Toilet flange no longer over pipe

Question

My toilet was leaking a bit from the base so I figured maybe the wax ring needed replacing. I took the toilet off the flange and saw something that doesn't look quite right. The flange is case iron and one side is torn and coming up. But even worse the flange is not directly over the pipe. It looks like it was pushed a few inches toward the wall. Have a look at the pics:

Here is the front of the flange, clearly not flush against the floor:

Here is a top view. You can see the flange is not directly over the outflow pipe anymore:

Here it is from the back. You can see the tear in the flange:

I'm not sure how this happened. It looks like the flange was pushed toward the wall at some point. Or the pipe was moved out from under the flange. A few years ago we had our foundation leveled, which tends to move things around in your house. That's the only thing I can think of that might produce and affect like this.

How do you fix this? Do we have to replace the tile and move the flange back over the pipe?

Answer 1

There are a wide variety of repair options that might work without damaging/removing tile, including repair flanges that use a compressible rubber sleeve that slides down over the existing pipe.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to see exactly what's what from the pictures. Repair options vary much depending on what you find after removal of the existing flange, so I recommend that you work on that first (hopefully you have a spare toilet...) I assume the foundation is raised (since you spoke of having it leveled) and suggest you get under there to ensure you have not had a sewage leak under the house. Carefully inspect the underside of the subfloor while you are there, because you will need to secure your new flange to it somehow and if it is damaged then you need to plan for that repair as well.

This type of repair may seem simple, and really they are, but the details and tricks gained from experience are often invaluable. If you can't figure a clear path forward after inspection and a visit to a plumbing shop to look at and discuss options... you may want to hire it done.

Answer 2

Well, I feel silly. The flange isn't bent. It's just an angled closet flange (aka offset flange) like this:

I didn't know that such a thing existed until a did I little more googling. It is broken and will have to be replaced but there's not some weird foundation issue like I thought. Sorry for the false alarm.