On 6 Jun 2005 07:17:28 -0700, "Ken" wrote:

If you are so inclined, please take a look he

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54844326@N00/17799293/

What's the purpose of that marble base under the toilet?

This is in a bathroom that was added on to our house I'm guessing in
the 1950's. I'm just curious why its there at all. It looks like it
was installed when the bathroom was built, so I don't think there was a
need to adjust the floor height to the waste flange height or anything
like that.

We're gutting and redoing the bathroom (don't you just love those
plastic tiles on the wall?), and my wife wants to keep that marble
base. New floor will probably be 1 inch hexagon tiles, and it seems to
me it will just be extra work for the tile guy to tile around that base
rather than just tiling all the way up to the flange. All plumbing
will be new, including a new flange set in the floor, so the new flange
can be set to whatever height is necessary for the tile thickness.

Ken

Have you had the toilet up? Sometimes older bathrooms had the drain
centerline closer to the back wall than is required for modern
toilets. You can get an offset flange that moves the drain opening a
couple of inches to compensate, but this raises the toilet and
therefore requires some sort of platform to provide clearance for the
offset flange. If you take the toilet up it will be obvious if an
offset flange has been installed.

This doesn't sound too likely in your case since it seems like you
have easy access to the plumbing so the drain could have been moved,
but I mention it as a possibility.

Another possibility is that someone just wanted the toilet a little
higher. These days you can get ADA toilets that are 2-3 inches higher
so they are easier to use for folks that have trouble getting down and
up off the lower height.

HTH,

Paul