Flange to Sewer Line Connection

Great Site!

I stumbled across you guys while investigating a problem that hopefully is not too common. Approximately a year ago we found drain flies in the bathroom. I traced them to wet organic material in the slab opening around the bathtub drain. When the toilet is flushed water runs underneath the slab into that area. Pulled the toilet off the floor and discovered that the builder had missed with the wall and could not install the toilet so they moved the flange away from the wall by cutting the connecting line leaving a gap. I picked up some concrete like mix from the hardware store (can't remember type - recommended for application from hardware store and was supposed to be water proof) formed a nice smooth transition filling in all gaps and painted it with enamel. Recently the toilet started leaking again, and I discovered the material I used had fallen a apart, apparently from exposure to water. Please look at the attached picture and make a recommendation. You can see where they whacked off the PVC pipe (white jagged edge).

Thanks in advance for your help.

It looks like the flange is rusted away. I think the time for band aid patching is well past, and it is time to have a new flange installed. This may be something you can DIY, but it seems to me that if the first installer couldn't get it right, there may be some problems that are not seen in the photo and perhaps you need a professional to do this. This time use flange with a stainless steel ring.

Is that carpet around the toilet? Eww...

Lakee911 said:

Eww...

Click to expand...

Agreed.

Since you will have to strip the carpet out and lay tile anyhow now's a good time to break up the slab around that drain and figure out what can be done. You can have a plumber come and break the slab, but it would be cheaper to do that part yourself and pay the plumber only to work on the actual pipes.

Another option might be to use a different toilet. You can get a very good toilet that will fit a 10- or 11-inch rough-in. You might be able to chisel out just enough to fit a new flange and then go with a short rough-in toilet.

Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks. My approach would be to remove the concrete, splice in PVC with a fernco and use an offset toilet flange to get the center of the drain to 12 1/2" from the wall. A good concrete blade in a metal skill saw then a pretty heavy hammer drill (even a cheap one from an el-cheapo tool store) works great. I use one fairly frequently with bits and chisel points that do a good job.... about 2 hours of hard work to get out the concrete...then a bag of quick-crete ready mix is all it takes once the plumbing is in place. I've done quite a few... usually $300-500 for the labor for a pretty good day's work.

flange

That is one of the poorest installations I have ever seen. I think you can be pretty sure that the outlet of the toilet is NOT over the opening in the pipe. One problem is that the pipe appears to be 3" which severly limits what you can do with it. If it is long enough, and you can cut it off low enough a "proper" offset collar would work, but NOT one with an "oval" inlet opening and a "ledge" below the toilet outlet.