replacing flange

I am in the process of changing out a toilet. The current flange is rusted and it is a metal ring around a 3" pvc drain pipe.

I was going to go with a 2 piece replacement that I thought could wrap around what I have. The replacement 2 piece is too large a diameter for what I have.

I really don't want to have to cut off the current flange and rebuld.

I see there is an insert flange that goes inside of a 3" pipe. it has a rubber gasket which seals
This instead of glue. Is this a bad idea?

Any other flange replacement approaches? My floor is in good shape and I really don't
Want to rip it up to do pipe work.

Thank you

Reducing the inside of a 3" toilet drain is not a very good choice. If it were 4" it would be ok.

Post a picture of what you are looking at and maybe we can advise you better.

Since the thickness of the flange wall is approximately 1/4", use your high school math to figure the area of a circle that is 2-1/2" which is what your would have the the inside fitting flange, and then for a 3" circle. If you don't recall the formula, it is: A=Pi x R squared. ( Pi is 3.14 and radius is 1/2 the diameter.)

Following are the pics of what I have to work with. The first is the flange with the metal ring detached. The second picture is showing the 2 piece replacement ring which is too large.

What options do I have? Thank you!

I think the split flange that you have will work. You might need to shave a little bit off the ends to get it tight under the lip of the flange. It is there to hold the toilet to the floor, so once the ring is screwed down securely to the subfloor, it should do a fine job.

The problem you might have is with the height of the finished floor. The flange needs to be on TOP of the finished floor, so depending on what you are using for flooring, the flange might need to be replaced to get the height correct anyway.

Unfortunately, the split flange that I will not work since the diameter of the replacement is larger than the lip of the pipe. There would be play and it is my understanding is that the flange holds the toilet as well as holds the pipe to the toilet.

I am installing backerboard and Tile which should line up with the current height of the flange since originally there was a hardwood floor that was the same height.

Are there any other ideas? Thank you

If it was mine, I'd call a plumber to install a new flange that would sit on top of the finished floor. Some jobs are beyond our skill level and may require special tools that we DIYers don't have.

There is a split flange that will work, and it might or might not be that one. Any one that you find might need the ends trimmed to make it fit tight under that flange, since there is only about 1/8" there to work with.

The plumber used an inside cutter and put in a coupler. He then has a plastic, 1-piece flange that he is going to come back and install over the tile floor that I installed. My Toto ultramax arrived and will then be installed by the plumber since I want him to own the flange work that he did along with the toilet connection. I am very happy with the job that he did versus playing around with this although if I knew about the inside cut tool, this would have been simple and I would have $300 in the bank.

I know people prefer stainless flanges over plastic. I pulled out a rusted stainless so I am okay with going with plastic. In his opinion, plastic flanges don't crack if the toilet and floor are installed correctly. I think that makes sense in concept and I know that I can always put in a stainless repair flange over the plastic if it should ever crack.

Thanks to everyone for the help.

Thanks for letting us know the result. Looking forward to pictures when the bath is finished!

Get a different two piece flange. One with bolts to join the two pieces, and NOT one (like yours) that uses the toilet bolts as the joiner.