Greetings!
I have a house built around 1967 that requires a basement toilet drain repair. Plumbing is not my line of work, but I think I can do the job if I can get some advice here.
I have removed the toilet to expose a 7" dia steel flange flush with tile on concrete slab, attached by lead to an approximately 5" od iron pipe (3.75" id). The iron pipe immediately elbows beneath the floor slab and runs straight at least 5' toward where the main drain routes from the house to the street. Would it likely turn down into the main drain?
The iron pipe appears to have failed at the elbow where it begins its run under the slab. A few 0.25" dia roots have entered there and appear to taper off farther down the pipe. Ants have entered and since the toilet was seldom used, were able to import a lot of soil both up and down the pipe.
I have shop-vac'ed out soil as far as I can reach. The root entry seems confined to near the elbow. I speculate that soil was carried down the pipe by ants. They also carried it up into the toilet hollows.
All other plumbing in the house is working, so I figure this problem extends only as far as the ants carried soil down the dormant drain.
My plan is to remove the slab above the pipe, remove a few feet of failed iron piping, finish shop-vac'ing out the remaining soil without just pushing soil on toward the main drain, replace the bad piping with PVC?, patch the slab and tile, and install the toilet.
Sound like a good plan?
o How to remove the concrete slab and how wide to remove?
o How to cut iron pipe confined in trench?
o How to attach new PVC to old iron? Rubber and straps? PVC parts list?
o Gravel back fill material?
o Other tips?
Thanks for considering my problem! The house is a tear down so this is not a long term repair.
Glenn
I have a house built around 1967 that requires a basement toilet drain repair. Plumbing is not my line of work, but I think I can do the job if I can get some advice here.
I have removed the toilet to expose a 7" dia steel flange flush with tile on concrete slab, attached by lead to an approximately 5" od iron pipe (3.75" id). The iron pipe immediately elbows beneath the floor slab and runs straight at least 5' toward where the main drain routes from the house to the street. Would it likely turn down into the main drain?
The iron pipe appears to have failed at the elbow where it begins its run under the slab. A few 0.25" dia roots have entered there and appear to taper off farther down the pipe. Ants have entered and since the toilet was seldom used, were able to import a lot of soil both up and down the pipe.
I have shop-vac'ed out soil as far as I can reach. The root entry seems confined to near the elbow. I speculate that soil was carried down the pipe by ants. They also carried it up into the toilet hollows.
All other plumbing in the house is working, so I figure this problem extends only as far as the ants carried soil down the dormant drain.
My plan is to remove the slab above the pipe, remove a few feet of failed iron piping, finish shop-vac'ing out the remaining soil without just pushing soil on toward the main drain, replace the bad piping with PVC?, patch the slab and tile, and install the toilet.
Sound like a good plan?
o How to remove the concrete slab and how wide to remove?
o How to cut iron pipe confined in trench?
o How to attach new PVC to old iron? Rubber and straps? PVC parts list?
o Gravel back fill material?
o Other tips?
Thanks for considering my problem! The house is a tear down so this is not a long term repair.
Glenn