Flooring Tile - Dip in concrete around toilet

I'm almost done tiling my bathroom and have run into a little problem. The concrete slab around the pipe for the toilet has a depression around the front part of it.

When I place a bare tile on the ground I can almost fit a finger in the space. Should I use self leveling compound to correct this around the toilet? There was vinyl flooring before and I never noticed the floor until now.

Also as far as the toilet is concerned do I need to replace the ring around the pipe for tile? The sales person at the local OSH said the ring the toilet bolts too is too small and I will need to replace it for tile.

If this depression doesn't involve much floor space, I'd fill it in with thinset. Not really Kosher, but it doesn't sound like a huge traffic area. As for the ring the toilet mounts to, I'm not sure why you'd have to replace it. If the toilet mounted before, it should do so again, provided you cut your tile around it. Are you sure they weren't talking about the wax ring? That does have to be replaced.

The guy was saying something about the tile being the same height as the ring . I still need to buy the wax ring. Is there anything special I need to know about cutting the tile around the toilet?

The tile cutting UNDER the toilet doesn't have to be pretty. Just have it close the the drain. The wax ring kit should come with longer bolts as well if you need them.

My slab was a little unlevel under the toilet, but didn't know this until I put the toilet on and it was rocking back and forth. I just had to shim it up with some shims/cardboard and it was perfect.

You could go either way with the depression. My tile guy just filled a depression (low area in a corner) with thinset the day before so it would be hard when started setting tile, but if it's just a small 'hole' you could probably get away with going with extra-thick thinset like smokey suggested.

As to the toilet flange - proper position of the toilet flange in relation to the toilet is for the flange to rest on top of the finished floor (or be at that height). They make build-up flanges available at the box stores that can be placed on top of existing flanges to raise things up. Using multiple wax rings is NOT the right way to go and will most likely lead to problems down the road.

As far as cutting the tile around the toilet, assuming you're using small tile and the toilet flange intrudes into several tiles, my tile guy would just make slotted cuts as needed in the tile and break out tile pieces between cuts with nippers or pliers. It doesn't need to be perfection because the toilet will cover things unless you get way out of hand! If the tile is big and the toilet flange is in the middle of one tile, careful use of a diamond blade in a hand grinder to outline the hole and then x-ing through the middle and then the circle circumference will cut the hole out.

Thanks for the info. The flange will hit in about 3 - 4 tiles. using 12x12 tiles so I'll be cutting accordingly. So far the hardest part has been cutting the tiles around the door jam. What a PITA.

Thanks for the info guys

Yes, door jams are always more difficult for the average DIYer. I found out renting a "door jam saw" helped out tremendously. You will waste alot of tile cutting around a jam with just snippers and a scorer. A wet saw definetly helps with these cuts.

You can also get a hand operated jamb saw at a hardware store. They're those flexible Japanese saws and work pretty well. Not as easy as the rented power saws, but you'll own it in the end. Undercutting the jambs is the way to go. I've had to cut around them in the past and have found that making a template first out of cardboard avoids a lot of miscut tiles.

Yeah I first tried to use a hand saw to score and break the tile but after ruining two different tiles plus a practice tile that came with the cutter I went out and bought a wetsaw.


I am definitely looking forward to doing the laminate flooring in the rest of the house. Seems a lot easier than tile!

I wasn't talking about cutting the tile. I'm talking about undercutting the door jambs as hotinOKC suggested, or making a cardboard template of the tile to be cut if you can't undercut the jambs. For cutting the tile, as you've already discovered, a wetsaw is best. I also use my side grinder with a dry cut tile blade and that works great. If your cuts are straight cuts, a snap board speeds things up. Once you get this tile stuff figured out, you'll be able to do your laminate in your sleep, it's so much easier.