Pro Handyman Blog

I get this a lot. A customer wants to install ceramic tile in a bathroom and hasn’t quite figured out what to do around the toilet.

The answer is to remove the toilet and install tile underneath it. You want to install the tile up to the flange. This way, when you replace the toilet you don’t have to worry about the footprint of the old toilet matching the new one. Besides that, it just doesn’t look very nice. You have cut tiles around the toilet and it is an instant tip-off that a homeowner did the job. It is rare to find a new toilet that has the same footprint as the old one. When this happens, you usually have to break out the tiles that have been cut and replace them with whole tiles that will extend to the flange. If you don’t have any matching tiles around, you may be faced with retiling the floor. Here is an article on how to install ceramic tile.

Ceramic tile is a great choice for a bathroom floor. I’ve seen carpet in bathrooms and I just shake my head. A leak will be hidden by carpet and cause damage in the process, whereas you should be able to see a leak on top of the ceramic tile. If you are unsure about ceramic tile, I would go with vinyl rather than carpet.