The floor under and around the toilet in our main bathroom was completely rotted when we bought this house. We removed the toilet and had a plumber cut out the old, broken closet flange and cap the waste pipe so we could replace the floor. We've done that, replaced the subfloor and underlayment. Now I need to cut a hole for the closet flange. The center of the hole should be 12" from the finished back wall, but how far should it be from the side wall? Is there a standard distance? Also, what diameter should the hole be? 4.5"?

After I get the hole cut, I can finish laying tile and then have a plumber come back and install the closet flange for me.

Thanks for any wisdom.

 

deeter, welcome to the DIY Forums.
There is no set rule for measurements from the sides (except most codes have a minimum of 15" from center on each side). You want to center the hole over the existing pipe. Otherwise, the plumber will have to move the pipe and this could be expensive. Since there was already a toilet installed, the distance from the back wall and the center should already be established. You can measure the 12" from the wall to the center on the new flooring. Now you need to get the measurement from the sides of the pipe, upward to the floor. Call the plumber and ask how big you should make the hole. I do not know what type flange he is planning to install. Good luck.

 

The drain pipe had been cut off and capped from below (via a nice new hole in our garage ceiling) and the old flooring and subfloor torn out, so there were no references to go by except for the toilet supply line. I centered the hole for the new closet flange 12" from the wall behind and about 17" from the wall to the side, then fine tuned it a little because there was a joist below the subfloor that the 3" hole would have intersected with. Moving the hole another half inch out from the back wall allowed the edge of the hole to be just a little out fron the joist, and the plumber came back and ran the last little bit of drain pipe and installed the flange.

This stuff isn't so easy for a novice like me when I don't have the old work as a reference. Thanks for the advice!

 

Glad we could help and your project went well. We all need some help on things we don't work with all the time.