Knee deep and over my head – breaking up floor for bathroom

[Madtown Murphy]

Wondering if my situation is normal or a portent of bad things to come…I’m in the middle of breaking up the concrete in the basement of my 1935 single story home to put in a toilet, shower, and sink. I’ve slugged my way through about 5 feet (horizontal) for the shower drain and about 2 feet for the toilet drain. I’m through the concrete and into the dirt. This future bathroom (I hope!) is within a 7 foot radius of the main drain/vent for the house. Running under the bathroom location is a feeder line that brings the kitchen drain, basement floor drain, and laundry drain over to the main drain/vent. I know this because I ‘found’ it last night. My sledgehammering had cracked this feeder pipe open, to my horror, and now I’m sort of freaking out about the consequences.

I’m working with a plumber who will be stopping by later to look at what I’ve done. The plan was for me to do the grunt work while he would do the actual plumbing work. I’m sure he will have an opinion and hopefully a reasonable plan on how to proceed, but in the meantime I guess I’m looking for reassurances or dire warnings about the situation. Maybe this is totally normal because he was going to have to connect to drain pipe anyway, but I didn’t expect the feeder pipe to be so brittle. If it is that brittle, will it be hard connecting to it successfully? Any advice appreciated!

Thanks for reading,
Joe

By the way, I covered the cracked hole with some sheet metal flashing as best I could and then covered that up with some loose gravel and dirt.

[Terry]

He can always cut out the bad cast iron pipe and replace it.

It sound like he will be putting in pipes anyway.
Next time around, consider hiring someone with a "wet saw".
It's much cleaner cuts and working conditions.
I think they are a bargain.

[Madtown Murphy]

Thanks. Does the wet saw eliminate the sledgehammer or does it mainly make the cuts cleaner? With the wet saw do you cut small sections and lift them out?

I met the plumber over lunch and he doesn't think I broke it - he thinks it already had a crack in the top of it. We investigated a bit more and found more of the same corroded pipe. Ouch, said my wallet. He recommended breaking up the concrete until finding good pipe which might not happen, he warned. The entire run might have to be replaced. About 16 feet, plus the floor drain and laundry drain connections...

[Terry]

With a diamond blade wet saw, the outer perimeter is cut first.

If it's a large area, then it may be cut a few more times, however if I'm trenching, I will cut the width 12" wide and just keep going.

A heavy sledge will "snap" the concrete into pieces. I like 12"x12" or maybe a little longer. When I've done work at supermarkets, I just stack them outside with a "Free" sign and they're always gone before I pick up my tools.

The nice thing about cutting this way, is there is less damage to the remaining concrete, almost no dust, and very straight cuts to pour back to.
If you have wire or bars, it's really the only way.

As far as the old cast iron pipe goes, much of it will rust or rot out over time.

[Madtown Murphy]

I had the plumbing crew take over the digging and they went about another 4 or 5 feet and eventually found solid pipe to connect to and put in all the pvc piping in the time it would have taken me to find my gloves and shovel. Looks good.