OK, so I cut off the top of the closet flange --- now what?????

In the process of tearing out my bathroom tile floor to install a new tile floor, I discovered that the PVC toilet flange was simply resting in the concrete mud base layer and draining into a second, lower PVC flange on the plywood subfloor. It wasn't even glued in to the system. Since I needed to have the flange at a higher level for the new tile floor that I plan to install, I decided to cut out the lower flange, install a 3-inch PVC coupler, and run a short length of 3-inch PVC up to the level of the new flange.

Well, tonight I used a Dremel cutting tool to cut out the top of the flange. But to my dismay, the bottom of the flange butts up against the edge of the elbow joint. There is not enough 3-inch pipe exposed to attach the coupler. Right now I have a cleanly cut off 3-inch pipe with the bottom part of the flange fused around it.

I need to get a flange to about 3 or 4 inches above this cut pipe. What are my options? Are there PVC parts avialable to deal with this type of situation?

Thanks.

Is there a basement or first floor below?

The first floor kitchen is below....

There is a kitchen right below, but the plumbing in the ceiling would be a bear to access. I'm going to do this job from above. There has got to be a way to glue in some PVC either inside or around what I have now -- a 3-inch pipe with the bottom of the old flange fused on to it on the outside. It's cut off perfectly flat on top, and there are about 3 straight inches on the inside and outside. In hindsight, I should have just added extender rings on top of the old flange. But I received some advice to cut it off and "do the job right." Well, I cut off the flange and discovered there wasn't enough 3-inch pipe to attach the coupler.

I don't know if it will work but you take a screwdriver with a flat head and try gowing between the pipe and flange peice. sometimes they will seperate, sometimes not but it might be worth a try. It is a slow process. If it doesn't work right you may end up opening the ceiling.

cut top of flange

Threre is a device that goes on to a drill called a pipe shredder,you can buy one at a plumbing supply house,not lowes or hd.The tool is to clean or shred out the damaged pvc pipe to the hub of the next fitting so that you would be able to glue a new section of pvc pipe and then glue a new 3" flange to the heighth of the finished floor,also anchor the new flange to the finished floor.O yea the shredders come in sizes of 1.5"thru 4" for pvc+abs

They make a tool designed to basically drill out the pipe from the inside of the coupling. Then, you can glue in whatever length pipe you need and the new flange.

Are you sure it is a peice of pipe? How far is the 90 from the flange peice you are dealing with?

They make inside mount toilet flanges for 3" pipe. They're intended for use in special situations where you can't get an outside mount to fit.

It might be possible to partially seat the new flange into the pipe partially so that it sits high enough to rest on yr tile floor, but still has enough contact with the pipe stub to make a reliable connection.

If not, (and this will be a REAL hack), then you could cut the BOTTOM off of the inside mount toilet flange and you'll have an inside-mount coupler. You can use this to join a short stub of 3" which will rise up to yr new flange. An inside mount coupler is basically a permanent obstruction in the pipe, but since it's on the vertical and so close to the toilet, I do not believe it will pose a practical problem. Whether yr inspector will pass it is another issue...

flange

Cutting the pipe off would not have been my first choice, but now that you hae done it, your best choice would be a "RamBit" that drills the pipe out of the fitting so you can install a new pipe to the correct length.