chip from dust and crumbs.
Let the faience or porcelain dry completely.
Degrease the surfaces with acetone or gasoline. The stage can be skipped only if the chip is completely fresh: fat and soot from the kitchen will contaminate the surface in just a few days.
Apply glue and press the broken off fragment. We fix it in any way for the time specified in the instructions for the glue.

Please note: there is no need to load the adhesive joint in the future.
It is much inferior in strength to solid faience.

How to glue the toilet bowl if a piece of faience is knocked off where water collects?

This often happens when foreign objects fall into the bowl.

It is better to use two-component epoxy instead of universal adhesives. Prepare the resin and hardener itself, as well as the container in which you will mix them.
Dry the bonding surfaces completely. Turn off the water to the tank, put on a fan, wipe off all drops and splashes. The gluing site must be absolutely dry.
Again, if at least a couple of days have passed since the moment when the toilet was split, degrease the surfaces.
Mix resin and hardener according to instructions. Apply the resulting adhesive to the surfaces to be bonded.
Fix the place of gluing in any way. Ordinary scotch tape stuck on the outside of the bowl works well.
After the resin has dried, carefully sand the glue joints where they are visible: first with sandpaper - zero, then with felt. Otherwise, seemingly unappetizing pollution will collect on them.

The situation is more complicated here. But epoxy will help.

How to repair a crack in the toilet if it is visible on both sides of the bowl? It is necessary to ensure tightness and prevent crack expansion.

Epoxy resin with hardener. In this case, she is the best glue for the toilet;
Drill and thin drill for tiles;
Grinder with a stone disc;
Sandpaper and felt for sanding the glued area.

The main operations will be as follows:

Drill two thin through holes at the ends of the crack. They will prevent the crack from lengthening.
Using a turbine, select a depression about half the thickness of the faience along the entire crack. Be careful: overheating the earthenware will aggravate the situation, causing it to crack in new places. From the inside or outside of the bowl, you do it - it doesn't matter: the crack will be noticeable in any case.
Fill the prepared cavity with epoxy resin mixed with hardener. The holes are also filled; remove excess resin immediately. This will cut our sandpaper work.
Grind the hardened resin as described above.

In some cases, alas, you simply cannot get to the problem area.

How to glue the toilet bowl if it is cracked and leaks in the base area, which cannot be reached from the outside?

Alas, no way. All attempts to drown the base in concrete will lead to only one thing: when upset neighbors from below come to you and begin to complain about the fungus, you will spend much more energy dismantling the old toilet when replacing it.

If the base is cracked and water is flowing, you can go for a new toilet.

Adhesive is considered a temporary measure for cracked plumbing. However, if you forget about the aesthetic side of the matter, a toilet glued with epoxy resin can serve you faithfully for many years. (see also the article Installing a toilet bowl on a tile: how to do it right)

In the modern world, it is difficult to imagine life without a toilet bowl, cistern and other plumbing amenities. Of course, they need timely care.But, like everything else in the world, plumbing can also sometimes break down, and then you have to repair it. Don't wait for your toilet to fall apart completely.Schematic diagram of the flush tank.As soon as even the smallest malfunction, a crack, appears, do not postpone the repair, but take action.Then your bathroom will last a very long time and in good condition.Repairing a toilet, at first glance, may seem difficult, so many simply call a master who will do everything, but he will definitely take a certain amount of money from you. Perhaps this seems like the only way out, especially if you have never faced similar problems before. And many simply do not know how to glue the toilet bowl. But don't jump to conclusions. Try to fix the breakdown yourself, especially if the problem is that your toilet or cistern is cracked. After all, the crack can be sealed. The main thing is not to panic and do the job carefully.So, if you are faced with the fact that your toilet cracked, then you first need to find out exactly where the breakdown occurred. And it is not at all necessary to count how much money you have left in your wallet and remember where there is a store with plumbing nearby, because you can fix this problem yourself with the help of improvised means. Consider the moments when you have a crack in the toilet, cistern, or if a piece of ceramic breaks off from them. All this is fixable if you approach this matter correctly.If your toilet has a crack, you need to seal it up as soon as possible. Firstly, so that it does not become even larger, and secondly, so that water does not leak. To seal the crack that has formed on the toilet, you need to have glue. It must be waterproof. You can also use cold welding or silicone sealant. Find sandpaper and a spatula. It's good if you also have a construction hairdryer.When you have found everything you need for the repair, you can proceed directly to it and proceed. Take a blow dryer and warm up the crack. This must be done not only outside, but also inside. Such actions are necessary in order for excess moisture to evaporate. It is necessary to degrease the surface on both sides. To do this, use either acetone or solvents. Next, gently coat the surface with epoxy. Then stick the strips of plastic on both sides and wait for everything to dry. And already at the very end, it is necessary to apply waterproof glue to the crack.

Photo 1. Crack in the base of the toilet.

In fact, the crack in the toilet cistern appears for various reasons. The leading place is occupied by falling into the bowl of any objects. It can be some kind of tools, telephones, cans of chemistry and various little things that are usually stored in toilet cabinets. Avoiding objects falling into the device and freeing yourself from the need to look for how to seal the toilet is quite simple. It is enough to optimize the space in the bathroom in such a way that the use of the closets in the toilet does not lead to the falling of the objects stored in them. If this is not possible, keep the toilet lid closed.

A crack in the toilet can also appear due to sudden temperature changes that occur, for example, when hot water is drained into the toilet while flushing the radiators. This approach provokes local stress and uneven expansion of the material, which leads to the formation of small cracks. If there is no other option to drain the hot coolant from the batteries, then use a rigid hose. It must be pushed through the toilet sink to the sewer socket.

The third most popular reason for the appearance of damage and search, how to cover up the toilet, was the incorrect installation of equipment. Uneven or strong tightening of the bolts will sooner or later lead to cracks. Even if this did not happen immediately during installation, a split may appear even several months after operation. Therefore, when installing the toilet, follow the rule of tightening the fasteners. According to them, paired bolts are tightened alternately by only 1-2 turns, excluding a large application of forces.

Photo 2. Toilet cracks appear for many reasons.

If cracks appear on your toilet, do not worry and run to the store for new equipment. This problem can be easily solved at the local level, without resorting to large financial costs. To do this, carefully and carefully clean the chip area with a sandpaper, wipe it with a dry cloth and degrease it with acetone or gasoline.

Photo 3. Everything you need to fix cracks and chips.

If the damage has complex relief faults, the algorithm for preparing for gluing is somewhat different. In this case, it is impossible to use a sandpaper, it is best to blow out the places of chips to get rid of microparticles with a hairdryer, and only then degrease and dry.

At the second stage, when you have already decided how to cover the toilet bowl, it is recommended to follow the instructions supplied with the glue used. But most often the glue is simply applied to the surface of the chips, let it dry a little, then connect the elements. The bond strength directly depends on the clamping force of the elements. A clamp or a tight tourniquet will give a reliable fixation.