Toilet Flange too high!

[Walter R.]

My house is 25 years old. When they built it, the builder put in toilets that had an unusually deep recess for the wax ring and flange. All the flanges in my house (5 toilets) stick out about 1/2" above the floor level.

Therefore, my replacement toilet (the old one was cracked), floats about

1/2" above the floor level, after allowing for the wax ring

The steel flange seems to be cemented to the plastic drain pipe. It would cost a fortune to break up the slab and the tile flooring, in order put in a new, lower flange.

The local plumber wants to insert a 1/2" plywood spacer between the floor and the base of the toilet. That would look rather poorly and might cause dry rot.

Do they make toilets that have a deeper recess, to allow for an abnormally high flange?

Are there any other alternatives?

[Jeff Wisnia]

If you asked me to fix it, I'd go with a pressure treated wood spacer sabre sawed out with an outline about 5/16" shy of the new toilet's base profile, use longer hold down bolts if needed, and then fill the gap with smoothed in tile grout, colored as you wish.

Chances are you'll be the only one who'll ever notice it's done that way.

Just my .02,

Jeff

[Tom G]

How about using plastic shims (made for toilets) to keep stool from rocking. Then surround the toilet with tile quarter rounds like you might use along the baseboard. Could match color of stool or tile, whatever. Might, however, consider siliconing them in place in the event you have to remove the toilet to replace the wax ring in the future.

Tom.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Plastic would be good. How about a cutting board like material? It will take the weight and not rot or corrode.

[Speedy Jim]

If you will ultimately be unhappy with a shimmed toilet, lower the flange. Since the stub is plastic, use an internal pipe cutter, like this or others:

remove the flange . There are numerous ways to make a new flange connection afterward that don't involve slab demolition.

Jim

[aemeijers]

I'd make the spacer out of solid-surface counter material. Make a template showing needed outside shape, placement of center hole, any needed notches for the hold down bolts, and take it over to local custom countertop place. They can probably make it from a sink cutout. They have the routers and such to make it pretty, versus cutting out at home with a jigsaw.

aem sends...

[Tony]

I had this problem. I had a marble slab under my bowl to compensate for the height. Since I ripped up my entire floor to put a new one in, it was simple. But my friend told me they sell a flange that will go into your old one. You need to cut the pvc pipe under the flange. Then, you replace it with a new one, that I believe slides into the one that goes under the floor and you have to glue it up. Look into that. If you can get under the floor and have access to the pvc pipe, you can cut it buy a coupler and put it back together.

Tony

[Jeff]

If you decide to use a spacer, marine plywood could be a good choice, probably could get some scraps from a boating repair place fairly cheaply.

[SMS]

Probably would not cost a fortune. You can cut off the flange from the inside of the pipe with an internal cutter, and attach a new flange. I'd be worried that the new flange might be too low, depending on how close you can cut the old flange off.

Other than that, use a piece of 1/2" plywood, sealed with water seal, cut a tad smaller than the outline of the toilet base, then sealed with colored caulking the same color as the toilet, so the plywood doesn't get wet when you wash the floor. No one would notice this if they didn't know to look.

You could also use this product, "

", but in my opinion this looks worse than going the plywood and caulking route. I once tried to buy something from this company, but I could never find any way to buy their products. They don't sell directly, and I could never find any plumbing supply place that could get the products.