Cracked Soil Stack

[NickZim]

Hi,
A few days ago I found that our soil stack was leaking and on further inspection found that the coupling above the inspection hatch had cracked in half. I have attempted to fix this myself but have run into a few problems...

1. The soil stack is very close to the wall, so cutting through it to remove the broken piece is difficult... there is no room for me to use a hacksaw - Are there any special tools that get round this problem?

2. The crack is very close to the ground, this will only leave me about an inch of pipe sticking out of the concrete that it runs into. Is this sufficient for a watertight join, or should I remove the concrete and join new pipe direct into the drain?

3. Having removed the broken fitting, there is obviously insufficient pipe to put a new identical fitting in. What I am going to try is to remove a foot of pipe above the broken fitting, then install a straight coupling with a new length of pipe joining it to the new fitting. Then I can push the new fitting over the 1 inch of pipe [protruding from the concrete and slide the new pipe and coupling up until the coupling overlaps with the old pipe above.

Is this overcomplicating things horribly? Surely there must be an easy way to replace broken fittings?


Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me.
Nick

 

[NickZim]

I have carried out my plan, and it doesn't seem to have worked. The join on the straight coupling is leaking despite liberal application of solvent cement when the join was made. (possibly due to the rubbish job I did cutting through the pipe, which left the end far from square)

Is there a simple way to replace leaking fittings on a soil stack? Or could I use some kind of sealant around the leaking join?

Thanks
Nick

 

[ChrisR]

WHat's the soil stack made of, plastic or cast Iron?

 

[NickZim]

Plastic.

 

[ChrisR]

This was for someone who wanted to put a T in, the gren bits would be new and the black bit in the ground. Normally the plastic bottom piece would be a plastic to clay adaptor, which has to be cut/wiggled/dug out.
The uppermost new sleeve is s coupler with the internal stop knocked out, to make it a "Slip" coupling. You slide it up the pipe then back once the new bit of pipe is in place. Need lots of lube spray, or silicone grease.

At the death, "cut" the pipe with a small angle grinder.

 

[NickZim]

Thanks... this is very helpful.

One question though, if I apply lots of silicone grease to the pipe to enable me to slide it up and down, how do I get a watertight seal? Can I use solvent cement applied over the grease?

Thanks.
Nick

 

[gigz]

The silicone grease will help to push the fittings on, it wont affect the watertight seal