[PhillyGuyOldHouse]

Hello all -

I am in the process of remodeling my third floor (house built in like 1920)
And will install some sort of new wood flooring in the next weeks. I have two very heavy, old cast iron radiators that are currently disconnected - but I can tell that if I raise the level of the floor, there is not enough play in the pipes so that I could pull them up out of the floor the half inch or 3/4 inch necessary to reconnect when the new, higher flooring is done. In my kitchen, I was lucky and could just lightly pull up on the pipes and get the additional height needed when I put in a floor... I have a stub of threaded pipe sticking up out of the floor for each side of these radiators, and cannot get these to come loose with solvents and a pipe wrench - I had planned to just splice in copper fittings at the floor level and trim the copper to height later... what can I do to just add less than an inch of height to these cast iron pipes? Is there a coupling that is this short?

Thanks!

[speedball1]

Since you've failed to tell us the size of pipes that you wish to raise a inch we can't be of much help. You will have to convert to copper with a Female FIP to copper adapter in the same pipe size as the stub ups. Another option would be to simply recess the radiators feet into the floor and cut the new flooring in around them. Good luck, Tom

[PhillyGuyOldHouse]

Thanks - the pipe measures 1 inch in diameter to the outsides of the pipe... but I am not an expert plumber, and don't know whether this is truly called one inch pipe or if it is 3/4" - I have the correct size- 3/4"- copper adapters that I bought yesterday... I test fitted one into the elbow that I was able to remove from the piping, so it will work if I can just get the stubs of pipe out of the floor! I guess this is one that would have been helped with a picture of the problem pipe... I will go to a plumbing supply store and see if they stock any VERY short couplings for this size.

Since you've failed to tell us the size of pipes that you wish to raise a inch we can't be of much help. You will have to convert to copper with a Female FIP to copper adapter in the same pipe size as the stub ups. Another option would be to simply recess the radiators feet into the floor and cut the new flooring in around them. Good luck, Tom

[speedball1]

Most of us measure the inside diameter of a pipe so itsounds like you have 3/4"" pipes. I don't understand why the stubs must be removed and why would you nee a "very short" coupling? Coupling are slip to slip fittings what would they connect to? Seems to me you're making a lot of work foa a easy job. What am I missing? Tom

[PhillyGuyOldHouse]

I appreciate your help... I will try to get a picture later today when I am home.. the situation is this - the third floor has just subflooring, which is 3 inch wide tongue and groove boards. I can see that just below the existing floor, there are 90 degree elbows for each pipe that comes up through the floor, then a piece of vertical straight pipe that is about 3 inches long, and then an elbow again which ties into the radiator... pretty standard. Each connection is made with normal threaded joints. My problem, I can get the straight piece of pipe to budge, even with decen quality tools.. I imagine it is rusted into the elbow that is below the floor. The elbow is in such proximity to the floor, that I can't pull up any slack to raise the pipe, and I can't even get the sections of straight pipe out of the 90s that are below the floorso that I can add the copper that I bought... I don't want to break anything or crush a pipe.. so I was thinking of trying to make the 3" vertical piping just a bit longer by adding a FEMALE-FEMALE threaded 3/4"coupling and then a new section of 3/4" bit I couldn't find anything like this at my home center nearby. I basically need to make the vertical run of pipe about one inch longer somehow - if I can't do it in a simple manner, I may have to rip out a whole section of flooring, and try to break more pipe apart under the floor and add new elbows, etc...