Here's the story: I've pretty much gutted the shower/toilet side of my master bathroom - it's a weird layout, with toilet/shower in an enclosed room on one side of a hallway and the vanity on the other. After I took up the ugly old tile the previous owners had laid I discovered that at some point in the past they had also removed and replaced a big chunk of the subfloor. That actually worked out nicely for me, because the replacement piece was just screwed down to the joists so I could easily remove it and get to the wiring to move the light switch to the other side of the door, since I'm also replacing the old swinging door with a pocket door.
I'm a relatively new DIY'er, I'm pretty handy but this is the first time I've tackled such a big project so I'm learning as I go. I have successfully laid marble tile and sheetrocked the walls on the vanity side of the bathroom, and I got the framing for the pocket door track nice and level and plumb. But plumbing makes me nervous ... I had a pro come in and convert the single supply and drain for the old vanity to a double lines.
So finally, my question: what to do about the old toilet flange? It's an outside 3" flange, installed with PVC cement, so I can't just cut it off easily. I've also noticed that it is installed 14" O.C. from the studs ... which seems wrong in any case, shouldn't it be 14-1/2" from the studs to account for the Hardibacker that will go up as the tile substrate on the wall? And even if that was okay, from my research it seems like there are far fewer 14" rough-in toilets to choose from than standard 12" ones.
What I think the Right Thing (tm) to do is: cut the old waste pipe right at the coupler, at about 7-11/16" in the first photo below. Then reproduce, more-or-less, the collection of bends that are on there now, but place the center of the final closet bend at 12-1/2" from the studs, and do *not install the closet flange yet. Install some blocking around the closet bend so the screws that will eventually hold down the flange have some meat to grab on to, the replace the subfloor section - I'm going to use 1/2" ply with 1/2" Hardibacker on top, that will match the height of the tile in the hallway. Don't install the toilet flange until the tile is laid and I'm ready to actually install the toilet.
That sound right?
It seems to me that replacing the PVC is something I should be able to DIY - I've worked with PVC cement and primer before so I'm familiar with the process. I know to dry-fit all the pieces and make alignment marks so I can get everything in place after applying the cement. Are there any gotchas here I need to worry about?
I'm a relatively new DIY'er, I'm pretty handy but this is the first time I've tackled such a big project so I'm learning as I go. I have successfully laid marble tile and sheetrocked the walls on the vanity side of the bathroom, and I got the framing for the pocket door track nice and level and plumb. But plumbing makes me nervous ... I had a pro come in and convert the single supply and drain for the old vanity to a double lines.
So finally, my question: what to do about the old toilet flange? It's an outside 3" flange, installed with PVC cement, so I can't just cut it off easily. I've also noticed that it is installed 14" O.C. from the studs ... which seems wrong in any case, shouldn't it be 14-1/2" from the studs to account for the Hardibacker that will go up as the tile substrate on the wall? And even if that was okay, from my research it seems like there are far fewer 14" rough-in toilets to choose from than standard 12" ones.
What I think the Right Thing (tm) to do is: cut the old waste pipe right at the coupler, at about 7-11/16" in the first photo below. Then reproduce, more-or-less, the collection of bends that are on there now, but place the center of the final closet bend at 12-1/2" from the studs, and do *not install the closet flange yet. Install some blocking around the closet bend so the screws that will eventually hold down the flange have some meat to grab on to, the replace the subfloor section - I'm going to use 1/2" ply with 1/2" Hardibacker on top, that will match the height of the tile in the hallway. Don't install the toilet flange until the tile is laid and I'm ready to actually install the toilet.
That sound right?
It seems to me that replacing the PVC is something I should be able to DIY - I've worked with PVC cement and primer before so I'm familiar with the process. I know to dry-fit all the pieces and make alignment marks so I can get everything in place after applying the cement. Are there any gotchas here I need to worry about?