Recent repairs and WTF discoveries

TOILET SURPRISE!

FLOATING FLANGE!

I never know what I’m going to find. The original client request was to repair a rocking toilet. It appeared the installer used a plastic bolt to attach the toilet to the flange, and that bolt was broken. I figured it would be a simple matter of replacing the bolts (with metal) and wax ring, reattaching the toilet, and perhaps adding a shim or two to stabilize the toilet. To my utter shock and horror upon removing the toilet, I discovered that the toilet flange was not attached to the floor in any way!! It should be screwed to the subfloor. In this case, the tiler didn’t leave clearance around the tile for a flange, so when the plumber went to install the flange, he simply put it on top of the tile, with no screws into the floor. Here, the subfloor is a cement slab, so it would have required a masonry drill bit and a masonry screw to attach the flange to the floor, which is what I ended up doing. It’s hard for me to believe the original (presumably LICENSED) plumber made NO ATTEMPT to attach the flange to the floor. No wonder the toilet was rocking and moving all over the place!