Originally Posted by
Donald Merritt
The grout holds the toilet in place and the toilet will not rock.
The grout will not hold the toilet stable if it is not set stable. The grout will crack. I have seen lots of cracked and crumbling grout around toilets which was used to try to hold the toilet bowl stable and level. The toilet bowl needs to be set stable and level ... THEN sealed around.
The bolts just hold the floor flange to the bottom of the toilet and will not hold the toilet in place unless you have an old cast iron flange.
IF ... *if* being key ... the plastic floor flange is secured properly, and the proper floor flange is used, and the bowl is set stable and level, the anchor bolts will hold the bowl to the plastic floor flange properly (the bolts only need to keep it down ... as long as the bowl was set stable, with 'being set stable' as the key). I've also seen plastic floor flanges with a metal ring around the top which makes them stronger.
The bowl must be set stable for the wax ring to seal and maintain its seal. If the bowl is not stable and moves, the was ring will fail to seal, or fail to seal over time.
If the bowl is not set stable and level, anchor bolts even into a cast iron floor flange will not hold it, at worst that will crack the bowl base, at best that will leak at the wax ring.
There is no substitute for setting the bowl stable and level ... prior to anchoring it down ... then the anchor bolts only have to hold the bowl down.