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How to Replace a Broken PVC Toilet Flange (Best Method)
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Jan 24, 2024
In this video I share my favourite method for how to replace a broken PVC toilet flange. This approach is fast and done properly will last much longer than the standard approach of replacing your broken flange with another one made of plastic. The trouble with most plastic toilet flanges is they're brittle and crack easily/ That's where stainless steel rings of the sort I use in this video can help.
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0:00
It's Steve Maxwell here from Bailey Line Road and I've brought you to my upstairs bathroom
0:06
to show you a problem and a fix and my hope is that it might be able to help you deal
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with a similar situation if you ever run into that. So we're repainting the whole house and I had occasion to take the toilet completely off
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I wanted to get to the back of the toilet tank so we could paint that properly
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What I discovered was not entirely a surprise but if you take a look over here you can see
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this is called a floor flange and this is what holds a toilet down
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So there are some bolts that go in here and there's also supposed to be a bolt that goes
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in here but you can see it's all completely broken off. It's quite a mess
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There's no way I can install the toilet on this. I always felt that these plastic flanges were just barely enough to do the job
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I'm probably right because there's all kinds of repair kits you can get for overcoming
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this situation. I did not use one. I ordered a few of them
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Didn't feel that any of them were robust enough to do the job
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Not to my satisfaction anyway. In this case too you can see this is an offset flange
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The hole just doesn't go straight down. It's offset a little bit so the circle of the flange is larger than usual and all the
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repair kits I found, they were kind of steel rings that would go on here
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They weren't big enough. They were just for regular toilet flanges which are smaller because it doesn't have
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the offset there. So this is my fix. This is a stainless steel ring
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It's 3-16ths of an inch thick. That gives these bolts lots of strength because this is going to fasten to the top of the
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flange and then the toilet is going to bolt. It's going to fasten down with these bolts here
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I've got them custom cut. I put the flange in place, put the toilet on top, measured, marked these bolts, cut
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them just the right size for some chrome cap nuts. I think it's going to look nice
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I went with 3-16ths not just because of the strength but also because another flaw with
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this flange here is that it's not high enough. Toilet flanges are supposed to sit on top of the finish floor and this is just a slight
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bit above the finish floor so it's a little bit low and I'm thinking that this, well I
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know this is going to raise it up, oops that's backwards. This ring is going to raise it up the right amount
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It's going to sit like this. Now the whole toilet depends on the connection between this stainless steel ring and what's
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here now. Now this is rock solid. I had originally planned to take these screws out because that's what's holding this flange down
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For whatever reason these screws do not come out. Maybe they're corroded and they're not actually gripping into the wood subfloor underneath
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I'm not sure. I've had to pivot a bit and I drilled some holes in my ring here which will kind of go
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down into the subfloor in different places. Here's one spot where it goes in, here's another spot, there's another over here
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So I'm relying on these screws here to hold this ring down
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But I'm not just relying on those screws. I'm also going to be using some of my favorite construction adhesive
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This is PL Premium. Very very strong. It's going to seal as well
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It's going to seal the stainless steel ring to the floor flange underneath so we'll never
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have any leakage there. I think it's going to be a really good repair
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The PL Premium is better than caulking though for this job because it's also going to help
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to hold that ring down. I don't anticipate ever having to take it off again so I'm essentially making a permanent
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connection here with this ABS floor flange. And I think the PL Premium is going to give me a little extra edge just to make sure that
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it doesn't come loose. Now there's some old wax here and stuff. I'm going to clean that all up with alcohol because I want a good bond with the PL Premium
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And there's going to be the four screws as well too. I had this cut for me at a shop that uses water jet cutting technology
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So believe it or not, I just emailed my design for this and they plugged it into their computer
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system and this shape was cut out, believe it or not, with water
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A blast of water. So strong that it just blasts through. Really nice crisp results
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I've used this shop before for different things. Very impressive. I didn't have them drill any holes though
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I drilled those holes here. This is harder to drill than regular mild steel but it's not impossible
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So you need to use good bits and real cutting oil. And for the toilet mounting bolts, you can see here I countersunk those so that the bottom
5:14
is flush because it's got to join up against the toilet flange
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Put on here to hold that bolt. That nut's not going to interfere with the toilet because there's a lot of hollow space
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under there where the toilet goes on. So it just holds the bolt on properly and should work just fine
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When I put it on here and glue it down, I am going to use a wax ring on top just like
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you would with a regular installation of a toilet and I think it should work quite well
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I hope it does. I'll keep you posted. But the idea here is to show you one way of fixing something like this without having
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to dig the pipe out and replace it all which would be a nightmare
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Might as well renovate the bathroom because that's the kind of damage that would be required
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But a little custom fix should do the job. So, I've cleaned the flange surfaces with some alcohol and I'm putting on some peel
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premium now. As I said, it's just two reasons. One is to seal it so we don't get any leakage and another is for strength
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I'm not entirely sure that the screws I'm going to put in will find anything substantial
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to bite into or as substantial as I'd like. I have done some trial drives of screws and I find there is some beef there but maybe
7:05
not as much as I'd like. Now I've marked the rotation of where it goes
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It's a little bit off. A little bit off is what I want in this case as it turns out
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These are probably longer than I need. There's the tiles. There's an inch and a half thick mortar bed
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Then there's two layers of 5-8ths ply underneath so I'm hoping I can hit something of substance here
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I'm angling it out a little bit too so I can try to catch the wood wherever that is
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under there. So far so good. Oh good
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Nice and solid here and the glue hasn't even dried yet so I think this is going to turn
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out just fine. I'm going to get rid of the squeeze out here
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You don't want to give the solids a chance to catch on anything
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Something like this. Now it's time to put the toilet on. I'm going to do that but I'm not going to let anybody use the toilet yet because I want
8:55
the PL Premium to harden but also for whatever reason the toilet wobbles a little bit on
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this tile floor. Maybe there's a tile that's sticking up a little bit or something
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I'm also going to put some PL Premium under the support ribs of the toilet as you'll see
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I'm going to put plenty on there, set the toilet in place and then just leave it alone
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until that PL Premium hardens. It's essentially a kind of a wedge in a sense
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A custom sized wedge that comes out of a caulking tube if you know what I mean
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It's going to get super hard and it's going to support that toilet
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So, probably leave it for a day or so before anyone uses it
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Because if it's wobbling when people sit on it, besides being annoying, it also means
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that you're going to lose your seal eventually. So, time for a wax ring and setting the toilet in place next
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So, the wax ring. This is the standard sort of stuff that's used to seal a toilet against the floor flange
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There's a number of different designs. There's some that's just straight wax ring
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There's kinds like this that have a built in plastic funnel. That's what I'm using here
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It's the OD31188. I think it's going to work fine. I'm not entirely sure though at this stage because when the toilet squishes down
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it's going to push this plastic extension down. They put it on there to make sure the waste gets past the junction point
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I'm a little concerned because this is an offset floor flange and it's not a straight down hole as you saw
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It kind of angles this way. I'm concerned about this hanging up on the offset part of the flange
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Let's give it a try. We can always pull it off if it doesn't work properly
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I've got a few different kinds of rings here. Whenever you're in a project like this it pays to get several of the crucial items you need
10:57
just in case things don't go the way you expect. You can always bring them back later too. Essentially... Oh
11:04
Wouldn't this be something? I stuffed an old rag in here to keep the sewer gases out
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It would be a shame if I left it in there, wouldn't it? Why isn't the toilet flushing
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There we are. This wax is quite sticky. It kind of reminds me of earwax in a sense
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I hope it's not really earwax. There we go. Now there is about..
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Oh, I'd say... 3 quarters of an inch between the bottom of this thing here
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and the offset part of the flange there. I think that's going to be enough
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Because this is going to go down. The built in funnel... Here, this black thing..
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It is going to go down when the toilet gets pushed into place. So..
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I just want to make sure it doesn't hang up somehow. I don't think it will
12:00
Now let's go over and take a look at that toilet. I'm going to show you those support flanges that I meant
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These are those support ribs I was telling you about. Supporting the back of the toilet
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Supporting the front of the toilet. There's a certain amount of wiggle
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So I'm going to lay down some beads of the Peel Premium here. And here
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So that it supports the toilet properly. This is the part that goes..
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The wax ring is going to go around here. As we set it in place
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I'll get some goop on there. Now you might be thinking... Well Steve, this is such good glue
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Are you gluing your toilet to the floor? Won't be able to get it off again
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Well, it's pretty good glue. But it's not that good. I did this trick before
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It works really well. And I got the toilet off no problem
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And I scraped the old hardened Peel Premium off the floor too. So..
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Think of it like a liquid wedge. In a caulking tube. Now..
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The big moment. So I'm just..
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I'm slowly pushing it down. I can feel it going down. Oh, it's looking good
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Looking good. Nice and solid too. I tried something a little different here
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You probably know there's... White plastic caps that are often used on top of the nuts
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That hold the toilet down in a situation like this. I've always found they look kind of chintzy
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They fall off a lot. I've cut the bolts just long enough so I can use these chrome cap nuts on
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I'll see what it looks like. I might put a white cap over it
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Maybe not. But essentially that's it. I'll do the bolts up. Don't do them up very tight
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It would be a real shame. It's quite easy to crack this porcelain if you do the nuts up too tight
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And then the tank goes on the back. The hose gets connected to the tank
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And hopefully you're back in business. I hope this helps. Especially if you run into a nasty situation with a broken floor flange
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Like I have. Thanks for watching
#Home Improvement
#Plumbing