How To Repair A Broken Cast Iron Toilet Flange In Concrete

Editor'due south Note: Primary plumber Anthony Pacilla occasionally writes "Now What?" features, where he sets upwardly a scenario and uses his real-life experiences to provide problem-solving advice about information technology.

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You sell Mrs. Jones a new toilet since her current one is quondam. Y'all pull the toilet and discover a corroded and broken toilet flange.

Now what?

What seems so simple and straightforward tin be frustrating at times for the new plumber, specially when there are tons of variations, ages, conditions, and repair options. Which one should yous use in what situations? You expect at the cleaved flange. You lot go over your options.

Get Make clean

You are an artist and y'all need to work with a make clean slate. Become the wax mess off the flange. Store-vac the chaff and use cleaner and a rag to clean the area. Once yous have cleaned the immediate work area, go a saucepan to set your chip in to go on your work site make clean.

Have An Cess

There are a few things you demand to look over earlier you lot get to the actual repair step.

First, look to see why the flange bankrupt in the first place. Is information technology simply old age or did something cause information technology to fail prematurely? Many times an uneven floor and uneven setting of the toilet leads to rocking which and so leads to a broken flange.

The other affair to look for is the depth of the existing flange. Is the flange also high? Is the flange too low? Virtually times the flooring guys take put in a new tile floor without having a plumber re-rough the flange to proper acme. The trend is to either double up on the new wax band or use flange spacers to beefiness upwards to proper superlative. Both of these are wrong and should not be used as a permanent solution. Doubled-up wax rings will leak and spacers will definitely leak. And don't even recollect about caulking between spacers. Fight the urge to pull the trigger on these handyman-type repairs.

Cast Iron Flanges

A cleaved cast atomic number 26 flange can be a pain to gear up properly. Well-nigh times the cast atomic number 26 flange is then thick that the divide-type repair flanges are too thin to brand an touch on, and the full-sized spanner flanges are near impossible to install because cast iron is not easy to drill into. You need to remove the flange and starting time from scratch.

There is no perfect way to remove a flange but there are a few skilful ways to endeavour. Get-go, try and drill a series of holes in the lead that is in betwixt the flange and the cast iron pipe. Once you lot accept drilled the lead enough, common cold chisel, fight, selection, and pry the lead and oakum out and pull the flange.

Another fashion — and probably less fourth dimension-consuming — is to break the flange itself into pieces using a cold chisel and small-scale sledge. Try not to use a apartment bar to pry the flange upwards (especially if you are working with a tiled floor) as information technology will crack the surrounding tile work. The correct way is to drill the holes as previously mentioned and utilize an old-schoolhouse "pitching" tool to pull the atomic number 82 and oakum out.

In one case you remove the bandage iron flange y'all have a few options. There is a nice repair flange that has internal Allen screws where you push the flange down into the cast iron pipe and tighten the Allen screws, making a tight seal. Screw the flange downward and you are good to go.

By far the all-time manner to brand this repair is to pour a new lead joint with a new cast iron flange. Notice a primary plumber or journeyman at your company and ask them to do one with you. A poured bandage iron flange is not going to rock or move anywhere at all if done properly and is by far the all-time repair option to supplant an existing cast iron flange.

Concrete Flanges

If you lot run into a flange that is going into a concrete floor, make certain yous screw the new flange in with Tapcons, not drywall-type blanks and screws. The bare anchors will slowly pry upward with everyday use of the toilet. If the toilet is set in the basement on a raw physical flooring, and the physical is then uneven that shims won't do information technology justice, pour a bed of thinset down where the toilet will sit down and set the toilet into the bed and let it set up.

Types of Repair Flanges

In that location are 3 main types with the new repair flanges. The blue/red pot metal flange, the PVC flange, and the stainless steel flange. The stainless steel flange is male monarch in my opinion. I accept seen too many of the blue/red pot metal flanges less than a few years old rotted away and falling apart. The PVC flanges volition usually snap and break since plumbers typically utilise 5/16-inch bolts and make them adept and tight. Either that or a customer who moves effectually a lot could snap the flange. Either style, take a look at how weak that sparse role of the flange is.

Miscellaneous Repair Tips

If the hole is too big to screw the new flange down, pull up the wooden subfloor and put a new section in place that is the correct size. If the hole is too big in a concrete floor, dig it up and rough it in properly by stubbing up your pipe, wrapping information technology in some three-inch pipe insulation or a corrugated spacer, pouring concrete into the spacer, and then using an internal pipage cutter and gluing your flange downwards to the new concrete.

If yous tin can't get screws to bite into the subfloor, consider drilling and using toggle bolts. If y'all have a thick enough wooden subfloor, consider using a router gear up at half the depth and make a square impression piece in the existing plywood. Then make that aforementioned depth piece out of new wood with a new flange pigsty and mucilage and screw it down into the impression you made (the old carpenter's pull a fast one on). Every one time in a while y'all will be able to cut out the existing flange flush with the floor and use a socket saver to drill out the old hub. At this point yous can glue a new fitting in.

And if all else fails, cascade a lead joint. Even on PVC piping. Learn how to practise it and utilize it where y'all tin. No thing what you exercise, take the time to do information technology the right way. Don't take a short cut and fustigate a PVC flange into a piece of bandage iron and caulk it.

About the Author

Anthony Pacilla is a registered master plumber for McVehil Plumbing in Washington, Pennsylvania. He has 22 years of feel in the plumbing and HVAC trades, and has a available's in business and economic science from Thiel College.

Source: https://www.plumbermag.com/how-to-articles/plumbing-residential-toilet/a-deep-dive-into-toilet-flange-repairs

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