I am replacing a 1 piece toilet on 2nd floor installed possibly in 1977. or may have been a remodel by prior owner. Anyway, the toilet is old and rusty.
On removing existing toilet, there was lots of plumbers putty around and on flange. After chipping most off, I see that it is a PVC flange 7" in dia. with closet bolts at 6" apart. The flange is white pvc, about 3/8" thick. It does not rest on the floor, but has gaps of 1/8 - 3/8 that had been filled with putty (now very hard).
The result is that the top of flange is about 1/2 - 3/4" above the tile and uneven (as determined by a level). The floor however, is level side to side, with maybe a 1/8" tip to rear.

The old toilet did not leak, but flush mechanism was poor and not standard. There is no name on the toilet. And I have an extra 5 yr old Toto I wanted to use.

Looking into the flange, there is a funnel (attached to flange??) which measures about 3" ID. The flange does not budge with a few soft face hammer taps.
Oh yes, there was a shim under the outside edge of the toilet on the same side the flange is high.
Need I worry??? After all, the old toilet worked and didn't leak.. Yes, lots of putty helped I guess. Replacing flange doesn't sound like fun and I assume the original installer had a reason. certainly a pro would not have gone through all the shim and putty if it could have been resolved.
bob M.

speedball1

"Dry set" the toilet bowl over the flange. Does the toilet rock? Toilet bowls set a little above the floor line. You mat be lucky enough not to gave to cut the old flange out. Let me know, Tom