The plastic toilet flange has broken leaving the remnants of tail inside the 4" pvc pipe without any real access below the floor and start from scratch. In a thread by Speedball 1 in 2005, he suggested ways to tackle this monster including doing away with the flange all together and just using a wax ring with a funnel as the toilet flange is used only to secure the toilet to the floor.

Since this is in my sister in-law's house and I am a DIY’er with only some experience in this arena, I want to be sure I understand completely before I go forth. Can I mount a flange spacer ring directly on the floor to secure the toilet bolts, insert a wax ring with funnel and install the toilet? With the tail piece of the original flange still in place, the remaining ID is approximately 3 1/2". Is there another flange that would fit?

Should I insert a second wax ring on top of the first to ensure a good seal? Any leakage or other issues to worry about? Any other ideas?

Appreciate any advice!

Have you considered a flange repair kit? Home

The flange was so broken/crumbled that my brother in-law has cut the entire top off the flange. Now we are down to just the pipe. It's an ugly situation!

3" pipe or 4" pipe? Was the old flange glued inside the drain pipe?

The original pipe is 4" and the old flange was glued into place.

Please let me know what information I can provide to help.

You can rent or buy a PVC reamer but they aren't cheap. Then you could install an Oatey twits-n-set flange. Closet PVC Flange Replacement #43539 by Oatey at HardwareAndTools.com

Speedball1 will see this in a few minutes and maybe can tell you about the days before flanges were even invented. The flange just makes toilet installation a bit easier and more fool proof. You can bolt the toilet right into the floor and use the wax ring with the neoprene collar but I have never done one. Tom will help, I'll go get him.

Thank you so much for all of your time already. This is really great. I am interested in the second method with bolting directly to the floor if it is a viable option.

Their budget is extremely tight and renting more tools if we don't absolutely have to would free up $$ for other likely plumbing disasters we are about to tackle.

I am surpriused Tom has not been here yet. I contacted him earlier this AM, he will be here eventually. I would rather not give advice on this old methods having never done it myself. I am trying to remember if you can install a 3" oatey twist-n-set inside a 4" pipe with a piece of the old flange in place, not sure they'd mate correctly.

Hi Kodiak,
You do have options here. You can install Oatey 4" Replacement flange,(see image) or you asked about mounting without a flange. I'm a old timey plumber that remembers those days before closet flanges. why not do what we did back then before the days of cast iron pipe and closet flanges.
First off you must realize the a closet flange does nothing more then secure the toilet bowl to the floor. It doesn't stop leaks or make the toilet flush better. In short, it's not really necessary.
Bearing that in mind, If this were my call I would position the bowl over the closet bend and mark the closet bolt holes on the cement. Then I would take a 1/4" masonry bit and drill holes to accept plastic screw in inserts.
I would then purchase two wood screw closet bolts, nuts and washers,(see image) and a wax seal with a funnel. Screw the closet bolts into the plastic inserts and you now have a setup that performs the same function as a closet flange.
The wax seal with a funnel is just added insurance against a leak, (back in the old days we used a rope of plumbers putty for a seal). You may now set your toilet with confidence. Good luck, Tom

Tom,
Thank you so much for the great information. This will save a great deal of time and headache.

I can't tell you how much I appreciate the advice! Have a great day!! :-)

I'm not going to be much help just good toilet support... ; ) All I have to say is boyyyy toilets create such issues... have one going on myself and I think that if all other plumbing issues were to go away toilets would definitely keep plumbers busy and low flow toilets... what for when you have to flush them like 4 times to get a complete clean flush. Whewwwww... just venting and feel sooo much better... lol :D

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Originally Posted by Kodiak1

Tom,
Thank you so much for the great information. This will save a great deal of time and headache.

I can't tell you how much I appreciate the advice! Have a great day!!! :-)

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No prublem my friend. We're just glad we could help. Tom