I've had a leaky soil stack for quite a while. We couldn't see the leak, it was just under the concrete patio. We knew it was there because about 6ft from the soil stack is a water meter chamber which was always full of water. I excavated this last year to renew the water main and the whole hole filled with water.
Last week my dad and I broke out the concrete and immediately saw the problem.
Just above ground a plastic stack had been coupled onto the stub of cast iron left in the ground using a rubber joint. Just below the concrete this cast iron went into the clay pipe collar. The collar was completely broken off and there was a gap of about an inch all around between the clay and iron.
So. I took out the iron and tried to expose more clay so I could get a coupler on it.
Not happening. The clay pipe is buried in concrete from the soil stack right to the manhole (3ft away). Literally it's in a massive blob of concrete. And it's hard. My SDS drill bounced off it. Clearly it's impossible to remove the concrete from the clay without breaking the clay so the clay pipe needs renewing back to the manhole. A job for somebody who knows how. . .
I've made a temporarily fix involving a length of brown pipe and a child's bucket made into a large funnel so water is no longer leaking.
in breaking out the concrete surface we wrecked a gulley next to the stack. This joins to the soil pipe under ground. This gulley needs to be renewed.
Would home insurance cover the remainder of the work? I've attached a picture of the current state of things. We've asked a builder we know for a price but he hasn't got back to us a week later.
Any advice appreciated
Thanks
![20180827_155622.jpg 20180827_155622.jpg](https://cdn.diynot.com/data/attachments/148/148051-cd0326d071d842361cae7a560bccba42.jpg)
Last week my dad and I broke out the concrete and immediately saw the problem.
Just above ground a plastic stack had been coupled onto the stub of cast iron left in the ground using a rubber joint. Just below the concrete this cast iron went into the clay pipe collar. The collar was completely broken off and there was a gap of about an inch all around between the clay and iron.
So. I took out the iron and tried to expose more clay so I could get a coupler on it.
Not happening. The clay pipe is buried in concrete from the soil stack right to the manhole (3ft away). Literally it's in a massive blob of concrete. And it's hard. My SDS drill bounced off it. Clearly it's impossible to remove the concrete from the clay without breaking the clay so the clay pipe needs renewing back to the manhole. A job for somebody who knows how. . .
I've made a temporarily fix involving a length of brown pipe and a child's bucket made into a large funnel so water is no longer leaking.
in breaking out the concrete surface we wrecked a gulley next to the stack. This joins to the soil pipe under ground. This gulley needs to be renewed.
Would home insurance cover the remainder of the work? I've attached a picture of the current state of things. We've asked a builder we know for a price but he hasn't got back to us a week later.
Any advice appreciated
Thanks
![20180827_155622.jpg 20180827_155622.jpg](https://cdn.diynot.com/data/attachments/148/148051-cd0326d071d842361cae7a560bccba42.jpg)