Just found this site and appears PERFECT for most of what I do, flip houses and rentals! Lots of plumbing! (small 'yay'.... very small)
I'm not new to plumbing as I have the best job in the world, buying junky houses and foreclosures and turning those into rentals or flips. Those of you doing foreclosures have to be VERY adept at sleuthing copper as I'm in Colorado and often find multiple breaks. The smallest number I've seen is 8 or 9 on flips purchased over winter, the most number of breaks was 17 on a 5600sf house -- lots of space to break. To judge my worth as a plumber I had them all done in a day and a half, without damaging the drywall much at all - one tiny cut to a finished basement!
What I don't know much about & intend to learn, is hot to repair this 115 year old house with a cracked main cast iron drain. Unsure what size but appears 4" outside. It's broken in at least one spot visibly, likely two (either bent/pushed or kinked and therefor broken since it's cast iron) as it comes down and bends to an elbow in the crawlspace/basement, on dirt. There is an old brick pier over the line which I'm sure used to have supports on it for the beams and is no longer used, which the drain follows through and suspect the drain is pinched there. I imagine the house settled 2" and pushed the cast down, as well as the pier weight settling on the pipe and pushing down on it. You can see the pipe completely exposed coming out the other side and appears to point upwards a bit coming out of the pier, then cracked (water bubbled out of it when the line became clogged with roots) and then moves back down again as it exits to the cleanout 15'to 20 feet later.
After buying the house last month, I found the break the hard way, with a huge puddle of sewer in the crawl space corner. Yuck. It was purchased as-is and have zero doubt the seller knew about the leak considering what the tenants had to say. The line was roto-rooted and $300 later it's draining fine, no issues the remainder 100' to the street.
BUT - now I have roughly 20' of cast iron to replace. At some point the line has been replaced outside as I found the line changes to PVC with a PVC cleanout not 2' from the house, which you can see down the cleanout and confirm the pipe goees to a PVC 'y', so not pvc knocked into clay. Also in the last 2 years they replaced, or appeared to replace, the main trunk coming down from the middle of the house - as that's all PVC. Cast Iron starts again from about a foot below the bottom of the first floor in the crawl space, down roughly 3-4', to an elbow (partly buried, cannot see fully) - then goes under and old support pier a few feet away - comes out the other side & can then see the entire pipe running for another 15 to 20'.
I'm 300 miles away not and didn't have photos but I'll see if I can get a friend to take a photo of it so you have a better image if that doesn't paint a good picture?
My questions:
1) is there a way to confirm the entire tree is replaced going up? Or would it have to be if the bottom section is indeed obviously PVC? I cannot imagine the weight above it supported by white PVC pipe if they didn't replace the entire line? Should I cut a few holes upstairs to be sure?
2) What issues should I watch for if I'm replacing the last part of cast iron, to the same PVC? In essence there's already PVC on both sides of the repair, at the trunk and on the outside of the house at the cleanout outside the house in the yard. For DIY this project may be a bit of hard work but appears might be on the easier side of replacing an old main cast iron drain?
Just do it? Maybe the hardest part in bringing my electric jackhammer out to knock a hole in the old pier? Or watching for brown recluse spiders? (was super creepy before I pressure washed the entire thing - spiders EVERYWHERE).
One plumber suggested $3500 & know he's high as he never came out to even look at it. Personally I'd rather do the work and gain the experience on the 'easier' jobs than pay. But if it's a mess, with pvc possibly supporting cast iron upstairs (2 stories) -then- I'd rethink things, but still would shop for a plumber that cared to actually LOOK at the job. That kind of bid just makes DIY fun and all the more satisfying when done.
Thanks for any advice to watch for.
Matthew in Castle Rock, CO
I'm not new to plumbing as I have the best job in the world, buying junky houses and foreclosures and turning those into rentals or flips. Those of you doing foreclosures have to be VERY adept at sleuthing copper as I'm in Colorado and often find multiple breaks. The smallest number I've seen is 8 or 9 on flips purchased over winter, the most number of breaks was 17 on a 5600sf house -- lots of space to break. To judge my worth as a plumber I had them all done in a day and a half, without damaging the drywall much at all - one tiny cut to a finished basement!
What I don't know much about & intend to learn, is hot to repair this 115 year old house with a cracked main cast iron drain. Unsure what size but appears 4" outside. It's broken in at least one spot visibly, likely two (either bent/pushed or kinked and therefor broken since it's cast iron) as it comes down and bends to an elbow in the crawlspace/basement, on dirt. There is an old brick pier over the line which I'm sure used to have supports on it for the beams and is no longer used, which the drain follows through and suspect the drain is pinched there. I imagine the house settled 2" and pushed the cast down, as well as the pier weight settling on the pipe and pushing down on it. You can see the pipe completely exposed coming out the other side and appears to point upwards a bit coming out of the pier, then cracked (water bubbled out of it when the line became clogged with roots) and then moves back down again as it exits to the cleanout 15'to 20 feet later.
After buying the house last month, I found the break the hard way, with a huge puddle of sewer in the crawl space corner. Yuck. It was purchased as-is and have zero doubt the seller knew about the leak considering what the tenants had to say. The line was roto-rooted and $300 later it's draining fine, no issues the remainder 100' to the street.
BUT - now I have roughly 20' of cast iron to replace. At some point the line has been replaced outside as I found the line changes to PVC with a PVC cleanout not 2' from the house, which you can see down the cleanout and confirm the pipe goees to a PVC 'y', so not pvc knocked into clay. Also in the last 2 years they replaced, or appeared to replace, the main trunk coming down from the middle of the house - as that's all PVC. Cast Iron starts again from about a foot below the bottom of the first floor in the crawl space, down roughly 3-4', to an elbow (partly buried, cannot see fully) - then goes under and old support pier a few feet away - comes out the other side & can then see the entire pipe running for another 15 to 20'.
I'm 300 miles away not and didn't have photos but I'll see if I can get a friend to take a photo of it so you have a better image if that doesn't paint a good picture?
My questions:
1) is there a way to confirm the entire tree is replaced going up? Or would it have to be if the bottom section is indeed obviously PVC? I cannot imagine the weight above it supported by white PVC pipe if they didn't replace the entire line? Should I cut a few holes upstairs to be sure?
2) What issues should I watch for if I'm replacing the last part of cast iron, to the same PVC? In essence there's already PVC on both sides of the repair, at the trunk and on the outside of the house at the cleanout outside the house in the yard. For DIY this project may be a bit of hard work but appears might be on the easier side of replacing an old main cast iron drain?
Just do it? Maybe the hardest part in bringing my electric jackhammer out to knock a hole in the old pier? Or watching for brown recluse spiders? (was super creepy before I pressure washed the entire thing - spiders EVERYWHERE).
One plumber suggested $3500 & know he's high as he never came out to even look at it. Personally I'd rather do the work and gain the experience on the 'easier' jobs than pay. But if it's a mess, with pvc possibly supporting cast iron upstairs (2 stories) -then- I'd rethink things, but still would shop for a plumber that cared to actually LOOK at the job. That kind of bid just makes DIY fun and all the more satisfying when done.
Thanks for any advice to watch for.
Matthew in Castle Rock, CO
