Are offset toilet flanges against plumbing codes?

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GoHoos

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I bought a brand new home in 2005 and recently discovered water stains on my hardwood floor around the downstairs toilet. I took the toilet off and discovered a broken offset toilet flange. I called a plumber to look at it and he said that, it would be a MAJOR job, that he would have to take the wood floor up, break the concrete(house is on a slab) to gain access to the pipe, extend the pipe and put a straight flange on. The cost $1800-2000 dollars. I thought I was going to faint! So I got to thinking, if the offset flange is illegal to install, then the plumbing company that did the original work should be liable and have to fix it. The only possible reason I can think of someone using an offset flange on a concrete slab, is if they did wrong measurements, came up 2 inches short and did a quick fix by putting in the offset flange rather than busting up the slab and refixing it correctly. Someone, please give me some good advice here. thanks!
 

Redwood

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Offset flanges may or, not be illegal under the code used in your area. I don't know your code.

They may not be the best practice and should be avoided if possible.

Some offset designs are worse than others....
 

Shacko

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I don't know your local code but, if you have to use a off-set flange use the deep one; the shallow one is just a problem waiting to happen.

closet_flange_offset.jpg
 
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hj

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The majority of construction guarantees are for one year, or two at the most, so your five year house would not be covered anyway. Usually the problem is NOT that they used an offset flange, but that they used the wrong one.
 
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Doherty Plumbing

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The only possible reason I can think of someone using an offset flange on a concrete slab, is if they did wrong measurements, came up 2 inches short and did a quick fix by putting in the offset flange rather than busting up the slab and refixing it correctly. Someone, please give me some good advice here. thanks!

You are probably right.

However you wont have any luck getting anyone to pay for the fix. Not only that but maybe it wasn't the plumbers fault. Maybe the framers put the bathroom wall up in the wrong spot and encroached on the toilet flange. Just have the plumber install a repair flange and be done with it (unless it's REALLY broken).
 

vanderrt

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lasko 33-3736 toilet flange

I bought a brand new home in 2005 and recently discovered water stains on my hardwood floor around the downstairs toilet. I took the toilet off and discovered a broken offset toilet flange. I called a plumber to look at it and he said that, it would be a MAJOR job, that he would have to take the wood floor up, break the concrete(house is on a slab) to gain access to the pipe, extend the pipe and put a straight flange on. The cost $1800-2000 dollars. I thought I was going to faint! So I got to thinking, if the offset flange is illegal to install, then the plumbing company that did the original work should be liable and have to fix it. The only possible reason I can think of someone using an offset flange on a concrete slab, is if they did wrong measurements, came up 2 inches short and did a quick fix by putting in the offset flange rather than busting up the slab and refixing it correctly. Someone, please give me some good advice here. thanks!

I have the same problem. The flange I have has a rusted out metal ring so I'm going to try using the lasko 33-3736 toilet replacement flange before I think about paying $1000 to $2000. Having my slab busted out just seems a bit of an over kill. There must be products out there to repair any type of toilet flange. There are lots of repair flanges you might want to check a few of them on line.
 
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