Posted: 12/16/2009 5:42:20 PM EDT
| Girlfriends mother had a plumber over for backed up drain in the kitchen. I have not looked at this myself but what the plumber told her is the cast iron under the concrete in the basement has collapsed and is wanting $1200 to tear up and re+place. I did get her to ask plumber if I did the concrete removal and replacement he will knock $300 off. This would be aprox 15-20 ft from start to the main sewer line. Why its under concrete and not in the floor joists is beyond me. Its cast iron pipe and am assuming replacement would be the same. If I am going thru the effort of removing and replacing concrette how hard is it to replace cast. I am familiar with other kinds of plumbing(pex,pvc) and familiar with drops and such needed for a drain. What would cost be for 3"(?) cast pipe aprox and how hard is it to put in fitting wise. |
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cost wise depends on your local and how many plumbers are slow.
heads up regarding the cast pipe. DEPENDING on age of pipe, it will either be just that section OR all the way to your sewer/septic. installation wise, i had a plumber do ours. there are only so many crouched down on the ground projects my body can deal with. i just did a new drop from the bathroom sink to sewer line in a 2.5' high by 3' wide crawlspace. that did not include going over the 4' very early concrete wall into a 1 foot dirt floor. my quackopracter and massage therapist love me:) |
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Quoted:
Why can't he hang it under the joists and cut and tie in at the wall only cutting out a couple of feet or so? I wouldn't put pipe under concrete unless I absolutely had to. sewer street connection and depth makes the difference...most sewers are laid before floors are poured OLD DOUBLE TAP LOL |
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Quoted: If you have doubts or want a better idea of where the problem is, they have a camera snake that will show you the problem. this is true. they should show you the video or monitor so you can verify for yourself and give you the warm and fuzzy not doubting your plumbers skills or experience. but . automatically assuming its a collapsed drain pipe without visual verification is a little jumpy it is more than likely possibly for it to be , but id want a 2nd opinion before shelling out the cash for a possible dish rag down the drain |
| Ok that gives me some ideas. I am going over after work at midnight to check it out. This got started with a phone call to me at work. I will snap some pics and get them up later as well. I also asked about a camera and he had not cammed it.He was not able to get his auger down it from the cleanout going twards the kitchen instead of the street. So came to that conclusion. I may have rotorooter come over with a cam since this plumber said he did not have one. Once I have a look I will have some more info. |
| Have it camera'd before you decide to ave it dug up. Just because he couldn't get his rod through doesn't mean it's collapsed. Also, I could go for a collapse if you were talking about clay sewer pipe but you've got cast? Not saying that it's not possible, just not too common in cast to collapse. |
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You don't replace cast with cast. You replace the damaged cast Iron with PVC and attach both ends with Fernco fittings. BTW, that statement is 50% fail. In Chicago as well as most of the collar counties it is illegal to put DWV PVC in the ground under concrete. Thank the Unions for that one boys. |
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ouch!
I've got an older house (1900's) that has septic. The drain goes down under the basement, and out to the septic. about 5 feet to the side is a floor drain that does not work. it just doesn't drain. I've tried poking around, and drain cleaner to no avail. it's got a cast iron flange and grate, so I'm assuming it's cast all the way to the septic drain. I'd like to get it fixed, but if it's going to be in that neighborhood....ouch. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
Why can't he hang it under the joists and cut and tie in at the wall only cutting out a couple of feet or so? I wouldn't put pipe under concrete unless I absolutely had to. sewer street connection and depth makes the difference...most sewers are laid before floors are poured OLD DOUBLE TAP LOL Yep and they do make 90s to do a drop and tie in. Just tie into the existing cast at the wall. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
You don't replace cast with cast. You replace the damaged cast Iron with PVC and attach both ends with Fernco fittings. BTW, that statement is 50% fail. In Chicago as well as most of the collar counties it is illegal to put DWV PVC in the ground under concrete. Thank the Unions for that one boys. This is also the case here as well. Stack and cast out to city sewer. Anything under concrete is cast as well. City did reverse that it had to be a union plumber after the floods though 
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Quoted:
You don't replace cast with cast. You replace the damaged cast Iron with PVC and attach both ends with Fernco fittings. If you go this route (which I would do too probably) make SURE the ferncos are backfilled properly with either inch clean or compacted dirt. Not doing this could potentially cause settlement which allows the fercos to displace easily I have seen this multiple times. I'm not very familiar with cast iron pipe, but I do know ductile iron pipe and would be pretty shocked to see that collapsed, vcp on the other hand is junk. |
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Quoted:
Excuse my ignorance but if the cast has no pressure on top of it, then why would it collapse? Seems the concrete is cured and dried so it should be in a static condition so no extra loading on the pipe. Maybe the issue is outside the house? cast is brittle, if settling occurs it makes a weak spot...any shift in the foundation by expansion or contraction (freeze zones especially) can make it vulnerable. Excessive weight shifts soil also, like a Uhaul mover. |
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Quoted:
Excuse my ignorance but if the cast has no pressure on top of it, then why would it collapse? Seems the concrete is cured and dried so it should be in a static condition so no extra loading on the pipe. Maybe the issue is outside the house? Mostly because it's cast Iron....the stuff rusts out after 30-40 years. The top basically falls in on itself. And this is assuming the proper backfilling was done to support the joints as well as the pitch. And then you can have tree roots.... As some other posters have pointed out, you might want to consider local building codes. But as for me...who is digging it up personally, for my own diggs. 
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Quoted: Boston has the same requirement. For the same reason.Quoted: You don't replace cast with cast. You replace the damaged cast Iron with PVC and attach both ends with Fernco fittings. BTW, that statement is 50% fail. In Chicago as well as most of the collar counties it is illegal to put DWV PVC in the ground under concrete. Thank the Unions for that one boys. |
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**Update**
Ok got the mother to call around for a camera quote and other estimates. I was going to post pics but having network issues. Long story short with equipment rental and the angle it was not going to save $300 to remove and re-add the concrete and possibly cost more. She has the cash so its not major that we have to do it on our own but thought I would save her some money and get more pie from the girlfriend.
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