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Toilet Flange too high

7 years ago

We are in the home stretch of our bathroom renovation. We just finished replacing the tile by pulling up the old tile and laying this new tile. This is a first floor bathroom on a concrete slab foundation. Here in Hawaii, they lay the tile right on the concrete slab, so there is no wooden floor....we have termites, lots of them. The house does not have wooden studs in the walls either, and was built in 2008 as part of a large housing track. As this is my first renovation ever, I did not think much of the flange sitting up as high as it did on the concrete floor, the previous toilet did sit on it, but it did wiggle, and there were shims underneath when we removed it. We would like to do the next toilet install kind of correctly without using shims and having a toilet that wiggles. The flange in the picture looks like it is glued or epoxy was used to bond it to the pipe. My question, I know the flange should be replaced to be level with the floor, whats the best options for this?? Also, can the new flange be somehow bolted/screwed into the concrete slab as that is what hold the toilet down?? The flange sits about 1/2 inch above the tile.

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Comments (2)

klem1
7 years ago
I'm going to give you today's special, two answers for the price of one. If you must ask how to change out the flange,leave it alone because you will likly make it worse. Switching flange is a tricky chore for an experienced person. Using a masonry product suitable for thin setting,bed toilet in it. Here's step by step. Temporarly set toilet in place,measure gap between base and floor then trace outline of base on floor with sharpie. Remove toilet and cover outer rim and edge of base with saran wrap to prevent masonry sticking to it later. Put a 2"wide X twice gap measurement of masonry just inside tracing on floor. Prep bolts and wax then set toilet in place pushing down into wax masonry. I don't tighten bolts until masonry dry's but you can lightly tighten if you need more compression on wax. While masonry is still wet,remove squeeze out and excess saran wrap with single edge razor then smooth masonry with wet finger. When masonry is dry it can be covered with caulk if desired but I usually leave it as is and it look's fine if neatly smoothed.
Vith
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
I have removed a flange too high. I used mini circular saws with my cut out tool (or dremel) to cut the flange out from inside the pipe. Mine was on a wood subfloor so you will require extra work being on concrete. I routered the subfloor to accommodate the new flange to be level with the floor. What you will have to do is grind the concrete down with an angle grinder and diamond cup wheel. Wear a particulate respirator for this, plenty of dangerous concrete dust. If you use water to control dust, expect the angle grinder to throw it everywhere. Follow up with an inside gasketed flange. I have found these gasketed flanges to work well, they are more expensive but easily replaceable. They have 4" and 3" sizes.

Also, instead of wax I always use sani seal gaskets. They are no mess and you get more than one attempt to set the toilet. Foolproof installation, also last longer than wax, and can actually be reused as well. Work for both inside and outside flanges (inside flanges you flip it upside down, diagram on the back of the package).
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Comments (3)
Flanges are slightly different sizes, but the height is usually set by cutting the pipe that mates to the flange a certain distance below the subfloor. When the flange is plumbed, usually there's just the subfloor in place. So you'd add the thickness of the underlayment (if any) to the thickness of the finish flooring, and that's how high above the subfloor you want the toilet flange to be. It's common for a plumber to add a 1/4" or so to that, most prefer the flange to be slightly above the finish flooring than to end up below it. Knowing how high you want the flange above the subfloor, you then cut the waste pipe at the appropriate spot so when it's glued together the flange sits at the proper elevation. If the flange truly sits too high, the best thing to do is cut the waste pipe down and set a new flange. The flange can be cut out from the inside of the pipe, I have a small round blade, about 2" in diameter, that's on a shaft about 12" long. I mount it in a drill, insert it down the pipe, and cut the pipe from the inside. It's not uncommon for the flange bolts to be too long and to have to cut them down to get the caps to fit. That's not a big deal. So...long flange bolts? Not a problem. The flange set so high that the toilet rocks when set upon it? That's bad. I wouldn't accept that. You don't want your wax ring to be crushed to nothing, you'll lose your seal. I'd have the flange reset.
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toilet flange height
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Comments (2)
you can also buy a riser ring and you just srew it on the top of the flange or i always use two wax seal the thick one that has a plastic funnel inside and a regular wax seal thats about 1" thick and it works just fine wont leak .
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Comments (5)
That's true, I didn't consider that it might be cast iron. If's its in a basement, and the floor is easily replaced, it may be worthwhile to take up the flooring, open the slab and dig a little. Messy, labor intensive operation though. I guess the solution will depend on the location of the affected appliance and the tools/skill level of the homeowner. I think lazypups idea of using the sheeted PVC to make a shim in the shape of the bottom of the bowl is probably the simplest solution. You could probably easily fashion one yourself (plywood?) if you can't find the material locally.
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Comments (1)
The underside of the flange MUST BE in firm contact with the finished floor. If the flange extends any higher the toilet will be balanced on the flange keeping the base of the bowl elevated and placing undue stress on the ceramic thereby potentially creating a safety hazard.
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