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should the flange be scewed to the durarock and then tiled around or should the tile be layed and then have the flange tight to the top of the tiles, cant seem to get one opinion as to the right way to do it and avoid problems. I would appreciate your help. by the way the tub is great thanks for your help!
If you have the option available to you ALWAYS install the flange so it sits on top of the tile....see image to be clear.
This results in the ideal amount of wax sealing between the base of the toilet and the closet flange. Plumbing engineers design toilets with this standard in mind....
As mentioned, a toilet flange can also be set flush with the tile and things will work fine....just not ideal.
Hi jjustinia:
It is done BOTH ways. If the closet ring is installed on subfloor than use spacers or high wax ring to compensate for height of the tile. If it installed over tile, than you have to drill through the tile to attach closet ring to the subfloor with brass screws.
Installing flange on top of tile presents small problem: tile may crack during drilling since the hole you drill is too close to its edge.
You decide what to do. Both ways is an acceptable method of installation.
As a rule we don't have to screw the flange to the tile. The pour and fill dirt hold the closet bend secure enough so we don't have to. That's on the slab. on a two story we drill inserts into the tile and screw the flange down to that. And we wait til the tile goes down before we set the flange. Regards. tom
thanks for all the great advice. Let me know what you think about this idea. I will cut out a wood ring about a quarter inch thick and place that on the dura rock sub floor and screw the flange through that and into the subfloor. Then I can tile up to the wood and then the flange will be at the correct height and then I would easily be able to screw into the wood as needed.
As a remodeler who does a small amount of plumbing and a large amount of tile I can say Marks picture is a perfect example of the tight end of the extreme. You have your flange bottom flush with the floor and it should work everytime. However, the other end of the extreme is top of flange flush with top of tile.
It is not the way I would do it, but it is a good idea if you are concerned about drilling the tile.
Your idea of the 1/4" thick plywood will work just fine...EXCEPT...that you will want to have the tile on hand before choosing the plywood thickness as some tiles are 1/4", some 3/8" and some are even 1/2" thick.
You also need to include for the 1/4" thinset mortar that will go in between the tile and the cement board, but the 1/4" thinset will get squished out to about 1/8"....So, as an example:
If using a 3/8" porcelain tile and you squish the thinset between tile and cement board which gives 1/8" you will need to set a 1/2" plywood circle (3/8" + 1/8") under the flange.
Finally, you could also go with the 1/4" plywood and then just use an extra thick wax ring to set the toilet if you find the tile is thicker later down the road.
Ya know, I was researching the original posters old threads to get background info about a new thread they started today. I have a flange in my van. When I make my mark on the tile for the soil pipe, I lay the flange on top to mark the screw locations and when I'm done using my grinder to cut out the curve, I notch the tile where the flange screws will go through. Next time you're on a job, give your friendly tile guy a coffee and a pvc spacer and ask him to do the same tile notching for you. Seriously, he KNOWS you need to put screws through it. No reason plumbers and setters need to be like oil and water. Let's now join hands and sing Kumbaya
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