I'm in the middle of a toilet repair and need advice on how to proceed. First let me give you a brief history of what has taken place that got me to this point. Our toilet was wobbly, so my husband removed it and discovered the wax seal needed replacing, which he did and after that the toilet was nice and snug to the floor...for a few days. Then yesterday the toilet got loose again, so thinking that maybe he didn't tighten the bolts enough the first time, he snugged them up a little. About 30 minutes later we heard a loud popping noise, which was the toilet bowl cracking. So, we removed it and discovered that the flange was broken, which is why the toilet was wobbly.
We were going to remove the old one and install a new one, but looking inside the pipe to me it appears that the old flange is just butted up against the end of the pipe, and not sitting inside it, because the seam is on the same level with the pipe and raised up. In that case does that mean that the end of the flange is fused to the pipe with solvent and if so would it be hard to remove?
Our other option is to put a repair ring over the broken flange. The shiny metal repair ring pictured has issues with the holes lining up with the holes on the existing flange. They land over the broken out section of the flange, so they would not be screwed to the existing flange, but to the concrete underneath, while the other 2 holes would be screwed to the flange. Would this be ok or cause the toilet to sit on an uneven base and crack? The black "super ring" pictured has the top three and bottom two centered holes over the flange, but I would need to drill new holes to attach, as they don't land over the holes on the flange. However, the four corner holes sit outside the edge of the flange and are not touching the concrete. However, neither repair ring sits flat on top of the broken flange and wobbles back and forth, like the top of the broken flange is not level. Once the repair ring is attached with screws will it snug up and be ok, or will it loosen back up over time and be wobbly again, possibly causing the new toilet to break? The black "super ring" says one method of attachment is to cut away the rest of the broken lip of the flange and attach the repair ring directly to the concrete, and we had considered that, but I was concerned about leaks using this method. We called Roto Rooter out, but they wanted to charge $399 just to put on a repair ring, which I can buy for $6-8, which I can't afford, so I'd rather do it myself if possible. Please advise on what the best way to proceed would be. Sorry for the lengthy post, but I just want to make sure we get this right, because I don't want our new toilet to crack like the last one. I have attached pictures of the broken flange and the two repair rings we bought, so you can see what I am dealing with.
Thanks for your time and advice,
Xenaite
We were going to remove the old one and install a new one, but looking inside the pipe to me it appears that the old flange is just butted up against the end of the pipe, and not sitting inside it, because the seam is on the same level with the pipe and raised up. In that case does that mean that the end of the flange is fused to the pipe with solvent and if so would it be hard to remove?
Our other option is to put a repair ring over the broken flange. The shiny metal repair ring pictured has issues with the holes lining up with the holes on the existing flange. They land over the broken out section of the flange, so they would not be screwed to the existing flange, but to the concrete underneath, while the other 2 holes would be screwed to the flange. Would this be ok or cause the toilet to sit on an uneven base and crack? The black "super ring" pictured has the top three and bottom two centered holes over the flange, but I would need to drill new holes to attach, as they don't land over the holes on the flange. However, the four corner holes sit outside the edge of the flange and are not touching the concrete. However, neither repair ring sits flat on top of the broken flange and wobbles back and forth, like the top of the broken flange is not level. Once the repair ring is attached with screws will it snug up and be ok, or will it loosen back up over time and be wobbly again, possibly causing the new toilet to break? The black "super ring" says one method of attachment is to cut away the rest of the broken lip of the flange and attach the repair ring directly to the concrete, and we had considered that, but I was concerned about leaks using this method. We called Roto Rooter out, but they wanted to charge $399 just to put on a repair ring, which I can buy for $6-8, which I can't afford, so I'd rather do it myself if possible. Please advise on what the best way to proceed would be. Sorry for the lengthy post, but I just want to make sure we get this right, because I don't want our new toilet to crack like the last one. I have attached pictures of the broken flange and the two repair rings we bought, so you can see what I am dealing with.
Thanks for your time and advice,
Xenaite
