I need help making a decision.
Here's the deal....
I want to move a toilet 90 degrees in order to acquire more leg room. The way the previous owners installed it, you could sit on the toilet and put your head in the sink. Although this could come in handy from time to time, most days it's really annoying.
The current closet flange is ABS. It sits, at most, a 1/4" below the finished floor (tile), which is on top of a concrete slab.
It is also 14.5" away from the wall that the toilet will now back onto. A standard toilet will have about 3" of space behind it (too much for me), so I will either have to find a 14" rough-in or install an offset flange, assuming I can make one of the next two options work.
The guy at the local hardware store (which kind of specializes in plumbing), suggested I use a plastic "stack and seal" spacer ring under a metal "SuperRing", which I would rotate to accommodate the new toilet orientation. The heads of the closet bolts would sit on top of the old flange and I would just caulk the hell out of the spacer and screw it down into the old flange (I would have to drill new holes in the old flange), securing the bolts between them. The metal ring would then be sealed to the spacer and screwed into the concrete floor. The spacer and ring would protrude above the tile about the same as a flange sitting on top of the tile. The edges of the ring would be hovering somewhat over the floor, since the holes project a little farther than the spacer ring, but I could always use washers or shims to fix that.
Does this sound like a reasonable fix?
I'm worried about the fact that the spacer will not sit flush against the old flange due to the closet bolts.
I guess I could always put some holes in the old flange lip to accommodate them...?
But then I still have to piss around with drilling holes through tile and concrete to fasten the metal ring.
Any comments on that scenario?
Of course, all this means I would have to buy a 14" rough-in toilet, which are usually hard to find and/or pricey.
However, my only other option seems to be using an inside pipe cutter and removing the old flange. There is about 6" of straight pipe after the flange, so I could cut it down below the existing glued connection.
Then I suppose I could glue some pipe and couplings to a new offset flange, which may or may not fit in the space without busting out more tile and concrete.
Which of these scenarios sounds best...or should I say, the least painful?
Thanks for reading this far and for any forthcoming advice.
Here's the deal....
I want to move a toilet 90 degrees in order to acquire more leg room. The way the previous owners installed it, you could sit on the toilet and put your head in the sink. Although this could come in handy from time to time, most days it's really annoying.
The current closet flange is ABS. It sits, at most, a 1/4" below the finished floor (tile), which is on top of a concrete slab.
It is also 14.5" away from the wall that the toilet will now back onto. A standard toilet will have about 3" of space behind it (too much for me), so I will either have to find a 14" rough-in or install an offset flange, assuming I can make one of the next two options work.
The guy at the local hardware store (which kind of specializes in plumbing), suggested I use a plastic "stack and seal" spacer ring under a metal "SuperRing", which I would rotate to accommodate the new toilet orientation. The heads of the closet bolts would sit on top of the old flange and I would just caulk the hell out of the spacer and screw it down into the old flange (I would have to drill new holes in the old flange), securing the bolts between them. The metal ring would then be sealed to the spacer and screwed into the concrete floor. The spacer and ring would protrude above the tile about the same as a flange sitting on top of the tile. The edges of the ring would be hovering somewhat over the floor, since the holes project a little farther than the spacer ring, but I could always use washers or shims to fix that.
Does this sound like a reasonable fix?
I'm worried about the fact that the spacer will not sit flush against the old flange due to the closet bolts.
I guess I could always put some holes in the old flange lip to accommodate them...?
But then I still have to piss around with drilling holes through tile and concrete to fasten the metal ring.
Any comments on that scenario?
Of course, all this means I would have to buy a 14" rough-in toilet, which are usually hard to find and/or pricey.
However, my only other option seems to be using an inside pipe cutter and removing the old flange. There is about 6" of straight pipe after the flange, so I could cut it down below the existing glued connection.
Then I suppose I could glue some pipe and couplings to a new offset flange, which may or may not fit in the space without busting out more tile and concrete.
Which of these scenarios sounds best...or should I say, the least painful?
Thanks for reading this far and for any forthcoming advice.
