Fixing a broken toilet flange
Written by Mike Johnson in Bathroom, Repair
NOTE: A toilet flange is also known as a “Closet Collar”
I received a phone call from a general contractor who needed a plumber to find a way to repair a broken toilet flange without tearing the ceiling open on the lower floor. The contractor needed to install a new tile floor but when the toilet was removed they discovered the flange was not only broken but somebody a few years ago tried to fix it……..It didn’t work.
Below is a close-up photo of what the toilet flange looked like before I repaired it. Besides the flange the plumbing pipe was in very good shape. The plumber who did the original installation used a flange with a weak slot, basically a flange that didn’t have much material that surrounds the attachment slot.
How I repaired the Closet collar/Toilet Flange
To repair the problem I had to very carefully cut off the flange from the existing plumbing drain without dropping any material into the drain pipe. Once that was accomplished I carefully peeled away the remaining material glued to the pipe and cleaned it with a PVC cleaner. One that was done the surrounding wood sub-floor was inspected to make sure it wasn’t rotted away from leaking. Fortunately the floor was solid. In the photo below you can see the new toilet flange installed.
With the drain pipe cleaned and trial fit for the new flange completed it was just a matter of gluing it together and screwing it to the floor. One thing you will notice in the photo is the rotation of the slots. On a flange like this a plumber has the option of using the elongated slot or the small slot made to fit the bolts perfectly. I chose to use the small slots and take special care to line them up because it’s a much stronger installation and has less chance of future failure.
