Flange too high?


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Old 12-09-07, 10:41 AM
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Flange too high?

I am in the process of redoing a downstairs bathroom (no underneath access.) I have ripped out the floor fix leveling issues on the sub floor and tiled. I went to install the toilet with wax ring and noticed when level it sat off the floor. I pulled it out, cleaned the used wax ring off and tried to seat the toilet without the ring (too see how bad my issue is) - no luck.

Examined the flange and saw that the sides are bent upward slightly and at the highest point the bottom of the flange sits almost a half inch above the tile. The flange appears brass and sits in an elbow below the concrete.

Is there anything I can do outside getting a plumber in to install a new flange? How difficult is it to remove the old one and install a new one that would sit lower?

Thanks for all of your help.
 
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Old 12-09-07, 10:56 AM
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I guess what you needed was more floor on your floor. Too late now. Flange is 1/2 inch too high.

What is the toilet drain pipe made out of?

Is this toilet on a second floor, or on first floor AND over a basement? Reason being if let's say you had pvc and had a straight vertical section of it below toilet, you could section out about 5/8" or so and use the appropriate 3 or 4 inch coupling and lower flange and pipe this way when you glue up the coupling to each end of the pipe.

Have you gone to any hardware, plumbing or home center store to see if they sell that very flange?, and then find out how it is done?
 
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Old 12-09-07, 11:10 AM
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The floor I ripped out was linoleum on plywood - they had nailed the plywood into the concrete subfloor and cracked and holed it - one of the many issues I have run into during my simple bathroom redo. I figured my self leveling compound, mortar and tile would come close to the plywood size - guess I was wrong.

The toilet drain pipe runs on a right angle through the subfloor underneath another room - no acess below it so probably no way to cut any of the pipe out and remove it. I got a little discouraged after this latest discovery in my long list of issues I have encountered so I haven't done anything yet.

I suppose I could somehow remove the flange insert, but I have no idea the amount of work/expertise required and I came here first before trying Home Depot to see if it was even worth not bringing in an expert and trying it myself first.
 
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Old 12-10-07, 05:00 PM
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If you can identify or have someone at a store identify your exact flange, you'd learn how it was put in so you can undo it.

You could shim the toilet, but I'd pick the route of getting this thing back to conventional.

Unless your floor is now unconventional and the whole floor is dropped down 1/2 inch from where it is at the doorway? If so, in that case maybe you might want to shim it in case you or someone else decides to build up the height of the floor to where it was, someday.

If you did shim it, what you would want to do is put 1/2 inch plywood (or ?, see below) around the flange to where the outer edge of toilet will sit on it first, BEFORE setting the toilet onto the wax seal. Because - If you set the toilet first and then shimmed it, it would be too late because you would have forced out all the wax as the toilet came down all the way on the too-high flange.

You might be able to find something else to use besides wood, even. To cut down on mildew-mold possibility you could buy one of those plastic bread cutting boards or something you could cut shim pieces out of. Maybe someone else here can think of something else that is 1/2 inch thick that would work good for you. Then when it is done and set, caulk around it. That will also serve to hold the shims in place. You can even trowel around it vertically with a putty knife so that it takes the shape of the toilet bowl. I recently did that very thing for this woman.
 
 

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