The toilet flange that took me a whole Saturday

I went to swap a old toilet in my rental. Figured an hour tops. Pulled the toilet and found the flange was completely rusted through. Three trips to the hardware store later. Had to cut the old one out with a sawzall. Then the new one didn't sit level because the subfloor was rotted. Ended up taking 9 hours total. Has anyone else had a simple toilet swap turn into a full day project?

3 comments

3 Comments

zara5721mo ago

Yeah you found the secret fifth step of every toilet swap - find out what else is jacked underneath. Did you end up having to cut a whole new piece of subfloor too or just patch it?

adam_thompson531mo ago

@zara572 asked the real question - did you patch it or rip the whole subfloor out? Because once you start cutting into rotted wood, that's a whole other rabbit hole you can't just glue back together.

the_kevin11d ago

Did you ever see that This Old House episode where they pulled up a toilet and found the subfloor was basically wet sawdust? It's always worse than you think once you start peeling back layers. I had a similar situation in my place where the previous owner had clearly just painted over rotted wood near the shower drain. Ended up having to cut out a patch about two feet wide because the rot had crept under the tile. You're right about the rabbit hole - that little dark ring around the base is never the full story.