tom wrote:
On Sep 15, 4:43 am, (Pdk Pdk) wrote:
A home toilet has developed a slight leak at the base of the toilet
where it connects to the floor.
This started about a week ago. At night, I've crunched up a fresh
paper-napkin square on the floor alongside the base where the leak is,
and in the morning the napkin is soaked with the water it absorbed.
Oh, if it matters, the leak is on the side of the toilet at the base.
Should I use some kind of caulking around the base? But if it's
more serious, I don't want to maybe have the water leaking through the
floorboards to the ceiling below. Hopefully it's a simple home repair
(and removing the toilet is NOT simple for me), or should I simply call
a plumber? Thanks.

Yep, either a leak from the wax ring, fill valve or tank/bowl gasket,
a cracked bowl or tank or the hold down bolts in the tank. Simple,
huh? Tom

I was looking around for something in the crawl space and I was on my
back in a narrow area of the crawl space when my head hit a small puddle
of water on the plastic. It smelled gross. I looked up and realized
that I was directly under the toilet. Oh gross! The toilet must be
leaking.

I turned off the water supply to the toilet and flushed the toilet to
empty it out and decided to look at it the next day. There was more
water on the floor. I dried up the floor and came back a bit later and
the floor was wet again.

I got out a bright flashlight and found the real cause of the problem.
The shut off valve was slowly leaking. Ironic, isn't it? I turned off
the water supply to the house and replaced the shut off valve. Case closed.