KP Texan
Marine Engineer
Our house was built in 1962 and my wife and I decided to tear out our master bath shower since the tile was in bad shape and the valves had obviously been leaking behind the wall had caused some damage to the wall paneling. Once the tile was torn out, we realized that we had seriously opened up a can of worms! There was fairly significant termite damage around the studs and sill plates of the shower due to the leaking valves and pan liner. Anyway to make a long story short, I have two plumbing concerns at this point, one of them obviously needing repair and the other maybe or maybe not:
1. The vent line behind the wall is partially 3" PVC and partially 3" cast iron, probably due to the reroute that was done on the house about 10 years ago. When the plumber came today to install the new shower drain, he brought it to my attention that there looked to be a hole in the cast iron "T". I poked around on the cast iron T and it is definitely a hole. I have no doubt that this item needs correction, but I need some help on how to do it. The plumber quoted me $300 to replace just the elbow with a new PVC one and tie it into the copper pipe from the sink and connect it to the remaining cast iron pipe which runs through the roof. He quoted me $600 to replace everything from the elbow up through the roof with PVC and also tie it into the copper sink vent. Do these prices seem reasonable? I really don't mind tackling something like this myself, but I've never had to run a new vent through the roof so I'm not exactly sure what is involved.
2. I decided to sweat the existing copper pipe into my new Toto shower valve as opposed to paying a plumber, but before I did so, I had a concern. The old piping job looks terrible since they used no elbows and didn't secure any of the piping or shower valve; it just kind of hangs there in the wall. This isn't a big deal since I know how to properly install the new valve, but I did notice some damage to the hot water 1/2" copper pipe down at the very bottom where it comes through the concrete foundation. The pipe is slightly crushed in at the bottom and there are also some small dents around there. It's obviously very old damage, but it looks like it would be a real big pain to cut it out of the concrete and then join new pipe to it. While I do like to repair things right, please bear in mind that we probably won't own this house 5 more years so I'm hoping this would hold up fine up to that point. Would you just leave this damage be and the join the new copper pipe about 1' above the foundation like I had planned?
Here are some photos to help illustrate what I'm speaking of:
Vent pipe-
1/2" Copper Water Pipes-
1. The vent line behind the wall is partially 3" PVC and partially 3" cast iron, probably due to the reroute that was done on the house about 10 years ago. When the plumber came today to install the new shower drain, he brought it to my attention that there looked to be a hole in the cast iron "T". I poked around on the cast iron T and it is definitely a hole. I have no doubt that this item needs correction, but I need some help on how to do it. The plumber quoted me $300 to replace just the elbow with a new PVC one and tie it into the copper pipe from the sink and connect it to the remaining cast iron pipe which runs through the roof. He quoted me $600 to replace everything from the elbow up through the roof with PVC and also tie it into the copper sink vent. Do these prices seem reasonable? I really don't mind tackling something like this myself, but I've never had to run a new vent through the roof so I'm not exactly sure what is involved.
2. I decided to sweat the existing copper pipe into my new Toto shower valve as opposed to paying a plumber, but before I did so, I had a concern. The old piping job looks terrible since they used no elbows and didn't secure any of the piping or shower valve; it just kind of hangs there in the wall. This isn't a big deal since I know how to properly install the new valve, but I did notice some damage to the hot water 1/2" copper pipe down at the very bottom where it comes through the concrete foundation. The pipe is slightly crushed in at the bottom and there are also some small dents around there. It's obviously very old damage, but it looks like it would be a real big pain to cut it out of the concrete and then join new pipe to it. While I do like to repair things right, please bear in mind that we probably won't own this house 5 more years so I'm hoping this would hold up fine up to that point. Would you just leave this damage be and the join the new copper pipe about 1' above the foundation like I had planned?
Here are some photos to help illustrate what I'm speaking of:
Vent pipe-
1/2" Copper Water Pipes-
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