I just bought a forclosed house. In the master bath I have a Mansfield 160 toilet that rocks and is leaking water when flushes. When the toilet is level, NO part of the toilet touchs the floor... It basically balances on the flange. I tried the little spacers that you can get at Home Depot / Lowe's, but they are not high enough. The height between the floor and the bottom side of the toilet is about 3/4".

So when I lifted the toilet off the floor, I see the flange sits on the floor and it is level and is 1" high.

Here is my questions..

1) do I need to cut the floor ( tile ) and the pipe to make the flange flush with the floor under the tile?

2) or is the flange not the right flange for this kind of toilet.

3) should I get a piece of plywood that is 1" high and cut a hole where the flange is. Then I would lay the plywood under the toilet. Now the toilet would sit 1" higher.

4) buy a different toilet

After reading other posts, I see that a flange is usually 1" high... So I have to believe it is the design of the toilet, but I don't know.

Any help will be great

PS: Thanks for all your help!!

You need to lower that flange. What do you have : ABS / PVC / Copper / Lead or Cast Iron pipe ? Can you post good photo of the ring and floor so we can give you better explanation as to how to proceed with your repair?

But in the interim:

1. Yes the flange should be attached to the floor with brass screws therefore should be sitting flush on the floor
2. Chances are that the flange is fine - but possibility exists...
3. You would have to install floor all over the entire bathroom. I think it is too elaborate approach...
4. Some toilets absorb more than others. But 1" seems to be little too much.

Cast Iron flange is usually not higher than 1/2" inch. Steal Oatey flange is about 1/4". So is plastic...

No! A flange sets level on the finished floor and is about 3/8ths,to 1/2" thick. You're toilet's fine, as Milo suggested you will have to cut the pipe level with the floor and install a new flange. What material is the pipe and flange? Let us know so we can help with the replacement. Regards, tom

The pipe is PVC.

Here are some pictures of the whole flange
Toilet Flange

My hack at placing 1/2" plywood

A picture from the floor NOTE: The white flange is 1" high.

I tried the 1/2" plywood. It stablized the toilet, but still didn't work... but don't know if the hole I cut out was big enough.

More pics

A picture from the floor

With out black O-ring

Without the black O-ring from Wax ring

Without black O-ring from Wax ring AND with 1/2 plywood board

Clean the old wax from the bottom of the toilet and then reset it with a new wax ring that doesn't have the black neoprene horn embedded in it -- Problem solved.

It seems to be fine. Remove that back flange that seems to be leftover piece from old Wax Ring. Install new, skinny wax ring and set toilet. I think it should do...

I'm interested in knowing why a wax ring with a funnel was installed in the first place. Was there a problem that we haven't been told about? Regards, Tom

Hey Tom,
Nowadays it is hard to find a wax ring without a funnel. I just replaced one of my toilets last week, and HD a bunch of different ones with funnel. I don't even know if they had one without a funnel. They make more money that way. The first one I got was more like grease instead of wax. I took it back and got another one that was wax.
Al

I fixed the problem!!

It wasn't the flange... It wasn't the toilet...

It was the pipe. You really can't see from the photos, the pipe that the flange was attached too was not cut straight across. In fact it was jigsawed. So every time I tried to attached the toilet with a new flange, the flange never stay. In fact it would not even go the way in. The jigsaw pipe would always crack the black O-Ring and it would sit on an angle. I had to use a dremel to cut the edge of the pipe at an angle. Now the toilet sits on the floor.

So I guess it is one of those things that should be mentioned when installing the toilet, but it is sooo obvious that it doesn't get mentioned.

Hi Postcub,
Thanks for keeping us in the loop. Glad you found the trouble and informed us of the outcome. Let us know if we can ever be of service in the future.
Regards, Tom