I got lucky today-- I think

[Master Plumber Mark]

I looked at this mess on Sat morning..... this home was built back around 1860 in a very old and used to be plush part of town........ the cast iron stack cracked and leaking down through the finished ceiling wall into the basement

upstairs their was an abandoned apartment that has not been used for 30 years and you can see the 4 inch cross stack in the wall and off of it comes a 4 inch double tee laying on its back catching a lead line to the tub and a lead line to a kitchen sink far away.... all of it is rotten and should be replaced...

this abandoned apartment ==bathroom was back to back with the other side of the wall with a bathroom that is still being used by their kids.......

I figured I was gonna have to cut it off above the bathrooms and support the cast going out the roof and then start over in the basement and run 3 inch pvc up the wall then re-so the whole mess..... I bid the whole job at 4500....

We opened the wall and started cutting down through the drywall and found 4 inch pvc about half way up the wall to this mess and we found a 3 inch hole in the vertical stack about a foot under the cast hub............

The homeowner asked me at that point if we could just make a "minor" repair and leave the rest of the mess as it was because it was not being used........I said its your house and we will do whatever you want if it works its fine with me....... Everything else in the ceiling on the working side of the home seemed to be ok.......

I cut the hub with a Diablo cast iron blade and we were able to smack it with a cold chisel and it fell off very easily....... Then we cut a section of 4 inch pvc and installed it with No-hubs and pipe dope.....

The homeowner flushed and ran everything and it all worked out well..... and we got the hell out of there as fast as I could move......
I charged him 1k for us to be there about 2 hours.... he was thrilled

I have never, ever seen brass water lines in my entire life and here in this chase was a bunch of 3/4 BRASS water lines I guess installed from back before 1880 it is visible on the far right of the rotten 2 inch hub....

I explained to the customer that he did not get any warranty except for the hubs I installed in the wall but the person was happy with the results

and I avoided a real mess ..... for now.... but I'll Be Back.....

https://photos.app.goo.gl/U2jTr5XgurYBdvwu5


https://photos.app.goo.gl/xqqFovS2hJ53T5Co9









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[Terry]

Thanks for the post Mark. I've seen some very old rotten cast iron in Seattle and Tacoma. The job in Seattle was a bar, and all those lemons going down the drain wreaks havoc on cast. Kitchen sink lines go bad often it seems.