[Topher22]

Hi all - new to the community, thanks for reading!

My girlfriend and I are remodeling her bathroom and we're both novices. We've gutted the bathroom and ended up removing multiple layers of flooring: ceramic tile/mortar, linoleum, plywood, a cardboard-ish material. This left hardwood and sub floor. We've since installed a layer of half inch backer board with mortar and screws. We're about ready to tile but i'm confused about the best way to tile under the toilet flange. I've attached a few pictures of what i'm dealing with. Right now there's about a 1/4 " space between the tile and the bottom of the flange, I figure that's just enough for the mortar. I'm thinking there will be a small apace between the finished tile and bottom of the flange.

I'm mainly worried about:
1. the space between tile and toilet flange
2. getting mortar under the flange while tiling.
3. getting enough tile under the flange to support the toilet, i'll be drilling through the tile into the backer board and sub floor to screw the flange down (its a plastic flange and pipe).

Any thoughts on this? AM i doing it wrong?

 

[chandler48]

Normally 1/4" cbu is used for flooring, but it seems you needed the additional lift. I would not worry about sending tile under the flange. It will test your sanity. You can block the flange with a properly sized piece of wood, or even stacked washers at each bolt insertion point to hold it stiff against the cbu. Use fender washers as they have more pressure space. Small washers may tend to crush the cbu.

If you decide to send tile under it, and you can do so, butter the tile first and place it under the flange. Once it is all dried, you can use fender washers at the bolt locations, but you will have to drill through tile, and that may be tough.

 

[Topher22]

Thanks Chandler, those sound like much easier solutions! I was afraid of tiling under the flange, but thought I had to.

What about this:

I also found this tile buddy thing (I have a picture with two under my flange and included the manufactures picture to show it a little better). They're stackable plastic panels meant to go under the flange. Do you think this would be a good option? I would screw the tile buddy/flange into the sub floor. There are two stacked up in my picture.

Thanks again,
Kristopher

 

[ron45]

The toilet flange must rest on the backer board.

The tiles go around the flange.

If you put the flange above the tiles it might be too high for the toilet to sit flat.

Also, when installing the bolts for the toilet. Put the bolts in position and use a washer and nut to secure the bolt before installing the toilet.
This keeps the bolt from moving when installing the toilet, and keeps the bolt from turning when taking the toilet out so it doesn't have to be cut.

 

[huesmann]

Based on that photo it looks like your flange will be about 3/4" proud of the floor...why not just replace the flange, at the proper elevation?

 

[Topher22]

By replace flange do you mean cut the flange off from the inside using "that" tool (not sure what it's called but I've seen it). Tile around the pipe and put the flange on the finished tile? Drill through tile (I have those bits) and screw into backer board/sub floor.

I guess I ruled that about because I figured plumbing was beyond my ability, but is that how it should be done?

Thanks again!!

 

[huesmann]

There's a couple ways you could do it, depending what tools you have—and what tools you want to have after the job's done.

The easy button for me would be an oscillating saw/multitool. You could just do an undercut of the riser all around the flange.

Second choice would be a Dremel with a cutoff wheel, cutting around the inside of the riser.

You should end up with a cut off stack that's more or less flush with your cement board base. Then just stick in whichever size one of these you need for your pipe diameter (they come in 3" and 4").

Once you've got the new flange mashed down on the cement board and screwed to the subfloor, I'd expect the top to be about flush with the finished tile elevation, give or take a few sixteenths.

You can butt your cut-to-shape tiles up against the edge of the flange.

 

[Topher22]

Thanks for the advice, Huesmann. I've read that toilet flanges should be installed on top of the finished floor. I've definitely seen many pictures with the flange flush with the tile. Wouldn't te flange being flush cause problems with the outside ridge of the toilet bringing the part of the toilet that touches the flange/wax too high?

Thanks again!

 

[huesmann]

No, that's the purpose of the wax ring. You should measure the depth of the toilet bell, i.e. the flat part around the hole in the bottom of the toilet where the top of the wax ring would be. If that depth is more than the wax ring height, it would be a problem, but I doubt that would be the case. Anyway, they make extra tall wax rings, too.