How do people cover the gap between toilet pipe and floor...

[tawnee]

My understairs toilet has had a smell to it since I moved in. Terrible when I first moved in presumably as house had been empty for a few months (would seep out under the door and make the whole downstairs smell), a bit better since I've lived here but still present.

Plumber came out today and changed the pan connector / waste pipe as he thought the old one was at an angle which would cause a poor seal and potential smells.

I pulled up the lino around the back of the toilet and cut a bit off to make it fit the new pipe, and it smells very strongly of the smell I was experiencing. I'll be replacing the flooring in case there was a leak at some point which has soaked into the lino.

My question is - obviously there is a gap where the pipe goes into the floor. What do people cover this gap with? Previously it was just lino-ed over but I wonder if part of the smell could be coming from beneath the floor, and lino alone might not be enough to keep this at bay.

I've seen some cuff / flange type things to go around the base of the pipe and assume I would then put silicone sealant around the edges - is this what I need?

The soil pipe encloses the waste, so there shouldn’t be a smell unless it’s leaking or faulty. The cuff will be a cosmetic improvement and conceal the joint between the pan and the floor, but it shouldn’t be used as a seal for a smell - that would need properly rectifying.

If waste has soaked into floorboards from a leak, and the smell is coming from that, you may need to look at a patch replacement.

Thank you, I know it probably seemed a silly question but I know absolutely nothing. Posted on a plumbing forum about the smell and they're all criticising the new pan connector so can't win! I'm going to pull up the lino tomorrow and put it outside just in case the smell is coming from that - that would be the ideal scenario. It's concrete beneath the lino I believe.

Concrete is porous and will have absorbed some of the leak, which is possibly why the smell remains. You’ll need to clean it (vinegar and baking soda works, or an enzyme cleaner) and then seal it with a concrete sealer.

What were they criticizing about it?

I don't know if there actually has been a leak, just hypothesizing! Thanks for the advice about the concrete, I'll see how it is once the flooring is up.

Querying why the plumber changed the 90 degree fitting to a swan neck one and saying it could be off plumb because it looks like it might be resting against the hole in the floor. Obviously I'm not a plumber so sort of have to trust the people who come to do the job.