Three day toilet flange repair turned into two weeks

I had a leaky toilet in my rental off Central and figured it'd be a simple wax ring swap. Pulled the toilet and found the flange was completely rotted out, like crumbling to dust when I touched it. Spent a week watching YouTube videos and making three trips to Lowe's because I kept buying the wrong repair kit. Finally had to cut out a section of subfloor and replace the cast iron piece, which took another 5 days. Has anyone else dealt with a flange that just disintegrated like that?

1 comments

1 Comment

ryanhayes15d ago

Central and what, like Central Ave? I know that area, old houses everywhere. Man, that flange situation is the worst because it's one of those things where you think you're just swapping a part and then you're down to the studs. Three trips to Lowe's is amateur hour though, I think I made five trips trying to fix a leaky shower valve last year and ended up with three different types of cartridge because nothing matched. But here's the pattern I've noticed with stuff like this: when something in a house finally goes, it's like it's been waiting for you to touch it so it can all fall apart at once. That flange was probably held together by nothing but rust and bad intentions for years, and the second you put a wrench to it, it decided to retire. It's the same with old wiring or plumbing, you never just fix one thing, you end up fixing the whole dang system because everything is connected and half rotten.