I'm a first time homeowner and single woman tackling a complete bathroom renovation and learning as I go... luckily it is a downstairs guest bathroom so can take my time and am 8 months into the project. Getting ready to tile so finally removed the toilet and found this weird corroded mangled mess of a pipe sticking up. These pictures are after I removed the wax ring. Background info: home built in 71, this bathroom may or may not be original to home. On septic system, this is ground floor of split level home on a slab. The main stack is 2 feet away. The metal flange is broken and there was a thick mudded tile here before that was over an inch thick. The new tile will not be mudded so the floor will be lower. I am probably going to put the same toilet back on. Is this lead or cast iron? Why does it look like it's been sitting underwater in a shipwreck for 100 years? Can I just cut off everything above ground level and put in a new pvc flange with a Compression fitting(??) thing that sits inside the existing pipe and tightens to it? Sorry I don't know what it's called but have seen it a few times in my research