In a world of hurt...drain broken under house...

[Pghsebring]

Well, rented saw, cut trench...trench not big enough...but big enough to see problem...

...the elbow is broken, it was clay (or whatever you call it) cemented together, but cemented poorly - all the old cement fell out of bell easily. I also seem to have a root problem there i think...its like a sponge of tiny roots...what is this from? This under a basement floor of a full basement...so at least 8 ft deep, with no tree on my property on that side...nearest one has to be 20, 30, who knows, feet away...how does a root get underneath the foundation, then come back up there? Top half of pipe was full of roots...or at least, i think they're roots...like i said, its sponge like something...

New problem: damn pipe ends close to the wall, i think they used a short 90 to go from horizontal to vertical - is a long sweep standard there? That's what i would guess. Other problem is that the pipe is angled, not perfectly perpendicular to the wall...so my trench is off...looks like i'll be cutting some more cement tomorrow...

 

[Cacher_Chick]

Tree roots seek water, and a great supply of water will come from a leaking drain line.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Landlordof4houses]

Clay Pipe Memo

IF your terra cotta pipes have cement joints there is NO donut that will work. IF it has rubber joints, then you will have to get a donut that fits that BRAND of pipe because the joints are NOT generic.

I talked recently w/Fernco (www.fernco.com). They are a wholesale firm. I needed a donut for the bell housing of my four inch clay pipe. Clay & cast get lumped together online and in pipe companies computer listings. Clay pipe is quite different from cast iron pipe. There also is a lot of variation in cast and clay pipe sizes. These can be the result of different manufactures, different ages when it was made, different chemical composition - plus rust for cast, different glazing processes for clay (ex. vitreous vs. nonvitreous) and even the depth of the bell housing itself (i.e. The thickness of the donut.) Cast bells are at least twice the depth of clay. The woman I talked to at Fernco said if I wanted a donut she would need an exact inside diameter of the bell housing. She said Fernco considered these fittings to be custom made. I purchased it from Morrison, they sell retail. they didn't even have the number for my fitting in their Fernco listings! They had to call Fernco to verify the part. You have to nsert it in the bell then add the pipe (called a spigot) in the middle. It fit like it was supposed to fit, I tapered the PVC end, used Crisco and a rubber hammer to help it along.