The toilet in my kids bathroom started wobbling so I pulled it off to put a new wax ring on and retighten the floor bolts. Once I pulled the toilet I noticed that the pipe and the inner portion of the flange appeared to be pretty rusty and once I started scraping the old wax ring off the flange it basically started to disintegrate.
Obviously it’s rust but is that the flange and the pipe that are rusting away or could it be from years of untreated hard water? When we moved into this house 4 years ago I had to install a water softener because the water had stained all the tubs, sinks and toilets and smelled like rotten eggs. So I’m assuming that meant a high iron content in the water. It doesn’t appear that the previous owners had ever installed a water softener and the house is 35 years old so could that be 30 years of iron build up and staining that is coating the flange and pipe or is that a dumb question and obviously it’s the flange and pipe rusting out?
In any case, the bolt slots in the flange (not sure if they have a specific name) are still solid/un-rusted and the bolts fit in the track so is the flange ok to use once I scrape out the remaining wax and other crud or should I rip the flange out and replace it?
Thanks!