OK, so I have done a good deal of reading here, and first must thank all the experts for taking the time to answer DIY's questions. 
I believe I have a situation that has not been addressed yet and would greatly appreciate some advice.
First, a little background. I am installing a ceramic tile floor in my bathroom, and upon ripping out the old floor I found that the floor was shimmed up 3/4" before 3/4" plywood was installed (then 1/2" ply and vinyl over that).
The original floorboards are 3/4". I will have to leave some of these in place, since the joists at the edges of the room cannot be accessed. I will remove as many of the boards as possible, and install 3/4" ply in their place directly over the joists.
In any event, the real issue is what to do about the 4" cast iron drain pipe for the toilet. From the bottom of the CI flange to the top of the joists is 2 15/16". The floor that I have planned will meet the height of the hardwood floor in the adjacent room, which is 2 1/2" above the joists. This means that the flange must be lowered by approximately 1/2", but the problem is that the flange is too tall to be slipped further down the riser. Are there shorter flanges that can be used? Also, the riser may need to be cut shorter in addition to using a shorter flange. Can the CI riser be cut shorter?
Additionally, this may not matter if a different flange is used, but there are no holes in the existing flange to anchor it to the floor. According to one of Terry's posts, this is necessary otherwise the bowl will pull up on the flange and could cause stress on other joints in the piping (=potential for leaking). Is this a concern with cast iron?
Finally, the joint between the elbow piece and the stack has developed a leak. (There are pics of this joint on the link below, since for some reason TL doesn't allow more than 4 links in a post.) I think this occurred when I was messing with the flange, and caused too much pressure to be applied to the pipe, thus causing the lead/solder joint to loosen there. How can this be fixed?
Based on what I have read, CI is too involved for most DIYs, and professional help should be sought. I am inclined to do this since I have never worked on pipe this large, and am only familiar with PVC and copper. How much should I expect to spend for the help to 1) address the flange issue and 2) address the leak issue?
Additional and larger images of the project can be found here.
Your feedback is much appreciated!
I believe I have a situation that has not been addressed yet and would greatly appreciate some advice.First, a little background. I am installing a ceramic tile floor in my bathroom, and upon ripping out the old floor I found that the floor was shimmed up 3/4" before 3/4" plywood was installed (then 1/2" ply and vinyl over that).
The original floorboards are 3/4". I will have to leave some of these in place, since the joists at the edges of the room cannot be accessed. I will remove as many of the boards as possible, and install 3/4" ply in their place directly over the joists.
In any event, the real issue is what to do about the 4" cast iron drain pipe for the toilet. From the bottom of the CI flange to the top of the joists is 2 15/16". The floor that I have planned will meet the height of the hardwood floor in the adjacent room, which is 2 1/2" above the joists. This means that the flange must be lowered by approximately 1/2", but the problem is that the flange is too tall to be slipped further down the riser. Are there shorter flanges that can be used? Also, the riser may need to be cut shorter in addition to using a shorter flange. Can the CI riser be cut shorter?
Additionally, this may not matter if a different flange is used, but there are no holes in the existing flange to anchor it to the floor. According to one of Terry's posts, this is necessary otherwise the bowl will pull up on the flange and could cause stress on other joints in the piping (=potential for leaking). Is this a concern with cast iron?
Finally, the joint between the elbow piece and the stack has developed a leak. (There are pics of this joint on the link below, since for some reason TL doesn't allow more than 4 links in a post.) I think this occurred when I was messing with the flange, and caused too much pressure to be applied to the pipe, thus causing the lead/solder joint to loosen there. How can this be fixed?
Based on what I have read, CI is too involved for most DIYs, and professional help should be sought. I am inclined to do this since I have never worked on pipe this large, and am only familiar with PVC and copper. How much should I expect to spend for the help to 1) address the flange issue and 2) address the leak issue?
Additional and larger images of the project can be found here.
Your feedback is much appreciated!
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