babaganoosh
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I like to think I am somewhat handy, but a little bit of knowledge can be dangerous.
A toilet on 1st floor has 3" copper waste pipe. The house is 45 years old? The bathroom is over a crawl space, so the waste line below is accessible. There's been a crack / split in the waste pipe. I had put non-hardening plumbers putty over the crack some time ago and stuck a plastic tray in the cawl space to catch any water that would come out of the crack when it flushes. I forgot about this for 1 - 2 years now. Checked recently and saw the tray was full (for a while, it seemed the water would evaperate as fast as it would collect in the tray. But the putty fell off and water has been building up in the tray. Here's a shot of the pipe last night:
So what is the right / cost effective thing to do? I took the toilet off the horn and took a picture: The rotting / crack / split is about 3" long from this view (I broke off a little tab of metal which made it wider, but would ahve gotten in the way during a fix anyway? :
I bought a waxless seal, hoping that it would extend below the crack, but the crack is about 3" long and the seal isn't that long. I bought epoxy putty - I was thinking I could squeeze it into the cracks from the in and outside... although the waxless seal may get in the way? Or would I want to use radiator clamp type rings to hold a piece of rubber over the crack from the outside? Or call a plumber to replace the toilet horn and some of the downpipe? Or do that myself with a roubber coupling to join the copper to PVC. Is that a DIY task? Any idea of the cost / number of hours for the plumber to do that? The toilet is off the ground at this point, so part of the work is done.
So is this crack (which has been there for years, but not sure if it's been growing) 'normal'. is the pipe rotting away and indicative of a bigger problem? THis crack is at the 'front' of the pipe / toilet - during a flush, does the front of the waste pipe take the full force of the water on it's way down the pipe / this is where it wears away from years of flushes? We are in NY - water is hard here, but we've had a water softener for 10 years now.
thank you!
thanks!
A toilet on 1st floor has 3" copper waste pipe. The house is 45 years old? The bathroom is over a crawl space, so the waste line below is accessible. There's been a crack / split in the waste pipe. I had put non-hardening plumbers putty over the crack some time ago and stuck a plastic tray in the cawl space to catch any water that would come out of the crack when it flushes. I forgot about this for 1 - 2 years now. Checked recently and saw the tray was full (for a while, it seemed the water would evaperate as fast as it would collect in the tray. But the putty fell off and water has been building up in the tray. Here's a shot of the pipe last night:
So what is the right / cost effective thing to do? I took the toilet off the horn and took a picture: The rotting / crack / split is about 3" long from this view (I broke off a little tab of metal which made it wider, but would ahve gotten in the way during a fix anyway? :
I bought a waxless seal, hoping that it would extend below the crack, but the crack is about 3" long and the seal isn't that long. I bought epoxy putty - I was thinking I could squeeze it into the cracks from the in and outside... although the waxless seal may get in the way? Or would I want to use radiator clamp type rings to hold a piece of rubber over the crack from the outside? Or call a plumber to replace the toilet horn and some of the downpipe? Or do that myself with a roubber coupling to join the copper to PVC. Is that a DIY task? Any idea of the cost / number of hours for the plumber to do that? The toilet is off the ground at this point, so part of the work is done.
So is this crack (which has been there for years, but not sure if it's been growing) 'normal'. is the pipe rotting away and indicative of a bigger problem? THis crack is at the 'front' of the pipe / toilet - during a flush, does the front of the waste pipe take the full force of the water on it's way down the pipe / this is where it wears away from years of flushes? We are in NY - water is hard here, but we've had a water softener for 10 years now.
thank you!
thanks!
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