Help at a preschool, toilet hole cover

Users who are viewing this thread

jflowers

New Member
Messages
4
Reaction score
3
Points
3
Location
Bellingham, WA
Hi, I'm a preschool teacher soon to be director looking for advice. Our location used to be a hair salon so there are things in weird places. For example there is the toilet hole in the floor of what is now our break room but, I think there is a problem with it because it often smells. So I have a few questions. My partner is fairly handy but not a plumber so I wanted to get some advice before I accidentally do wrong.
A little background, the business owner is capable but tends to try to do things on their own and often cuts corners either to cut costs or through ignorance. We get wafts of smells throughout the day, luckily no one uses the room because has been neglected and is often used for random storage. I want to make it a nice space we can actually use and enjoy.

My partner says that it shouldn't smell of it is properly sealed. . Is this true? If it isn't true, is there anything I could possibly do about that? The owner's solution was to install a fan which is super loud and rattling so I'd love to get rid of it.

Second, I took pictures and my partner is guessing that either the owner or a plumber put a 3" cover into a 4" hole. In order to make this work it appears that they put the cover into a pipe which they threaded into the hole. We think this may be the reason for the smell and why it protrudes above ground so much. Is this likely the case from the photo?

Obviously the solution would be to put a correct size cover into the hole but it is an old building, I'm wondering if it is possible that the pipe is 3.5" and if that is the case what can I do about it? I didn't see anything on Amazon except for a clean out plug for outside.

Thank you for taking the time to read, any help/advice is appreciated. I want to fix this but I don't want to open it up and find that I can't fix it right away.
 

Attachments

  • PXL_20230322_004202699~2.jpg
    PXL_20230322_004202699~2.jpg
    102 KB · Views: 82

Tuttles Revenge

In the Trades
Messages
4,132
Reaction score
1,410
Points
113
It doesn't look properly sealed to me. A toilet flange should be flat. The black plastic looks like something someone placed inside of a 4" flange and then stuck the plug inside of that. If it wiggles or moves at all then its not sealed.

I've never used this product, but looks like it should work for what you need it to.

 

jflowers

New Member
Messages
4
Reaction score
3
Points
3
Location
Bellingham, WA
It doesn't look properly sealed to me. A toilet flange should be flat. The black plastic looks like something someone placed inside of a 4" flange and then stuck the plug inside of that. If it wiggles or moves at all then its not sealed.

I've never used this product, but looks like it should work for what you need it to.

Thank you, I asked and as we suspected the owner had done it themselves and just used the wrong size plug and added a pipe into the hole then put the plug into the pipe. I ordered the right size, 4". It's a fix that's less than a $15 fix that has been working improperly for years.
 

Jeff H Young

In the Trades
Messages
8,759
Reaction score
2,166
Points
113
Location
92346
good chance that is where the stink comes from . improperly plugged looks to me as well. t he dollar plug to me looks good but that plastic coupling isnt glued or thats a coupling and it dosent have pipe inside it so the plug wont expand enough mnot real sure but something mickey mouse going on there and it wont take long to figure out
 

jflowers

New Member
Messages
4
Reaction score
3
Points
3
Location
Bellingham, WA
good chance that is where the stink comes from . improperly plugged looks to me as well. t he dollar plug to me looks good but that plastic coupling isnt glued or thats a coupling and it dosent have pipe inside it so the plug wont expand enough mnot real sure but something mickey mouse going on there and it wont take long to figure out
Thanks, I'm going to open it up today and see.
 

Tuttles Revenge

In the Trades
Messages
4,132
Reaction score
1,410
Points
113
Also, if that was a toilet room, then likely there was or is a sink in that room as well? Is it still installed or has it been removed? Is it capped off properly?
 

jflowers

New Member
Messages
4
Reaction score
3
Points
3
Location
Bellingham, WA
Alright, didn't take pictures but here is what happened when I went to open it up. My partner was on hand to help me.

For one there is a possibility that not all of the fault lies with the owner but they definitely should have contacted a professional.

First off the cover was just sitting in the black pipe. It wasn't even locked in there. Then the black pipe was glued in with some liquid concrete which was really easy to remove. But, that's when it gets bad. The black pipe was sitting inside a smaller pipe which was really glued into the actual toilet drain. The hole inside that was only about 2.5 inches. In the end we ended up chipping the top of that pipe (which flared out just a little over the original toilet pipe) with some screw drivers and hammers because that's what we had with us at that time. We got the top loose but the bottom seemed to be glued tight.

However, the next day we returned with a reciprocating saw and I sweated bullets while my partner carefully sawed out a section of the pipe and twisted and eventually pulled it.


After that we found just the original pipe which turned out to be a 3" pipe after all.

I'm guessing that someone else had glued in that pipe so the owner added in the black pipe which fit into the other pipe but flared out to 3" at the top.

So long story short we put the original plug into the original toilet pipe and it now sits flush to the floor and is properly sealed. After airing the place out no more wafting smells and we can now use that space as an actual break room.

Thank you everyone who replied and tried to help!
 
Top
Hey, wait a minute.

This is awkward, but...

It looks like you're using an ad blocker. We get it, but (1) terrylove.com can't live without ads, and (2) ad blockers can cause issues with videos and comments. If you'd like to support the site, please allow ads.

If any particular ad is your REASON for blocking ads, please let us know. We might be able to do something about it. Thanks.
I've Disabled AdBlock    No Thanks