Greetings! My main floor toilet leaked on me the other day (basement bathroom is directly below). The issue is the flange was not attached to anything. The previous remodeler decided to cut a hole in the floor and not attach the toilet to anything except the cast iron pipe below it (with at least a 1" gap needing 2 wax rings stacked).
The solution was simple enough. Fix the hole in the floor and run a new PVC drain. I'm not a plumber so I'm just sharing this as more of a "look what I did", NOT a "this is how to do it". I'll let the pictures speak for themselves lol.
Old (problem) setup
20191230_150648 by aaron M, on Flickr
20191229_221821 by aaron M, on Flickr
Process of removing the old pipe
1) Drilled 1/4" holes along 1/2 the perimeter of the joint
2) Connected the circles with a small wood chisel that I didn't care about
3) wiggle the pipe loose until it came out and I could peel the rest of the lead out
20191230_164825 by aaron M, on Flickr
20191230_172848 by aaron M, on Flickr
20191230_174706 by aaron M, on Flickr
Made a funny shaped wood plug to bring up the flange so it would sit at finished floor height.
20191231_120350 by aaron M, on Flickr
Finally, installed the new PVC drain using a 3x3 rubber donut to interface with the iron hub. Went with 3" long sweep vs. using a 4x3 closet bend because of the height needed here and I wanted as much wood as possible under the flange to support it.
20191231_171041 by aaron M, on Flickr
It was a pain, but doable. The trickiest part was making sure not to create lead dust. Wore a good respirator (p100 rated) and cleaned the area thoroughly using a HEPA filter equipped vacuum (then washed the vacuum and replaced the filter).
The solution was simple enough. Fix the hole in the floor and run a new PVC drain. I'm not a plumber so I'm just sharing this as more of a "look what I did", NOT a "this is how to do it". I'll let the pictures speak for themselves lol.
Old (problem) setup
20191230_150648 by aaron M, on Flickr
20191229_221821 by aaron M, on Flickr
Process of removing the old pipe
1) Drilled 1/4" holes along 1/2 the perimeter of the joint
2) Connected the circles with a small wood chisel that I didn't care about
3) wiggle the pipe loose until it came out and I could peel the rest of the lead out
20191230_164825 by aaron M, on Flickr
20191230_172848 by aaron M, on Flickr
20191230_174706 by aaron M, on Flickr
Made a funny shaped wood plug to bring up the flange so it would sit at finished floor height.
20191231_120350 by aaron M, on Flickr
Finally, installed the new PVC drain using a 3x3 rubber donut to interface with the iron hub. Went with 3" long sweep vs. using a 4x3 closet bend because of the height needed here and I wanted as much wood as possible under the flange to support it.
20191231_171041 by aaron M, on Flickr
It was a pain, but doable. The trickiest part was making sure not to create lead dust. Wore a good respirator (p100 rated) and cleaned the area thoroughly using a HEPA filter equipped vacuum (then washed the vacuum and replaced the filter).
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