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I've bought an old house, and I've decided to fix a rocking toilet. I found two flange repair kits stacked on top of the original broken toilet flange. When sawing the flange to remove it, I found the entire pipe moves inside the floor.

Well as I was sawing the flange the riser pipe came out of the 90 degree joint. I've also noticed standing water in the pipe, so I'm guessing the end I'm looking at is sitting lower than the tee.

I intend to buy a straight section of pipe and a new flange, but am I correct in assuming that having a toilet flange hold up a section of pipe is asking for disaster? I'm thinking I will have to open up the ceiling below and add a hanger. Or am I overthinking this problem?

Toilet Drain Pipe

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  • Why do you believe the toilet flange will be holding up a section of pipe? I mean, obviously it will be (in the sense that all toilet flanges are mounted to the floor, and all flanges are mounted to sewer pipes)... Do you believe this pipe is not properly supported on its run already?
    – noybman
    Commented Sep 10, 2017 at 4:03
  • Yes, because as I found when sawing it, that joint can raise up to the hole in the floor, or fall to resting on the ceiling of the floor below as it is in the picture.
    – Jeff
    Commented Sep 10, 2017 at 11:35
  • How good is the wood where this toilet is? The hole doesn't look "great" if its bad (whats the condition of the tile/vinyl floor?), you could(should) cut the bad wood out and replace a section of floor, which will give the toilet the stability you need. While you have the plywood cut, you have room to add a hanger, or toe a 2x4 in underneath it. I'm not up on code for this, but I would not expect it to fall apart if the joints are secured, the floor and the pipe will support it (unsupported) is my premise. But it would probably not meet code already (x#of feet support).
    – noybman
    Commented Sep 10, 2017 at 14:59
  • There's 3 sheets of plywood, the lower ones are still strong. I ended up relying on the flange to hold the pipe up. Hopefully it holds until I'm ready to rip up the floor. I agree this is not to code.
    – Jeff
    Commented Sep 10, 2017 at 22:04

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I've ended up using the flange to hang the pipe, but the correct way as stated in the comments should be to hang it or toe it up. Given the previous plumber didn't prime the pipe before gluing, I trust this will hold way stronger.enter image description here

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  • Yep, priming goes a long way. I presume you supported it while it dried? and now you're securing it to the floor? Looks good, and should sit solid.
    – noybman
    Commented Sep 10, 2017 at 22:38
  • Yes. Held it up for 30 seconds. Screwed it all 6 holes
    – Jeff
    Commented Sep 10, 2017 at 22:39

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