Flange height 2 plumbing companies disagree

[apowers]

Hi My toilet was leaking. I called company A to raise the flange under direction for the maintenance man for my building. They said they raised the flange. But they told me to get a 10 in rough in toilet because my toilet was a 12 in.

I decided to seek the opinion of company B at the urging of my maintenance man after buying the 10 in toilet. When company B removed the toilet, they said the flange installed by company A was tilted forward and too low and said they had to raise the flange to be level with the floor. I took pictures of the flange installed by company A below.

Company B flange looked like below when they were done. Perfectly level with the floor. They had to use quick set cement with the flange to aid in raising it. It took a lot of time for them to do it because attempting to cut a 4x4 flange to be 4x3 did not work. The supervisor came in to help with this.

I contacted company A to ask for some money back since they did not raise it to be level with the floor and they said their flange was high enough and company B wasted my money. They said 1/4 to 1/2 inch below the floor is up to New York City code, and they have been plumbing for >20 years. They also said that company B's work with the quickset is going to leak.

I have looked through these forums and the consensus seems to be a flange needs to be level or just above the level of the floor. No one says it's ok for the flange to be below the level of the floor. Both companies charged me around $700 for doing this work. Which company is correct and if consensus is with company B, do I need to be more aggressive with seeking money back from company A? Also after doing some more reseach, why did neither company recommend a simple flange extender? Seems like that would have been a lot cheaper.

 

[Reach4]

If you look some more posts, I think that you will read that above the finished floor is best, but that 3/8 down can be handled routinely.

https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/toilet-flange-1-2-inch-below-floor-can-i-use-two-wax-rings.78681/

https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/flange-1-4-to-3-8-below-finished-floor.80905/

When using wax, it is important to have the shims in place, to prevent rocking, before dropping the toilet onto the wax. Also, if the pipe below the closet flange becomes blocked, using a plunger can blow the wax out.

There are more posts on this.

Flange extenders can work, but you want to prevent leakage under/between the rings. This could be done with sealant or even wax under each ring. Your closet bolts would need to be long enough.

 

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[John Gayewski]

The first company did a shit job, but it'll still work. Company B did a good job and it won't leak as long as they didn't get it too high. A flange can be too high or too low. If your toilet is resting on the flange and rocking back and forth on it, then it's too high. You need some wax in between the toilet and the flange. This is different than rocking due to an uneven floor. If, when the toilet is set, you cannot feel the wax compress it's too low. A flange that is too high is probably better off with a "sponge" gasket and some shimms. A flange set too low could use an extender with whatever process the extender kit recommends as there are different types.