replacing floor...what to do about toilet

[gufygrl5376]

hi there,

For some unknown reason to me the previous owners of my house put carpet in the bathroom; this has led to moisture easily soaking through to the subfloor. So, this weekend we removed the carpet and subfloor and are now waiting for the plywood floor to dry completely before putting new subfloor down. However, my question is with the toilet flange? I'm not familiar with terminology. There is a blue metal ring that is bolted to the floor and has the toilet bolts coming through it. This piece is up above the base flooring and I believe sat on top of the subfloor.
My question is...does the new subfloor fit snugly under the edge of the flange? or does the ceramic tile fit under the flange? And (maybe wrong forum for this ?) when I lay the tile if it doesn't fit under the flange should it go to the edge of it or a space around it and the toilet sit on top of the tile still?
Any help is appreciated.
thanks
Kristi

[majakdragon]

The flange should sit on the subfloor for stability. It should be screwed down to the floor.The tile goes up to the flange or close to it. Good luck.

[Plumber2000]

You need to mount the flange so when complete the top will be 1/4" above the finish floor.

This is what you do, long before you set the tile, take plywood and find you finish height off the sub floor, now if the height or the subfloor to the finish tile floor is 1/2" use 1/2" plywood, cut out a circle to fit under the new flange, now this will sit the flange at the correct height, screw this circle you just cut out and the flange in place, now tile up to the outside of the flange.

Hope you understand what I'm saying here, this will eliminate the use of 2 wax rings, allowing you to set the toilet with just the one wax ring.

[594tough]

The correct installation of the flange is for it to rest right on the finished floor, with screw through the flooring materials and down into the rough floor.


In your case, it was set on the smooth subfloor, because at the time that was the "finish floor". The carpet was laid up around the toilet.

In a perfect world, you would remove your flange and raise it. That is a big job , however.

If it were my house, I would be comfortable with redoing the subfloor, trying to get the new subfloor pieces to fit in under the flange. With ceramic tile going in, your flange is now low. But there are very usable flange extension pieces that will make this work fine.

If you plan to install cement backer board on top of the subfloor, this does start to get a little thick ; and I would then consider reworking the flange before you start this whole job.