broken shower PVC drain pipe

[natequinn]

I'm replacing my shower tub on my 35 year old house. The PVC drain runs under my 5 inch thick concrete floor through a 1 ft square opening. Deep under (about 1 1/2 going to the right side) is the main drain pipe connector. Somehow because of age the pvc pipe broke from the t-connector. Is there a simplier way to remove, replace, connect the pipe again to the t-connector? Or should I have to remove some of the concrete floor to widen up and get easy access to the t-connector on the side? Is there a chemical or solution to remove the old glue to that connector? Any advise I can get? Anything...

 

[Gary Swart]

PVC "glue" chemically causes the surfaces of the pipe and fitting to briefly melt and then fuse together. It is very similar to metal welding. It is very difficult to remove a fitting from a PVC pipe without damaging the pipe. The PVC did not break because of age. Something caused it to be stressed. The first PVC that we used years ago was much thinner and therefore much weaker than present day, so it would not have had to be too much stress to cause it to break. The only proper way to repair it is to access the pipe beyond the break and put new pipe and fitting in. If that means breaking the concrete out, that's what you will have to do. Usually there are no shortcuts to doing a good repair.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[hj]

pipe

A plumber would either "peel" the old pipe out carefully without damaaging the fitting or use a "RamBit" to drill the broken piece out.