The drain pipe was successfully ran today. Thanks for the help, guys. No pics of the finished product. I was dying to get out of that crawlspace afterwards. It took about 8 hours. I took a few breaks in between, but I was trying to get it done. I cut about a foot away from the wall and ran pvc from there. The pipe has a little rust on the outside of it there, but was quite solid and took a while to cut. Then I noticed an interesting problem: the 1 1/2" cast iron to pvc fittings that I bought...the pipe was larger than them. So they had 1 1/4" pvc coming down from the sink going into a 1 1/2" p-trap, then into a 1 1/4" straight piece of pipe which joined the wall pipe with a 1 1/4" to 1 1/2" adapter. Well, guess what...that pipe in the crawlspace wasn't 1 1/2" like the pipe that goes into the wall. I'm not sure that it was 2 inches, either. I had to return to the store and buy a 2" Fernco into 1 1/2" pvc to fit the sewer side and wall side of the pipe. It slid right over the top of the pipe with little resistance, so I'm not sure that was quite a 2" pipe, either. Whatever it was, the 2" adapter fit it and I had to tighten it down considerably to get a good connection. 1.75" pipe in the crawlspace, maybe?
Something that I already figured ahead of time: it is impossible to duplicate the exact place where the original pipe ran and particularly the exact height and such. One of those old cast iron fitting angles was pretty odd. I couldn't match a fitting angle to it and had to do my own thing towards the end. I'm not kidding, that cast iron fitting looked like a 25 degree or 33 degree or something similar to that. I don't know what the heck it was and I have worked with a lot of pvc angles and joints. None of the angles that I had matched it. Maybe some type of pipe angle that they don't use anymore? I thought it was a 45, but it clearly wasn't. So, I ran the pipe a little further back away from the wall and bridged the connections in a custom way. When I change the sewer pipe later, I'll cut that pvc pipe again and just run the several feet around the hole and do a different type of connection so that I can have that water heater put in the back right corner. Right now, that temporary pipe connection is where I eventually want the water heater to go.
It appears that the sewer pipe also joins the tub drain. Not quite sure on the other connection yet. I'll take some better pics of that stuff when I go to change that pipe. It looks like the toilet pipe leak is coming from the pipe up right near the plywood and running down the sewer pipe. So...possibly a flange issue, bad wax seal, etc.
That "hole" in the pipe of the kitchen sink drain...ah, yes...that was a lovely 1 foot or so long gash in the bottom of the pipe. I assume that just rusted out that way, but I'm puzzled as to why the pipe closer to the wall is very solid. I couldn't even fit the hole in all in the photo (which blurred a bit). As soon as water got to the left portion with the first bit of opening, all of it was simply falling out. The next section of pipe above the puddle...while I was cutting it and got halfway through, the pipe was literally falling apart in that particular area. The pipe further down from that (above the hvac vent) was more solid and so was the portion of the pipe going all the way down to the sewer line. When I made the cut closer to the sewer line to put the coupling on, that was probably the cut that took the longest. That pipe is still strong, albeit it has a ton of rust and crud in it. I was able to cut pretty straight on the pipes for the couplings. That one-handed sawzall is pretty good.
I got rid of a considerable amount of webs down from under there (lots of them are just webs with lint in them from when the dryer used to vent into the crawlspace) and pumped out as much of the water as I could with the drill pump. The pump broke after I got over half of the water pumped out and started leaking drips of water out of the shaft that joins the drill, so I trashed it. I think the sediment in the water probably ate up the seals. The area within about 10 feet of the hole is a little moist and muddy from the puddle being there for so long. All of that is covered in plastic now. Hopefully the little bit of the water that was left in the puddle will go away within a fairly short time now that no more is going down there.
Found something possibly a bit alarming regarding the water flow into that hole, most of which comes from the back side near the water heater. I'm going to be addressing that/asking some questions in one of my other threads with some pics. I don't currently know what the heck it is.
So, job is done...and for a fit 33 year old who is into weight lifting and very active, I've used a lot of muscles today that I apparently don't use. All of my joints are aching and I feel like an 80 year old. Pretty sure that the respirator has deeply bruised my chin and my face is probably going to hurt tomorrow. I'm probably going to be walking like a cowboy by morning...:rofl:
But...one big project down. :trophy: I don't think I've ever done that much pvc plumbing from guesswork in trying to follow an old pipe.
At the end of all of this, I'm still wondering why in the older days they felt that these huge 4" or so couplings/joints were necessary on a 2" or under pipe. The whole idea just seems really dumb to me. It is like customizing your Honda Accord to use 40" tires with little rims when the regular wheels looked just fine.
I probably saved a good $2,000 that a plumber would have charged for all of this. Quite happy with the results.
Something that I already figured ahead of time: it is impossible to duplicate the exact place where the original pipe ran and particularly the exact height and such. One of those old cast iron fitting angles was pretty odd. I couldn't match a fitting angle to it and had to do my own thing towards the end. I'm not kidding, that cast iron fitting looked like a 25 degree or 33 degree or something similar to that. I don't know what the heck it was and I have worked with a lot of pvc angles and joints. None of the angles that I had matched it. Maybe some type of pipe angle that they don't use anymore? I thought it was a 45, but it clearly wasn't. So, I ran the pipe a little further back away from the wall and bridged the connections in a custom way. When I change the sewer pipe later, I'll cut that pvc pipe again and just run the several feet around the hole and do a different type of connection so that I can have that water heater put in the back right corner. Right now, that temporary pipe connection is where I eventually want the water heater to go.
It appears that the sewer pipe also joins the tub drain. Not quite sure on the other connection yet. I'll take some better pics of that stuff when I go to change that pipe. It looks like the toilet pipe leak is coming from the pipe up right near the plywood and running down the sewer pipe. So...possibly a flange issue, bad wax seal, etc.
That "hole" in the pipe of the kitchen sink drain...ah, yes...that was a lovely 1 foot or so long gash in the bottom of the pipe. I assume that just rusted out that way, but I'm puzzled as to why the pipe closer to the wall is very solid. I couldn't even fit the hole in all in the photo (which blurred a bit). As soon as water got to the left portion with the first bit of opening, all of it was simply falling out. The next section of pipe above the puddle...while I was cutting it and got halfway through, the pipe was literally falling apart in that particular area. The pipe further down from that (above the hvac vent) was more solid and so was the portion of the pipe going all the way down to the sewer line. When I made the cut closer to the sewer line to put the coupling on, that was probably the cut that took the longest. That pipe is still strong, albeit it has a ton of rust and crud in it. I was able to cut pretty straight on the pipes for the couplings. That one-handed sawzall is pretty good.
I got rid of a considerable amount of webs down from under there (lots of them are just webs with lint in them from when the dryer used to vent into the crawlspace) and pumped out as much of the water as I could with the drill pump. The pump broke after I got over half of the water pumped out and started leaking drips of water out of the shaft that joins the drill, so I trashed it. I think the sediment in the water probably ate up the seals. The area within about 10 feet of the hole is a little moist and muddy from the puddle being there for so long. All of that is covered in plastic now. Hopefully the little bit of the water that was left in the puddle will go away within a fairly short time now that no more is going down there.
Found something possibly a bit alarming regarding the water flow into that hole, most of which comes from the back side near the water heater. I'm going to be addressing that/asking some questions in one of my other threads with some pics. I don't currently know what the heck it is.
So, job is done...and for a fit 33 year old who is into weight lifting and very active, I've used a lot of muscles today that I apparently don't use. All of my joints are aching and I feel like an 80 year old. Pretty sure that the respirator has deeply bruised my chin and my face is probably going to hurt tomorrow. I'm probably going to be walking like a cowboy by morning...:rofl:
But...one big project down. :trophy: I don't think I've ever done that much pvc plumbing from guesswork in trying to follow an old pipe.
At the end of all of this, I'm still wondering why in the older days they felt that these huge 4" or so couplings/joints were necessary on a 2" or under pipe. The whole idea just seems really dumb to me. It is like customizing your Honda Accord to use 40" tires with little rims when the regular wheels looked just fine.
I probably saved a good $2,000 that a plumber would have charged for all of this. Quite happy with the results.
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