Leaking Toilet Help, Cast Iron Closet Flange Rotted, Noob Needs Help, Only Toilet

[YoshiGreen]

I have a leaking toilet, it was leaking from the base of the toilet only when flushing the toilet. This is the only toilet in my condo that I own. So very inconvenient. My unit is in the bottom floor of my building, I have no basement or crawlspace under my unit. I have a concrete slab under my carpet (seen myself when pulling up the carpet.

I tried giving the two toilet tee bolts a little torque to see if it would help, one of the toilet tees, was completely wobbly, like there was nothing holding it in at all, extreme amounts of play.

I called a plumber, and they wanted like 200 bucks. I decided I would at least try to solve the problem myself. I thought the wax ring maybe needed to be replaced, which was less than $10, so worth at least trying!

I successfully removed the toilet to find the following. I believe the nomenclature is called a cast iron closet flange. The flange is offset from the pipe that is in the ground by about six inches (flange is not directly on top of the pipe, but is off center). The flange is metal (I believe cast iron?). It is very heavily rotted. When I lifted up the toilet the rail (I think the nomenclature is, the hole in the flange to hold to the toilet tees) broke into pieces. So I realized I have more than just a wax ring that needs replacement. The flange appears to be two pieces of separate (?) metal, one inner ring, and the outer ring. The outer ring, half of it broke off when I lifted up the toilet. I can't even slightly move the only tee that is left, it appears to be rotted into the outer ring of the flange. You can see in the picture it appears to be two pieces of metal, with some spacing in between.

How do I repair this? The rest of the outer ring doesn't seem to budge at all, can't even walk it off so I can replace it. I have tile in my bathroom.

Thanks for any help! This is my only toilet I have in my unit. I literally don't have a toilet to pee in at the moment. So I have been peeing into the bathtub drain, and taking a crap at work or at the gym.

Oh BTW, my condo HOA says it's on me to make the repair or pay the plumber, sense the toilet is leaking, and the toilet is inside my unit.

 

[Reach4]

Clean the wax off with a putty knife, an old credit card, old spoon, etc. Then take another photo.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[YoshiGreen]

Thanks for the help I tried to remove some more. Here's updated photos with more waxed removed. I got this metal ring from home Depot but it doesn't fit flush against old ring. And there's nothing supporting it, we're the old broke off, it's just floating in that part. It also doesn't seem to fit the inner metal part of the flange exactly, like almost the right size, but to big, maybe once I remove the old outter ring? But the old outter ring doesn't want to budge at all or move. The old tee sticking out, there no movement or play on it at all.

 

[YoshiGreen]

More photos. I think what I have to do is located the old three screws in the original flange, remove them, remove flange, put in the new flange (bronze ring in my photos). Only problem is the three screws in the original flange are no we're to see because the flange is so rotted, so I'm not sure how to remove the flange, but it seems if I could remove it, then I just place the new one in, screw it down, and good to go?

I'm not sure how to remove the old one with the screws not visible, would have to cut it off some how?

 

[Reach4]

How high does cast iron, that bolt is sticking out of, stick up higher than the finishe floor? If more than 7/16, I think that you will probably have to get that down.

I am picturing breaking/cutting that high stuff away, and putting a repair ring in place to hold the closet bolts.

PASCO 21013 and Superior 21015 are repair rings with mounting tabs outside. There are repair rings without the mounting ears, if you flooring below is good enough.

It is also possible, if you can remove just enough, that the Hydro Seat could be used over the hole. Wax goes under the Hydro Seat.

$200 seems too cheap to deal with this.

 

[YoshiGreen]

Thanks for the help and advice. What price do you think I'm looking at (approximately) for a plumber to do this for me?

My insurance company said they MAY cover it because leaking toilet is a bio hazard that can ruin the floor. I have a $1000 deductable

Yea it sicks out off the finished floor by a lot, the bolt. It won't budge, heavily rusted in.