Young_apprentice
New Member
Had a rough day today thanks to a toilet flange that should have been soo easy, but not with my luck it turned into a nightmare and im wondering if anyone here has any advice on what to do next time as it ended up being my very angry boss turning our sawzall into a wrecking ball and going to work on this flange.
So here's the rundown. Working on a standard Finish- his new addition- our new basement workshop/ office.
I was working in the bathroom getting the finish ready in his basement office. Everything was roughed in perfect execpt the Toilet. When the Foundation guys came in to pour the slab apparently they removed our liner around the pipe to create a gap around the the toilet stub up and the concrete floor. Well they removed it for some reason. Causing our toilet stub to be entrenched in concrete giving us no room to attach a flange- no big deal it happens. Fast foward a couple months and the room is nearly finished the floors are layed down (PURGO Sp?) drywalled etc... So i decide to just get the toilet ready to be set. Because we cannot get a regular flange on the soil stub my boss grabbed one of those PVC flanges that fits within the 3" piping due to the fact the only other option was to rip up all the floor (as purgo doesn't just pop up) and chip out the pipe taking lots of valuable time.
Heres were it gets messy. I dry fitted the flange and it fit nicely in the 3" toilet drain but it would not rest completlely flush. so it took a look and saw that the flange outlet was resting on the longsweep bend preventing it from lying flush. SO it trimmed about 1 1/2 off the end of the toilet flange- keep in mind its outlet is 5+in long-. I then cut the 3" stub up flush to the floor grabbed my glue and primer and applied a pretty good amount to both pipes as i really didn't trust thi stype of service flange. So I go to jam this flange into the toilet stub and it Stops a 1/4 off the finished floor. The metal collar is literally 1/4in or more off the finished floor. I try to use all my strenght and bodyweight to shove that guy in there and nothing happens. I tried for about 15 seconds to force it it in and it won't budge. I then Seeing the potential trouble a floating flange could cause go to rip it out and it won't budge. and i PULLED hard and it didn't move a MM.
So Now im stuck with this flange hovering about 1/4 inch off the floor and being supported by the stubbed soil pipe. I run and Grab the toilet hoping that it wont't hit it, but of course it does. The toilet had a legitmate 1/4 gap underneath all sides. IT would never mount properly seat properly, it would rock and look so stupid.
I called in my boss who was allready frusterated from a long day and he grabbed his sawzall, a Plunge cutter and goes to WORK on that thing very very angrily. I didn't think it was really my fault but he sure seemed to so i just shut my mouth and helped him. He tried to cut out the hub of the service flange leaving the 3" stub unharmed-- but it didn't really work to say the least. Im almost positive that floor is gonna be ripped up concrete slab chipped out and hes gonna be furious with me. so much harm was down to that 3" drain i dont think it will ever hold a pipe again...
SOOO to make a long story short, DO any of you guys no a better way to go about that so if this ever happens again this isn't the end result. Could their have been a way to shim the toilet and hide the 1/4 gap running around the toilet bowl. I was thinking maybe pour a plaster cast around the toilet kinda like the oldschool plumbers did? Is their anyway to fix a problem like that without making it become a huge deal and an eyesore?
Also anyone have any clue what could had made that flange stick? i removed all the burrs eveything was clean?
thanks guys.
So here's the rundown. Working on a standard Finish- his new addition- our new basement workshop/ office.
I was working in the bathroom getting the finish ready in his basement office. Everything was roughed in perfect execpt the Toilet. When the Foundation guys came in to pour the slab apparently they removed our liner around the pipe to create a gap around the the toilet stub up and the concrete floor. Well they removed it for some reason. Causing our toilet stub to be entrenched in concrete giving us no room to attach a flange- no big deal it happens. Fast foward a couple months and the room is nearly finished the floors are layed down (PURGO Sp?) drywalled etc... So i decide to just get the toilet ready to be set. Because we cannot get a regular flange on the soil stub my boss grabbed one of those PVC flanges that fits within the 3" piping due to the fact the only other option was to rip up all the floor (as purgo doesn't just pop up) and chip out the pipe taking lots of valuable time.
Heres were it gets messy. I dry fitted the flange and it fit nicely in the 3" toilet drain but it would not rest completlely flush. so it took a look and saw that the flange outlet was resting on the longsweep bend preventing it from lying flush. SO it trimmed about 1 1/2 off the end of the toilet flange- keep in mind its outlet is 5+in long-. I then cut the 3" stub up flush to the floor grabbed my glue and primer and applied a pretty good amount to both pipes as i really didn't trust thi stype of service flange. So I go to jam this flange into the toilet stub and it Stops a 1/4 off the finished floor. The metal collar is literally 1/4in or more off the finished floor. I try to use all my strenght and bodyweight to shove that guy in there and nothing happens. I tried for about 15 seconds to force it it in and it won't budge. I then Seeing the potential trouble a floating flange could cause go to rip it out and it won't budge. and i PULLED hard and it didn't move a MM.
So Now im stuck with this flange hovering about 1/4 inch off the floor and being supported by the stubbed soil pipe. I run and Grab the toilet hoping that it wont't hit it, but of course it does. The toilet had a legitmate 1/4 gap underneath all sides. IT would never mount properly seat properly, it would rock and look so stupid.
I called in my boss who was allready frusterated from a long day and he grabbed his sawzall, a Plunge cutter and goes to WORK on that thing very very angrily. I didn't think it was really my fault but he sure seemed to so i just shut my mouth and helped him. He tried to cut out the hub of the service flange leaving the 3" stub unharmed-- but it didn't really work to say the least. Im almost positive that floor is gonna be ripped up concrete slab chipped out and hes gonna be furious with me. so much harm was down to that 3" drain i dont think it will ever hold a pipe again...
SOOO to make a long story short, DO any of you guys no a better way to go about that so if this ever happens again this isn't the end result. Could their have been a way to shim the toilet and hide the 1/4 gap running around the toilet bowl. I was thinking maybe pour a plaster cast around the toilet kinda like the oldschool plumbers did? Is their anyway to fix a problem like that without making it become a huge deal and an eyesore?
Also anyone have any clue what could had made that flange stick? i removed all the burrs eveything was clean?
thanks guys.