The joint right above the 45 above the "y" in the center seems to be leaking. You can see the drip if you zoom in. This is the main toilet stack for the house, two toinlets drain through this piece. Due to the space, I'm not super excited to cut it out and redo it all.
I saw a video on YouTube about pulling a vacuum on the system and sucking some primer and glue into the leaking joint to fix? Seems worth a shot. Other ideas?
My first house had pinholes in the cast iron drains and an old guy tapped little pieces of wood into the holes.
They make cutters to remove pipe from fittings (or street elbows from other fittings).
Its hard to see whats going on at the top of the photo, but I’m assuming it’s an elbow above the short pipe that is after the 45.
So if it was me, I’d get the tool and cut out the fitting above the wye and the cut the horizontal pipe at a convenient point.
Then just replace the street elbows and fittings to reconnect to the horizontal run.
Id rather take the time to fix it once than end up doing it twice.
Wipe the joint down several times with PVC primer(not the purple colored stuff) Once its good and clean, smear some PVC glue on it. Let it dry and smear some more. Hit it several times over a weekend, and the glue will build up and fill the hole. Sometimes heating it will loosen the glue, but I wouldn't do that in a confined area like that. If the glue doesn't work, take a wax seal used for sealing the toilet to the flange. Soften some of that in your hand and smear it around the leak. Its messy, but it will work.
Datsun310Guy said:My first house had pinholes in the cast iron drains and an old guy tapped little pieces of wood into the holes.
How can you leave us hanging wihtout telling us if it worked?
In reply to jstand :
At the top is actually a 4-way piece. The vent stack goes straight up, and there are two toilet lines that come in there.
In reply to tr8todd :
Thank you! I will try this. Don't know if I have any non-purple primer, but I can go get some. To be clear, do you mean cleaner or clear primer?
Robbie said:In reply to tr8todd :
To be clear, do you mean cleaner or clear primer?
I see what you did there...
Robbie said:Datsun310Guy said:My first house had pinholes in the cast iron drains and an old guy tapped little pieces of wood into the holes.
How can you leave us hanging wihtout telling us if it worked?
After thought it was a House I looked at.
That purple stuff is the devil. Pipes with that never come apart without breaking everything.
The purple is just a dye and all it does it make a mess. Its there so the inspector can see that the pipe was cleaned before the glue was applied. Here in Mass you don't need the purple stuff except on PVC venting for heating systems. We cut it somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 cans clear to one can with the purple when we do have to use it. Technically its not glue and cleaner. Its called solvent welding with a primer and a glue. Whatever you want to call it cleaner, primer, its the same stuff. Its mostly acetone, or fingernail polish remover without the smell good stuff added. It cleans the PVC and softens it so that the glue will stick and penetrate the PVC a little. Contrary to popular belief, you can pull the pipe and fittings apart long after the glue has cured. It just takes heat. Every once in a while I'll come across a pipe that needs to be fixed and there is no room to cut between fittings. You can cut the pipe flush with the fitting socket. Then you smear glue inside the pipe and light it on fire. Let it burn for 8 to 10 seconds and the pipe piece will soften and the glue will soften. Then you can jam a needle nose plier in between the soften pipe piece and the still somewhat hard fitting socket. Once the needle nose is in there, twist it and the pipe will wrap around the pliers and pop out. Fairly easy with 1.5 and 2" pipe. Gets tough with 3" and is hard to do with 4". There are some crazy Russian videos of guys doing this on YouTube.
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