Dreaded cast iron retrofit or removal?

[wjcandee]

I may be missing something, but I haven't seen a "gas water heater" in any of the pictures. I assume this is over a crawl space, otherwise running a toilet arm on an angle like that would be somewhat destructive. Pictures of the piping ABOVE the floor are useless. We need to see what is UNDER the floor.

He's talking about the rusty hulk mounted in the left side of the wall. "Gas heater" (i.e. heater of air) not "gas water heater".

My question is whether he is planning to perform surgery on the gas piping; potentially-dangerous to assume that it's permanently capped-off.

[monkeyshine]

I may be missing something, but I haven't seen a "gas water heater" in any of the pictures. I assume this is over a crawl space, or concrete slab, otherwise running a toilet arm on an angle like that would be somewhat destructive. Pictures of the piping ABOVE the floor are useless. We need to see what is UNDER the floor.

Hi HJ - if I said gas water heater, I apologize. Should've read "gas heater" which is the little firebox to the far left in the last photo. I'm going to cap it off up in the attic b/c I'll use that space for the toilet (hopefully).

[monkeyshine]

It won't be certain how the new branch drain for the toilet will need to be connected until the floor is opened up. We still don't know for sure how the tub/shower is connected or where the building drain is heading.

That is a very good question because I also don't know how it's connected b/c they are on opposite sides of the room, but I'll have a look at the shower side when I get home. Fortunately, I have easy access to find that out. Quick question however - you mentioned that you still don't know how the tub/shower is connected....why does that matter exactly? The only change that there will be, will be an extended drain line from the toilet so instead of 1ft. to the toilet, it will need to be 3'-4' in another direction.

I think I'll get cracking (no pun intended) on breaking up the bit of concrete which houses the receiving hub and this should give me/you guys a better indication of where the lines sit. Thanks again!

[cacher_chick]

We don't know where the building drain is. Going only by your pictures, the tub/shower branch drain could be connected near the base of the stack under the floor. If so it will have to be considered when installing the new toilet branch.