I am replacing drain pipe to my bathroom sink. After I removed the old drain, I discovered a cast iron sanitary tee which comes flush to the wall under the sink. This sanitary tee has no threads. The previous plumber just shoved a 1 1/4 inch aluminum drain pipe into the end of the sanitary tee and caulked it in.

Were sanitary tees (60-70 years old) made without threads or is the tee damaged? Any idea how to attach a drain?

Thank you.

Back then it was most likely leaded in. Aluminum pipe or chrome brass? Fernco makes a "donut" adapter that swedges into the hub and then the trap arm is pressed through.it. I have also used a PVC trap adapter and after making sure the hub was very clean, epoxied it into the hub.

Hi CF

I could guess at what is happening here, but if the sanitary tee really doesn't have threads or some way to easily install a drain pipe then you can either install a rubber donut (inserts into hub of tee), or if there is no hub present you can purchase a SHIELDED cast iron x PVC clamp (see image) and connect the clamp onto the branch of the tee fitting and proceed to pipe all up with PVC after that.

Mark

Using a clamp is not possible because the tee is 4 inches in diameter. I thought about tapping the tee to create threads or using lead to attach a fitting, but both of those solutions are beyond my abilities. I finally ended up caulking the drain into the tee. Not the best solution, but now my wife can use the sink.

Thank you for the suggestions.