To cut or not to cut...

icandoit · #1 May 11, 2006, 10:09 PM

Well, I thought I was doing good without having to disturb my existing toilet flange during my current basement remodel job, but then I decided to go with this new Dricore subfloor system, which means raising the flange. When I went to remove the old flange one of the three bolts securing it to the cast pipe flange broke off inside the flange and when I removed the old flange I found that the pipe was never secured to anything. In fact the whole pipe is loose and floats around in the hole in the slab floor. (see pictures)

It's a cast iron system and I noticed a rubber seal down inside the pipe that the closet flange was sealed to. It looks OK, other than rusty and dirty from the old flange. I'm not sure if this seal is removeable or not but I didn't try to pull it out. I'm sure I can drill out the broken bolt stud. That part I'm not worried about. What I am concerned about is that the pipe in the ground is not secured to anything, and it appears to be cocked at an angle instead of level with the floor. I can tip it up on the low side with a screwdriver, but it wants to spring right back down when I let it go.

So what do I do with this mess? With the new subfloor plus tile I calculate I need to raise it about an inch. I think that's more than the extenders that can be bought, unless I stack a bunch of them, which sounds like a mess waiting to happen.

I searched for a new floor flange that has a longer tail on it but couldn't find anything that would work. The only solution I can think of is to cut off the pipe flange and couple a section of 4" ABS to the existing cast iron. Then I can leave it as long as I want and cut it to fit when I get ready to install the toilet. I'm hoping someone has a better solution as I don't want to bust up the floor if I don't have to.

Thanks...Randy
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icandoit · May 12, 2006, 10:02 AM

Thanks Tom, I appreciate your reply, but 2" will put me way above floor level, unless I am misunderstanding how this thing works, which could very well be as I have only scratched the plumbing surface with my small project here.

Let me ask another question to try and clarify things. This new flange, is it supposed to sit on top of the floor with the waste pipe under the floor, and will this new flange bolt to the old pipe the same way as the old flange did?

The reason I ask is I assume that what I will need to do is cut a 4" hole in my new floor for the tail piece of the new flange to go through and then the new flange and old pipe will sandwich the floor inbetween them. That would make sense except that once assembled the new flange will be probably about an inch too high above the floor, which obviously won't work, unless I cut the tail piece some way to fit...doesn't sound easy.

I don't think I'm in over my head with this one but I am thoroughly confused.

Here's some more pics that show a clearer picture of what I have.

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Thanks again...Randy

skiberger · May 12, 2006, 11:02 AM

That flange can be adjusted up to 2" if needed. Not that you need that. So adjust it to the height you need.
I used one in my remodel project w/ just about the same problem except I was dealing w/ a wood subfloor and not concrete.

icandoit · May 12, 2006, 12:48 PM

Oh, so that flange is adjustable? Hard to tell from that picture. That would solve the issue I have. Guess I will look into this more in depth.

Thanks for the info...Randy



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