OATEY 38711 4" x 4" Foam Closet Spacer

The Oatey 38711 is a 4 inch by 4 inch foam closet spacer. It sits between the closet flange and the toilet base to take up the gap when the flange ends up below the finished floor, which happens after new tile or a second layer of flooring goes down. Raising the toilet back up to the flange face is what lets the wax or foam seal compress correctly instead of leaving a leak path.

Yes. The 38711 is a spacer, not a seal. You still set a wax ring or a waxless foam gasket between the toilet horn and the closet flange to make the watertight connection. The spacer only handles the height difference between the flange and the finished floor.

Foam closet spacers are made to be stacked to build up the height you need, and the 38711 is a single 4 by 4 inch piece, so multiple units are how you handle a deeper drop. Keep in mind that every layer you add moves the toilet further off the floor, so past a certain point a flange extender ring fastened to the flange is the cleaner fix than more spacers.

Two different jobs. The 38711 foam spacer is a compressible shim you set under the toilet to make up a small height difference, no fasteners, no cutting. A rigid flange extender ring bolts down to the existing closet flange and permanently raises the flange face itself, which is what you want when the flange is buried an inch or more under new flooring or when the ring is damaged and needs reinforcement. If the drop is minor and you just need the bowl to sit level and seal, the foam spacer handles it.

The 38711 measures 4 by 4 inches, so it is a square pad sized to sit around the closet bolt area under the bowl rather than a full-footprint shim. Standard two-piece and one-piece toilets with a conventional base clear it fine. On a skirted or fully enclosed base, check that the underside is open enough at the bolt locations before you commit to spacers.

It is white, which is the usual choice because it disappears against a white china base and standard toilet caulk. Any thin edge left visible at the foot of the bowl gets covered when you caulk the base perimeter.

It is a light, low-cost consumable, listed at 0.02 for product weight and 0.035 volume, so it takes almost no room on a van or in a maintenance cage. For anyone resetting toilets across a portfolio after flooring work, a handful of 4 by 4 inch foam spacers means a tech is not driving back for parts when the flange turns out to sit low.