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[DUNBAR PLUMBING]

A repeat customer of Dunbar Plumbing contacted us from over 4 years ago, needing some plumbing work down at their home. Cruise Creek Road is located in Piner Kentucky, about 8 miles south of Independence Kentucky. SR17 or Madison Pike is the road you take to reach this location. SR17 intersects with SR14 at a junction near Piner School. A well travelled road in the area that is mostly rural, with an old time store at the corner of Route 14 and 17 where they intersect. Only two old time grocery stores remain in this rural area and when the "new and improved" gas/grocery stores come to town, that will be the end of an era of history.

The plumbing problem the customer was having was a toilet flange that had cracked at both sides of the flange where the closet bolts attach to the flange. Further investigation of the flange revealed that the piping arrangement immediately leaving the flange showed numerous fittings and next to any or little piping involved. This removed the possibility of removing the flange from the piping and installing a new closet flange. We came prepared to repair the flange from up above, using numerous methods that have proven to be reliable in situations like these.

 

[DUNBAR PLUMBING]

Some of the products we had to resolve the issue:


Spanner Flange

Super Ring

Stainless Steel Ring


The above method we went with was the stainless steel ring. This allowed us to drill through the predrilled holes in the stainless steel ring and place the ring over top of the plastic toilet flange. Along with the flange, the existing toilet bolts or closet bolts were installed at the same time, with numerous screws holding down the new ring through the existing closet flange and into the existing wood subfloor. Once the screws anchored the flange down the closet flange was solid and secure, along with the new closet bolts that were ready to accept the toilet after the work was done to the floor.

Plastic, like all plastics over time become brittle with age, and the temperatures/variations of which can affect the longevity of the product. In relation to closet flanges, room temperature to cold (recently flushed toilet) and this constant back and forth temperature change can cause flanges to become hardened over time. Given that two stress points caused by the anchoring of the toilet by bolts through the flange, this creates the possibility of breakage quite easily. The actual setting of the toilet flange can achieve a 'stronger' design by either utilizing the two precut slots in the flange, or setting the furthest distance of the slots for the closet bolts to fit into the meat of the flange, at the 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock position. Too often when we see closet flanges are the slots set to catch the bolt pattern where it is at its weakest position in the flange. Why? I believe that answer follows the belief of fudge room to allow the toilet some give space if there is any tightness to the wall. In a lot of ways, this is a good way to allow for that room, but the sacrifice comes with the flange being subjected to a shorter life of usage.

The customer did not ask us to reset the toilet as a new floor was going to be installed at a later date. We explained to the customer to not use horned wax rings as they are not reliable. A discussion was created with this topic and I explained the many reasons why horned wax rings are more trouble than their worth. Dunbar Plumbing will soon provide an information blog discussion about these types of wax rings and why they become a liability to homeowners in their use.

Contact Dunbar Plumbing for all your plumbing needs. DUNBAR PLUMBING - NORTHERN KENTUCKY PLUMBERS 859-359-4833

[Tags:]

Tags: broken toilet flange  closet flange  water closet  cruise creek road  piner ky