On Tue, 24 Jun 2008 21:34:35 -0500, "S. Barker"
wrote:

if the flange is too close to the first elbow to cut it and put in a
coupling, then you have to cut out the elbow also, and work back 'till you
have a long enough straight piece to couple up to. then work back towards
the flange with new pieces.

s

"stonecreek" wrote in message
lnet...
I'm working on remodeling a small bathroom. When I removed the toilet, I
discovered that the circular metal piece on the toilet flange is pretty
much toast. The nails that went into the floor were rusted badly, the
floor has some rot, but it looks like the flange is glued into the PVC
below. I can access this from the basement, can probably replace the
rotted plywood floor, but how can that flange be replaced if it is glued
into the PVC below. It is on the outside of the PVC. There isn't much
room to cut the existing drain pipe and put new pieces back in place.
This seems like it would be a common problem in older homes and I don't
understand why this flange would be glued to the PVC underneath. Is their
an alternative way to fix this.

Any ideas would be appreciated.
Thanks



You can cut off the old flange and replace it with a special repair
flange that fits inside the closet elbow. Probably need to go to a
real plumbing supply house to get one. If the flange is high enough
you can cut it off using a hacksaw blade, but I usually use a dremel
with one of those little saw blades and slice it off from the inside.
I think you can only get the inside mounting flanges for 4" pipe. If
your closet el is 3" this won't work.

Sometimes, once you've cut the flange off as above, you can carefully
chisel off the remaining collar of the old flange, clean up the closet
el and glue on a new flange. But only try this if you are able to
replace the closet el should it crack when you're attempting to remove
the old flange collar.

HTH,

Paul