Nancy you didn't give enough information to get an answer but I'll give you relivant information so that you can go figure it out for yourself. Measure from drywall surface to center of the bolts holding toilet on floor. 12" is normal. If that's what you have they installed a 10" toilet and should change it out. In some older homes the measurment is 14" wall to center of bolt. Toilets for 14" are difficult to find but they are available. If you have tile on wall you need to add tile thickness to the measurment. I have never seen your place and ou didn't tell me much so I had to make all that up as best I could.

Thanks! That was helpful. I just measured and from center of bolts to back wall (already tiled) It is 13 inches. I do have an older home, but my bathroom was completely gutted and we re-used the same toilet since it was fairly new and the back of the tank was previously very close to the back wall. Is this acceptable? It looks odd to me, but have never renovated a bathroom.

Also - is there anything that can be done at this point? There is a marble tile floor already in place and tile on the walls as well.

Thank you so much for your very helpful reply. I am happy to know there is an easy fix!!!The contractor is still working on finishing touches so I will talk to him and ask if the plumber can do this fix. Is this an error on the plumbers part?

Overall the contractor has been fantastic so far. I will talk to him and hope that they will be able to fix it for us. The bathroom is stunning, but very odd to have the toilet so far from the wall and too small a bathroom to accommodate that.

Sound's like you have a good contractor that will make it right but I have a few additional comments. I'm no fan of offset toilet flanges because they can cause sluggish flush and unnessary stoppages. It's possible your plumber was attempting to do you a sevice by eliminating an offset that had been on toilet previously. This much I know for certain. Going on the net for instructions on what and how to tell any professional is avenue to bad relations. It's akin to your husband suggesting ideas to you on being a better lover he and the lady next door came up with. I understand your not liking the space between toilet and wall but I don't understand why you didn't just ask your contractor about it instead of strangers. I see by your post count you only dropped by for this single issue but you should stay long enough to browse threads where people are disappointed with professionals they hired. It's possible if not probable internet interference caused and/or acerbated their situations.

Thank you for your thoughts and I completely agree with you. I do have a very good contractor and I only wanted to know if this kind of gap was normal, and if there is anything that could be done about it, so that I knew the right questions to ask my contractor.

I had a good conversation with the contractor this morning. He explained that he knew there would be a bit of a gap, but the plumber could not get the flange any closer to the wall because of a joist in the floor and that he and the plumber had a long discussion about it when they were setting up the pipes in the early stages. Also as it turns out, the gap is larger than the contractor expected it would be.

My house was built in 1928, so I do understand that renovations can bring unexpected issues.

I was so glad that I knew about the possibility of the offset flange suggested by kudzu9 so that I could ask the contractor about that solution. My contractor will discuss with the plumber and get back to me. If they do not think it is the right solution here, I respect that, but I was glad I knew to ask about it.

Will post again to update how this ends up. I appreciate the comments and suggestions.

Someone out there could have a solution that my contractor has not thought of. My contractor is good, and I think he would be open to smart solutions.

" My contractor is good, and I think he would be open to smart solutions."

I'm not sure why I should even care since you sound determined to get deeper involved useing information garnered on the net but you mentioned "smart solutions". Offset flanges often backfire and notching floor joists to install one is anything but smart. Let's see what others say. How many of you houzz patrons that understand framing and seen how many old homes require additional joists and/or beams like the idea of notching the floor joist?. Thinking back you might recall seeing small bump-outs behind toilets in old homes. Many are doing double duty,concealing new vents and alowing modern toilets on 14"rough in. That is imo a smart solution. Simpler but much more unattrative than have a 2"space is running vent up wall outdoors. Installing an invisable brace between tank and wall might be considered one practical way of preventing damage caused by leaning against tank. If nothing else,get more than the two opinions you have so far.

nancy-

It sounds like there is a joist in the floor in just the wrong place. Unless this joist was recently installed without someone paying attention to the fact that this is one of those places where location can be critical, I'd say that no one messed up. If you research offset flanges on the internet, you will find that they are not a problem in most cases as long as you pick one that is oblong so that the waste goes through at an angle. Some offset flanges are rather short vertically, and this produces something of a "shelf" where things can hang up. As for issues with cutting the top of the joist, it's best to minimize this, but it's also done all the time, and the building code allows you to do this up to a certain limit. With an older home, you may have a beefier joist system to start with, so it could be less of an issue. Since it sounds like your contractor is a reasonable person, and not giving you some baloney about how this came to be, you can probably trust him to determine whether there would be an issue with notching the joist and, if so, whether it might be possible to reinforce it, particularly if there is access from below. I agree with klem1 that you do not want to notch out joists (at least no more than the code allows), but I have also owned homes where I later discovered that the plumbers did some pretty zealous notching during installation and nothing bad happened. At least you are aware of the issues and can have an informed, productive talk with your contractor. Please feel free to post back after the talk.

Here is a short video showing installation of an offset flange with a design that shouldn't be a problem: Offset flange install If you don't have a plastic drain system, you can find these flanges in other materials. Here is an example of the type of offset flange that I would be concerned about using because it has the shelf I described: Flange with "shelf"

Thanks to all for the help! My contractor has been great and he is reviewing and evaluating several solutions with the plumber, including a possible offset flange.

I will post again when we hit on a solution in case anyone is reading and it will help them know the ending.

Great...love to hear how this gets resolved. Good luck!

Have you considered having a custom toilet tank lid made to close the gap? It could be made with a marble tile top.

To me it seems that buying and installing a 14" rough-in toilet might be more cost effective overall. Although the offset flange is likely only $10-$20, as soon as you have a tile guy for cutting the marble and a plumber for cutting the old pipe and mounting the offset flange the labor charges could put the cost in the same ballpark as installing a 14" rough-in toilet. And if it ends up needing a carpenter to reinforce the joist the cost could be significantly more.

Also I've read several people asserting that in some jurisdictions the use of an offset flange is prohibited by code.

"Also I've read several people asserting that in some jurisdictions the use of an offset flange is prohibited by code."

That should tell people the things are a bad idea,esp when other options are available.

Possibly. However, sometimes conservative localities decide to prohibit things that are typically not a problem.

I appreciate the advice and thoughts. Our contractor and plumber thought that the offset flange was a good solution and the plumber assured me that it would not cause problems.

It sounds like the contractor would have built the wall out a bit more, before drywall and tile were installed, if he understood ahead of time how big the gap would be from the back of the toilet to the wall. It sounds like there was a bit of a miscalculation and they wanted to make it right.

The offset flange has been in for about 3 weeks and I have not had any problems so far. I am really happy with how my bathroom turned out. My contractor has been terrific and it helped me a lot to read comments on this forum so that I had some understanding and knew questions to ask.

Thanks for the update. Glad that the offset flange appears to have worked for you.