Repair or Replace a Cast Iron Horizontal T
I bought a house and found out the kitchen drain (2 inch steel) pipe (16 foot run horizontal with a 3 foot stack and a vent pipe out the far kitchen end) that connected to a horizontal cast iron 3 or 4" pipe was broken. the connection at the pipe snapped some time back I think judging from the rust formed around the joint.
it is buried about 3 or 4 inches underground in a crawl space with limited space to work.
The steel pipe was 50 or so years old and needed to be replaced. I am ok with replacing that with a PVC (not happy about that though). I am not keen on replacing the cast iron 4 4 2 T pipe with plastics (PVC or any of that) i want to keep it cast iron. i have researched cast iron and PVC and would rather have cast iron.
the 2 inch T opening is broken quite badly. it still stick up above the pipe underneath mostly it does not seem like the main trunk is cracked. but it is covered in dirt and rust and hard to see. the kitchen is gutted so the T has been getting no water from the top but we have been using the bathroom and the soil around the pipe is dry a a bone. so i am assuming the pipe main trunk is not broken.
is there a way to repair this so i can put in a pvc sleeve or to re thread it for 2.5" or 3" pipe so I can make a direct connection? Or do I need to replace this T completely...
(I was suggested to grind out the hole to fit a pvc sleeve and pour concrete around the pipe to hold the vertical pipe steady but this seems like a hack fix to me with potential sewer gas problems)
If I need to replace the T how do I do that?
Another question: I am replacing the steel vent pipe with PVC because it allows me to use a full 2 inch vent pipe because the pvc can bent slightly more (it was a 1.5 inch steel pipe with a 1.5 to 2 inc converter before going through the roof. ).. how far should I put that pipe above the roof line and if there is a wall 2 or 3 feet from the vent pipe should it be raised above the higher of the two roof lines?
