diyguy1971

Hi All from Indiana!

Have a problem with a remodel thats kicking my butt and would like to ask for anyones suggestions.

I am adding a laundry room and it is being built in what was once an attached garage, I have turned part of the space into a media room with the whole home theater setup and projection unit. the back wall of the room had a floor drain That I wanted to change out for a standard 1-1/2 pipe to be used for the drain from a washer. and I added a wall to create the laundry room. A little info on the house, its a 50's single story ranch on slab foundation. The previous owners had tried to use the floor drain for there washing machine by removing the cover, pushing a piece of pvc pipe in and backfilled around the pipe with cement. This rigged fix must not have worked well for the because they had T'd into the hot water safty valve drain to let overflow run outside the house and into the backyard. No I am not running it that way and No I don't think it was a responsible way to do it. So now I am trying to fix it right.

I busted away the floor slab around the floor drain and was intending to cut the floor drain pipe a few inches shy of where it goes into the joint in the main drain pipe. and use that tail to add a boot and convert out to PVC. from there it would be a simply 90deg elbow and run a pipe up the all to place the washer drain line in. Seemed sooo Simple.

Once I got the concrete busted free, the floor drain sorta slid onto its side on its own. I looked at the joint where the floor drain unit ties into the rest of the line, and it was apparent that the joint has been leaking for a very long time. I went ahead as planned and cut the floor drain pipe off leaving about 4 inches sticking out from the joint. Once I removed the rest of the old floor drain and was able to investigate a little further. The tail piece I left in the main connetion joint can easily slide back and forth about 2 inches and spins 360Deg easilly. It is still stuck inside the fitting and woun't just slip the rest of the way out. I'v worked on plenty of newer construction utilizing only PVC and pex but trying to convert from metal over to pvc is a limited experience for me.
I have seen guys boot old to new but that has always been at some point where the old metal was cut somewhere between a connection and boots were applied. I'v never seen a conversion at the joint other than using threaded fittlings that convert the pipe. This joint seems to me like it has no threads and was originally a slip joint with something added like lead to seal the joint....
Help???

I know I'm rambling so any info or clarifications about the novel above please ask. I am at wits end with this little project.

diyguy1971

Been studying my perdicument and am considering cutting the line just after the union and boot from there. The only bad point in this is that the union is resting directly below a wall. I would probably have to knock a hole in the wall and continue tearing out concrete just past the head of the fitting. (Sorry for the POOR spelling...took a sleep aid about an hour ago cause I have to be up at 3am for work. Now I can;t sleep woring about this)I can tell atleast part of my brain is sleeping

nstead of busting through the wall, I am also kickinh around the thought of bending the pipe down away from the concrete acvering the top of the pipe just enough to give me enough access to slip on a boot....HMMM??

diyguy1971

Ok, I tried my best to have no spelling errors in that last...I give...Goodnight and I'll read this when I get up for work... Hope somone can give me a few pointers.....

Thanks in advance for any replies!

inspectorD

Your not gonna like my idea.
If your having all these issues with these pipe connections, you need to remove as much as possible. You don't know what is down the line, and possibly leaking under the slab. If this was my house, I would want to sleep at night. And for the connector, you can use what we call a hubless rubber connector with stainless steel clamps. Try to install it in a place you can have future acess to, if not, it's not the end of the world to bury it in concrete.
Welcome aboard.

__________________
Just My
Made in the

Redwood

The washer drain needs to be 2" and not 1 1/2"...

Does the old garage floor drain go to a sanitary sewer?
Or, is it a storm drain?

Does your plan include a trap?

What are your plans for venting?

Seriously, it sounds like you are over your head and no I didn't read your whole long post....

diyguy1971

Got a little sleep and made it through work and am back at it...

I ended up breaking up the slab floor beyond the hub and removed the entire hub and stuck pipe giving me a clean 2" Dia pipe to put a boot on.

I got the boot installed and converted over to 2" pvc. ran the new pvc about six inches then added a Ptrap and then ran the line 4ft up from floor level.

As for the question obout the lines hook up. It is a sanitary drain line. Not storm. We ran water from the kitchen sink once the pipe was cut and water came out of the pipe. I assume this indicated its the sanitary line.

Venting has me stumped though. The old floor drain had no vent either. whoever installed it, capped the floor drain port so I am assuming there is a kitchen vent handling both?? may be wrong easily on this opinion.

I know something is still wrong because once we hooked everything up and tried running a rinse cycle on the washer, the line back filled and overflowed out the top of the pipe. I am hoping the issue is a slow drain in the kitchen that is causing the problem but not sure

The only specs I can give to let you guys have as much info as possible is this,

The drain line is 2" cast that runs from the laundry room, under the slab into the kitchen and T's into the kitchen sink drain, then the line continues across the kitchen into the bathroom and ties into the bath sink and shower. The line then goes out the foundation into the main drain line from the city service. There is a vent pipe located in the bathroom and I believe a second vent is located in the kitchen.

Now the big question is to determine if the problem is due to a clog or if this is a venting issue....'

and Yes, I bit off a big bite and hope I can chew through it ,

diyguy1971

small update,

Tried sealing the washer drain into the drain pipe temporarily and ran a low setting of water through. Upon Spin cycle, water was being pumped up into the kitchen sink.

Redwood

Yes, it sounds like a clog or, wherever it goes is unable to handle the discharge...

Where does it go? A Sewer... A Septic... A Drywell...

What diameter is the line?

diyguy1971

Redwood,

Was a clogged line causing the backup. The line is 2" Cast and I did end up cutting the hub off and used the boot as suggested and added a trap. I installed a pro-Vent on the drain line about 12" higher than the washer hose input. The old drain line was partially blocked at the location of the kitchen sink. I snaked the line and now it works like a charm. Even with the water set to large load and both sink bowls draining water, the line stays clear.
The quote I got from the local plumber was 1200.00 to bust the floor, install new drain, and refill slab with cement. I am happy I decided to give this a try myself. I saved about 1000.00