Toilet rough in distance

[Jon Grider]

Good morning fellow Creekers, and what a fine morning it is here is SW Michigan. Blue skies, coolish temps for mid July, a beautiful morning.

My project for the morning is replacing a 1960's vintage toilet that had a hairline tank crack with a new 1.6 gallon flush toilet with 3" flush valve hole. The Borg worker told me all standard toilets,including my 40 year old one has a rough in distance of 12" from the wall to the center of the waste hole. Now that my old one is out and broken into pieces for disposal,I measured the rough in hole to be 10 1/2", not 12". The bowl of the new toilet fits properly, but the tank will not fit onto the bowl right! I need another inch or so of clearance to align the tank to bowl washer and bolts. Am I missing something obvious here? Is the rough in distance of 12" measured from the studs and not the drywall? Do I have an unusual situation here? Any suggestions on how to gain clearance,preferably without having to tear out anything?

[Mitchell Andrus]

There is an off-set for this, I've seen it. A 'real' plumbing supply house will have it. - saves doing major surgery to the stack.

[Bob Vavricka]

You may have to go to a plumbing supply house or special order it, but you should be able to get a toilet with a 10 inch rough-in which I think would be better than an off-set. You might want to ask this in the terrylove plumbing forum.
Bob V.

[Mike Cutler]

Jon

You're not missing anything. The 'Borg guy was wrong, and I would definitely be returning that toilet. I'm no plumber, but I have installed a toilet or two over the years. I know that 10 was a "standard" once upon a time. Here in New England, in older hoses like mine, it's not uncommon.
A "real" plumbing supply house should be able to get you the proper toilet to mate to the flange, and measure the flange also.
The offset Mitchell refered to is to locate a toilet closer to the joist. Once again, in older houses like mine, I have 2" true rough cut joists on 12" centers, so both of my toilets required this offset.

[Bob Lloyd]

Jon

12" is the standard but you can get 10" or 14" rough in, they cost a lot more though and are not normally stock items. A lot of people do not like the offset flange but maybe are prejudiced by the old cast iron ones. They are usually used when the toilet is above a joist and the offset allows the toilet to be set without cutting the joist.
Do you have access underneath the bathroom? If so you could alter the plumbing under the floor to a 12" rough in; if you use an offset flange you are going to be reworking the drain anyway.

Bob

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

all standard toilets,including my 40 year old one has a rough in distance of 12" from the wall to the center of the waste hole.

Yipper but, unless you have good HVAC and especially humidity contol you might want to add a couple inches to that. It makes painting so much easier and the humidity condensation on the tank doesn't wreck the wall and cause mold . And I think it looks better of the potty stands a little proud.

However, you have ruin into a problem I've encountered in all the old buildings I've rebuilt. The standards of yore were anything but standard.
So you end up tearing out.

[Jon Grider]

Thanks for the helpful replies fellas. I found a 10" rough in toilet at a local plumbing supply, but way more than I was budgeting for this project. I have more time than money right now, so my next idea is to cut the drywall and frame in a shallow box from new drywall behind the tank.My wife wanted to paint the bathroom anyway so I guess this would be a good time. Hopefully I can make it look OK and not too cobbled up. I'm a little skeptical on the offset flange device and 400 bucks is more than I'm willing to spend on a new toilet.

[Bob Vavricka]

How about $229? This was one of the first I found doing a goolge search and the Home Depot site was one of the search results.
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/...419+4294917898
Bob V.

[Gary Click]

You should consider an offset closet flange. It is used to move the rough in 2" further from the wall. I had to use one in my basement and got it at the orange box.

Chipping the floor to allow the offset was a pain but it solved the problem since I wanted to use a toilet with a Sloan Flushmate (greatest invention EVER - BTW) and they were not available at that time with a close rough-in.

gary

[Ben Franz]

Toto makes a line of toilets that use a variety of rough-in flange distances to fit the type of situation you describe. The same toilet can be used with different flange adaptors as needed. Toto isn't the cheapest toilet but is one of the best 1.6 gpf units available IMO. I recommended them to clients without hesitation and never had any bad experiences.