3" ABS toilet flange 3 1/2" too high in basement floor

fusion2k

Hello, I am in the process of a basement renovation. When we bought the house, there was a toilet underneath a set of stairs, sitting on a 2" thick concrete pad. I have removed the toilet and have since torn up the concrete pad and floor in preparation to move the toilet to a new bathroom, about 6 feet farther away from the main stack. I hired a plumber to rough in the new bathroom - toilet, sink, and stand up shower. All waste plumbing new and old is ABS.

The issue is that the new toilet flange is about 4" above the concrete floor. The reasons for this, according to the plumber, is that a 1/4" per foot slope needs to be maintained so the drain works properly, which makes sense but will still look ugly afterwards. My possible options (floor is still torn up so I can basically do anything right now):

1) Push flange/pipe down so the flange is the proper height. I don't expect it to be flush with the concrete floor, as I will be tiling later on. Even making it say 1" above the concrete floor is fine, I could install a tile underlay or something to bring up the height. But, what if it doesn't drain properly in future and have to tear up the floor again?

2) Pour a small concrete pad around the base of the toilet. Tile on top of it, make it look nice. Tile rest of bathroom directly onto concrete.

I think that's the only possible ideas? The idea of installing an "inside diameter" flange we looked into when the plumber installed it. He used a street 90 on the toilet, so one end was already female, so whether the flange goes inside or outside the 90, shouldn't make a difference height wise.

Any other suggestions are appreciated, I attached some pictures of the situation. The original toilet location is circled. Also, pay no attention to the whitish pipe underneath all the plumbing, it is just 3" corrugated plastic with a sock for water drainage underneath the floor.

Thanks in advance.

Attached Images

   

bob22

" The reasons for this, according to the plumber, is that a 1/4" per foot slope needs to be maintained so the drain works properly, which makes sense but will still look ugly afterwards."
If you don't maintain a minimum slope it will not drain.
How do you intend on lowering the toilet flange without taking drainage into consideration? Can the connection to the main stack be lowered?

fusion2k

I understand the slope needs to be maintained. I just read that sometimes 1/8" per foot (vs 1/4") is acceptable, so there has to be some flexibility. Unfortunately the main stack connection cant be modified very easy as it is a tee, and would probably require removing and rebuilding probably three different fittings. Plus it is buried in more concrete and I don't really want to get a jackhammer again. I had three different plumbers come by and not one of them mentioned issues with the flange being too tall.

Alan

1/8 per foot is outside the building, if it is even allowed in your jurisdiction.


They probably didn't say anything about it being too tall, because i'm sure they assumed you were building the floor up.


So basically those are your options .... jackhammer, lower connection to main stack or build the floor up.

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Journeyman Plumber