Keith Long
New Member
Hello, this is my first time posting. Hoping someone can help me out here. I have a very small slight leak on the underside of my cast iron Tee that goes through my concrete wall on my main stack. I've tried multiple repair attempts all to no success. It is a very small corroded pitted area on my cast iron pipe. Some would say the leak isn't even enough to warrant any major repair yet. It doesn't even leave a puddle on the floor. It just scales up on the outside of the pipe and forms a sort of "scolagtite" so to say. I know from past experiences that these things get worse over time. My last repair attempt i used Oakley fix it stick. I prepped the pipe appropriately and everything and it didn't stop the slow seep. I now know that this cast iron pipe will have to be replaced to correctly fix the problem. I only have a total of maybe 6ft of cast iron that comes out of the tee in the wall up to the first floor toilet. The second floor toilet tees in with a 3 inch clean out into the original 4 inch tee cast iron in the wall. It is copper though. There are two other drain lines that tee in on the vertical section of cast iron. They are also copper. I can mock up the whole set up with PVC and fernco fittings to tie in.
Now, the main cast iron 4 inch tee that goes through the wall has 2 couplings. One is the vertical cast iron pipe going to the first floor toilet and the other is coming straight out where there would normally be a cleanout but there is a step down adapter to 3 inch where they put the cleanout fitting for the 3 inch second floor copper pipe. Again, i can recreate all of this with PVC.
My biggest challenge when contemplating this repair was chiseling out the concrete around the original cast iron tee in the wall (house built in 1955) which honestly is in excellent shape except for that one spot that pitted out right in the crease where the coupling flange starts. The other huge challenge was of course digging outside to get to the main line outside the wall. Then it dawned on me to inquire what kind of end was on the cast iron tee inside the cinder block wall. I drilled and chiseled a small section out of the wall around the cast iron tee. It appears that the end of the tee is a male where it mates with a female coupling on the line going out of the house through the cinder block. The connection is just inside the first layer of cinder block. I can see where the lead was put into the joint. Looks like it was all done inside the house.
So to me it appears that i would not have to dig outside or even cut into the main line going out. I could just remove the cast iron tee by drilling out the lead (or maybe heating it out to avoid roughing up the inside flange with a drill bit or just be really careful) in the coupling in the line going out and remove the 6 ft of cast iron up to first floor. Redo everything in plastic and tie into the cast iron going out with a 4 inch fernco compression fitting. I have done all plumbing in my home and all my other home repairs but never a sewer line. I need to get it right first try and wanted to know if anyone has experience with a home this age and typically how they ran this cast iron line going out and if that coupling on the line will indeed accept that 4 inch compression fitting. I'm sorry so long winded here.
Now, the main cast iron 4 inch tee that goes through the wall has 2 couplings. One is the vertical cast iron pipe going to the first floor toilet and the other is coming straight out where there would normally be a cleanout but there is a step down adapter to 3 inch where they put the cleanout fitting for the 3 inch second floor copper pipe. Again, i can recreate all of this with PVC.
My biggest challenge when contemplating this repair was chiseling out the concrete around the original cast iron tee in the wall (house built in 1955) which honestly is in excellent shape except for that one spot that pitted out right in the crease where the coupling flange starts. The other huge challenge was of course digging outside to get to the main line outside the wall. Then it dawned on me to inquire what kind of end was on the cast iron tee inside the cinder block wall. I drilled and chiseled a small section out of the wall around the cast iron tee. It appears that the end of the tee is a male where it mates with a female coupling on the line going out of the house through the cinder block. The connection is just inside the first layer of cinder block. I can see where the lead was put into the joint. Looks like it was all done inside the house.
So to me it appears that i would not have to dig outside or even cut into the main line going out. I could just remove the cast iron tee by drilling out the lead (or maybe heating it out to avoid roughing up the inside flange with a drill bit or just be really careful) in the coupling in the line going out and remove the 6 ft of cast iron up to first floor. Redo everything in plastic and tie into the cast iron going out with a 4 inch fernco compression fitting. I have done all plumbing in my home and all my other home repairs but never a sewer line. I need to get it right first try and wanted to know if anyone has experience with a home this age and typically how they ran this cast iron line going out and if that coupling on the line will indeed accept that 4 inch compression fitting. I'm sorry so long winded here.
