wrote:
On Fri, 17 Jan 2014 22:51:53 +0000 (UTC), DerbyDad03
wrote:

Many years ago I had a toilet that leaked around the base. When I pulled
the toilet, I found that the concrete base that used to support the tile
had disintegrated, the wooden sub floor was rotted out and the cast iron
flange was cracked. Obviously I had no clue in what order any of those
things occurred, but I knew that I could only fix 2 of the 3. I called an
old time plumber, one who knew how to deal with leaded-in cast iron
flanges. He told me that if I wanted to save some money, I could chisel out
the old solder and oakum, remove the flange, repair the floor and then have
him come in and lead a new flange onto the pipe.

I did as he suggested, then used some pressure treated wood to build up the
floor under the toilet and around the flange so that there was a nice solid
base for the flange to sit on. He came in with his torch, his ladle, his
pack of oakum and put a new flange on in just a few minutes. It was a long
time ago so I don't remember the actual cost, but since I did all of the
upfront work and then reset the toilet myself, the cost was minimal.

Watch this video to get an idea of what I did and then what the plumber
did. After that, you can decide how much of the work you want to do
yourself. You might not even have a leaded-in flange, but at least you'll
get somewhat of an idea of what it looks like under a toilet.

You dont need to use lead to attach a cast iron flange anymore. They
sell a bolt-on flange now. You remove the old flange, by simply
breaking it with a hammer (being careful not to break the pipe). Remove
all lead and oakum that remains on the pipe. Buy one of these bolt-on
flanges, slip it over the pipe, and get it level with the floor. Then
tighten the 4 bolts on top of it. As the bolts are tightened, a rubber
boot gets tighter and tighter around the pipe. Once the bolts are all
the way snug, you're done! Simple as can be!

These work on both cast iron and PVC pipe.

Although doing leading, is really not all that hard. I've done many of
them and other leading in the past, when I worked as a plumber. The
biggest problem is thart you need a lead pot, and lead "furnace" (flame
device to melt it}, plus a few special tools to tamp it in place. In a
pinch, I've melted lead with a turbo propane torch, but it takes awhile.

The nice thing about thse bolt-on flanges is that they can be raised if
the floor gets raised (ceramic tile, or underlayment), and they are
reusable too.

Finally, rotted floors around toilets are very common. Building codes
should require treated wood around them in new homes. But even if they
did, there are millions of old houses that either need floor repair, or
have already had them replaced. I have heard stories of people falling
thru the floor on the toilet. I've never seen proof, but it is
possible, ifthere is no joist under the toilet, and particularly if the
pipes are PVC, since cast iron popes have more support. I did see a
toilet fall partway thru the floor in a trailer house. Trailers use
that crappy particle board for the floors, and stuff just falls apart
when wet. The trailer was vacant, so I dont know if anyone was on the
toilet when the toilet fell in. I also had to repair another trailer
house where the toilet tipped over, while the house was being moved. I
got a laugh when I saw that one. The floor was so decayed that the
toilet was not attached to anything, and just tipped over. That job
required gutting the whole bathroom, and replacing the entire bathroom
floor. Part of that problem was due to the owner being severely
overweight. He put a leg thru the floor once, and another time was
sitting on a kitchen chair and two chair legs went thru the floor.
Eventually he had to cover all the floors in that trailer with plywood.

Speaking of floor problems in bathrooms...

In the same mid-50's house where I had the flange replaced, the tiles in
that bathroom were the 1" square style. Sometime in the mid-80's, the tiles
in front of the sink began to pop off of the mortar bed. The 2" mortar bed
was beginning to crumble. A remodel wasn't in the plans (or budget) just
yet, so I squared off the area around the bad section, removed the tiles
and mortar and built it back up with a few layers of plywood. A bathroom
throw rug covered the temporary repair for a few years while we had a few
babies and tried to save up money.

When remodeling time finally came around, I gutted the bathroom and began
replacing the galvanized drains with PVC. When I pulled the T&G subfloor in
front of the sink, I found something weird. Instead of the joists being 16"
OC like everywhere in the house, the section right in front of the sink was
about 22" OC. As far as I can tell this is the only joist bay in the house
where this spacing exists. I can only assume that the builders needed an
extra 6" someplace and that's where they decided to get it. The problem
was, they chose one of the heaviest trafficked area of the house, not to
mention the only tiled area of the house, to widen the joist spacing.

Before closing up the floor I added some extra bracing between the joists
in that area to hopefully prevent any future movement. So far, no problems.