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adthern · Apr 21, 2010, 11:14 PM

I had quite the sewer backup going on last night, had the drain guy out had a great time trying to find the clean out which was under a platform in front of the utility sink in the bathroom. That being said, sewer snaked to 110 feet and toilets flushing and water draining... However, when we looked at the clean out the cast iron clean out (buried in concrete) had cracked and looked like the plug was just pushed in...

The drain guy who did a nice job (cleared it for 185$) said not to worry about it... I have been thinking about it and eventually would like to fix it if possible.

Any advice?

Milo Dolezal · Apr 22, 2010, 04:35 AM

You are not telling us what kind of pipe we are dealing with...

The technician was right. Not too much to worry about. You can take stainless steel band, put it around the pipe and over the crack and tighten it up. It will hold the broken pieces together.

If you want to repair it then expose about 12" of the pipe, cut it below the hub and insert No-Hub coupling onto existing stub-out. Then, insert new Fit-In Female adapter with plug into the new coupling. Tighten up No-Hub Coupling and you have completed your repair.

It is a nice weekend project saving yourself few bucks in the process...

Good luck and let us know how you did. Milo

speedball1 · Apr 22, 2010, 05:17 AM

Where is the cast iron cracked?
If the cover's loose try wrapping Teflon Tape around the threads. No Big deal! If it's buried in cement It's not going anywhere. Good luck. Tom

adthern · Apr 22, 2010, 08:43 AM

Originally Posted by Milo Dolezal

You are not telling us what kind of pipe we are dealing with...

The technician was right. Not to much to worry about. You can take stainless steel band, put it around the pipe and over the crack and tighten it up. It will hold the broken pieces together.

If you want to repair it then expose about 12" of the pipe, cut it below the hub and insert No-Hub coupling onto existing stub-out. Then, insert new Fit-In Female adapter with plug into the new coupling. Tighten up No-Hub Coupling and you have completed your repair.

It is a nice weekend project saving yourself few bucks in the process...

Good luck and let us know how you did. Milo

It is cast Iron like the hub, and it is the threads at the lip that are broken.

adthern · Apr 22, 2010, 08:45 AM

Originally Posted by speedball1

Where is the cast iron cracked?
If the cover's loose try wrapping Teflon Tape around the threads. No Big deal!! If it's buried in cement It's not going anywhere. Good luck. Tom

It is at the very end where the threads are at the lip of the clean out. Hmmm... ok, once I get the sewage smell out of my nise Im going to give it a shot.

Thanks for your help guys

CHayn · Apr 22, 2010, 01:27 PM

You could just put an expandable mechanical plug in the hub and sleep easy with no worries

massplumber2008 · Apr 22, 2010, 02:30 PM

Hi all:

Adthern, you can try the teflon tape and even an expanding plug as suggested by the others... hopefully work well for you. If those options fail then I would recommend that you get some JBWELD and plug the crack in the lip of the cast iron hub. Let it dry as directed on the package and you should be all set. If you find that the crack continues to spread over time you'll want to drill a 1/8" hole at the end of the crack and then plug that hole with the jbweld again... but only do this if the crack increases in size... OK?

Good luck!

Mark

Milo Dolezal · Apr 22, 2010, 06:22 PM

If it is in the slab - and Cast Iron - than do as Mark suggested. You will be just fine...

adthern · May 2, 2010, 01:50 AM

Originally Posted by CHayn

you could just put an expandable mechanical plug in the hub and sleep easy with no worries

I actually did go out and get an expandable test plug and put it in and it seems to just barely cover the area that is cracked off. There do not seem to be any leaks or gasses from it at this point.

Originally Posted by massplumber2008

Hi all:

Adthern, you can try the teflon tape and even an expanding plug as suggested by the others...hopefully work well for you. If those options fail then I would recommend that you get some JBWELD and plug the crack in the lip of the cast iron hub. Let it dry as directed on the package and you should be all set. If you find that the crack continues to spread over time you'll want to drill a 1/8" hole at the end of the crack and then plug that hole with the jbweld again...but only do this if the crack increases in size...OK?

Good luck!

Mark

Thanks, I have used this kind of putty on a different CI pipe and it worked great. This one is more than a crack in the pipe, its more of a chip that's cracked off because it is at the end with the threads--I would say about 20-25% of the threaded end. The test plug I originally got and put in seems to be holding good enough at this point. I am going to be doing some work on the CI system and swapping some of it over to PVC and I figure I will eventually tear up the floor and replace the CI in the floor with PVC too---Eventually, lol.

I was hoping someone would come up with some magic piece that slipped into the CI and extended it a few inches and voilà all fixed... sigh... oh well...

Thanks guys for all your help! I have a couple of other odd plumbing repairs scheduled so I may be posting more weird problems!

Adam