fixing broken drain pipe

[Wood_workur]

long story short I was replacing a faucet and the p trap snapped off at the wall.

It looks like it was the nipple that broke, and if I can extract the broken piece then I can just put a new nipple in an re attach the trap. The question is, how should I go about removing the broken nipple, and should I be worried about more breaking because the pipe was pretty rusted out. It's full of crap, so much that there is about 3/8" for the waste water to travel. I know that needs to be cleaned out. Should I also look at replacing the metal trap with a PVC trap?

How much of the drain needs to be replaced. the rusting is pretty bad and I don't want the drain to break, but I also don't want to be tearing apart my house.

[JimD]

Alex,

You don't say but it sounds like your drain pipes are cast iron. I have not worked with cast iron. I have done a bit with plastic. It is very easy to work with. I am pretty sure that cast iron is not. If I was in your situation, I would look for a way to transition your cast iron to plastic.

With respect to removal of a rusted off pipe, you can use a wrench that grips the interior of the pipe.

I know that they make rubber gaskets to transition but I do not know the varieties or how commonly available they are.

Jim

[Uncle Cracker]

You can use a compression coupling or rubber hose transition with hose clamps on the broken end to convert to PVC or ABS from there through the trap right up to the sink outlet. You will probably not be able to extract the broken nipple from the rest of the system without knocking a big hole in your wall. Better to preserve what remains of it and give yourself something to attach to. You may still have to chip away a small radius of wall around the pipe, so that you have room to clean the outside of the broken pipe and attach your coupling. Definitely yank out any scale you can from the pipe before you hook up the new piping.

[crokett]

The suggestion of a rubber coupling is a good one. Look for something called a fernco. If you have 3/4" of pipe sticking out of the wall that will be enough. You can use the fernco to transition to PVC.

[Wood_workur]

okay, I'll probably be doing a transition to PVC. I'll have to get my grandpa over to see if it can be done without taking out a large piece of wall because I'm not gonna be able to get anything to thread into the cast iron that is already there. Why the cast iron wasn't replaced with PVC when the house was remodeled is beyond me.

[crokett]

How much of the cast iron is sticking out of the wall? The rubber fernco slips over the outside, it does not thread in. You need 1/2" to 3/4" pipe stub to get a solid connection.

[Wood_workur]

the pipe is flush with the wall, and the hole around it is probably 3/8" wider.

edit- I think I know what you are talking about. We have one in our basement bathroom that takes the pvc and connects it to the cast iron. its think rubber connected with hose clamps , right?

[Uncle Cracker]

I think I know what you are talking about. We have one in our basement bathroom that takes the pvc and connects it to the cast iron. its think rubber connected with hose clamps , right?

Right... You will need side clearance on the iron to tighten the clamps. Clean the outside of the pipe first, or it will probably leak.

[chrisk]

I ran into a similar problem when I bought my house. The cast iron was so brittle that the p trap broke at the wall. I scraped out as much of the old pipe as I could with a chisel and hammer (being careful not to puncture a hole in the pipe) and grabbed the pieces with a needle nose. I did a small amount of filing on the bottom also. I used my shopvac to make sure the chunks didn't fall in, also.

I then used a Fernco 2" x 1.5" coupler and clamped it to the outside of the cast iron and transitiioned to pvc. The flow line remained pretty seamless and it has worked well (at least for the month it has been there.)

You may not need to much access to get at the existing pipe. Just enough to put on the coupler and fit in a soccet to tighten the band. PM me if you need a picture.

[Seedy]

Alex- I have been in the same situation before. I fixed it by taking a hacksaw blade and sawing through the threads on the top side. After I was through the nipple threads, I grabbed them with needle nose pliers and started turning the pliers in a tight circle. the nipple will come right out. You can then install a plastic male adapter and your p trap. The plastic will fill in the groove that youv'e cut in the fitting, but it is on the top, anyway. Make sure that you use plenty of teflon tape. With any luck, you won't have to repair any walls.-Craig

[Wood_workur]

I cleaned out the pipe, and I really can't tell if there is any nipple left in there. I'm probably gonna go with that rubber piece that crokett mentioned and put a pcv trap in. should also make hair clean outs a lot easier.