Plumbing repair - advice requested

[os1kne]

Yesterday, my wife informed me of a water leak in my basement. Upon inspection, I discovered that the leak was coming from a failed transition fitting from the kitchen drain above. I took a picture of it with my camera phone (poor quality) so that I would have something to reference at the hardware store. I have annotated the pic a bit, so that you have a better idea of what you're looking at.

The drain from the kitchen sink is either 1 or 1.25" galvanized pipe. At some point, the previous owner of the home (who liked to "rig" things together) replaced the galvanized pipe to the main drain with 1.5" PVC. The rubber transition fitting is connected directly to the galvanized elbow. I believe that for 1 - the galvanized side of the transition fitting was too big, as the hose clamp (that I've already removed in the pic) was seriously cinched down around it and over time, the transition fitting failed where it had been cut by the hose clamp. The transition fitting/PVC are fairly tightly wedged behind the 1/2" copper supply line to the washing machine below.

I suppose I could "fix" this by replacing the another transition fitting, but I'd rather do a long-term solution.

I suspect that it would be best for me to redo the supply line for the washing machine to be tight against the block wall and have the kitchen drain above routed around this supply line, say starting out an inch or so from the wall and tapering in. Presently the supply line to the washing machine starts out about 4" from the wall and is tapered/bent to be attached to the wall behind the washing machine. My instinct tells me to cut/disconnect the galvanized pipe prior to the elbow and do the transition to PVC on the straight run.

I don't know about the threads on the end of the galvanized elbow under the transition fitting, if they are good - I suppose I could shorten the PVC run by 9" and run a 12" or so length of galvanized that was inside the PVC for 3" with a transition fitting on the outside.

Please help! I have a little bit of plumbing experience, but it's not something that I do much or often. Thanks in advance.

[billwmeyer]

repair

I would just eliminate the galvanized pipe completely and complete the run with PVC all the way to your sink. It should be easier, and probably cheaper to do it this way. The supply to your washer is up to you. If it is in the road, I would move it, but usually with plumbing, I feel that the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" rule applies. Good luck.

Bill

[cabinetman]

I'm not the greatest plumber, but I do have a NEED TO SEE VIDEO FOR DIY'S.
.

[crokett]

I also would replace the galvanized with PVC all the way back to the sink. If you don't want to do that or can't, then next best is a rubber Fernco fitting to transition from the the galvanized to PVC. There may be threaded fittings that will let you do this but I have never had much success with anything other than the Ferncos.

[mineengineer]

Go with pvc or the right fernco

I would probably go with all pvc back to the sink drain basket, if you need some 'play' to get the pipes to line up you could go with a flexible tailpiece that will give you some 'wiggle room'. If you go the fernco route you might have to go to a plumbing supply to get the right one because the big box stores in the burgh seem to not carry all sizes. Keystone Plumbing Suppy should have them if one is close by, depending on which side of Pittsburgh you live/work.

[os1kne]

Thanks for the advice. This is definitely something that I should have thought to do when I did my kitchen remodel 3 years ago. Going PVC from the sink down would be the best solution, but pretty difficult at this point, due to limited access and the added complication of dealing with connecting to a vent.

I'll probably pick up a few Fernco fittings and more than enough other stuff that I'll be able to have a solid working solution.

Cabinetman, thanks for the link to the funny video - plumbing jobs do have a way of causing frustration that escalates the problem.

[chopnhack]

For what its worth, I do remember seeing some fernco's that were not the same size on both ends. I think they were in the larger sizes to connect between dissimilar plumbing. Check them out and good luck. FYI....never patch galvanized, i had one event where someone just wanted to patch a galvanized pipe instead of replacing it. Needless to say I was back to help for the same problem not to long after the first "repair"

[Rand]

The only advice I have is to buy extra pieces in both 1 1/4 and 1 1/2 diameter. Grab 2 of everything and then maybe, you'll only have to make 3 trips to the store. When the project is done take back the pieces you didn't need.

[chrisk]

If you aren't going to replace the iron, I would suggesting cutting the iron above the existing elbow and running a new PVC elbow and pipe to the existing PVC on the horizontal side. Then place the flexible coupler above the elbow on the vertical section (you'll need a section of straight pipe). The advantage of this would be that the coupler is no longer in the flow line and you could change the size of the pvc in case you can't find the proper flexible adapter (Fernco). You may even be able to fit the new PVC around the existing iron pipe a few inches, depending on size difference.

[os1kne]

I appreciate all of the advice. It turned out that I was partly wrong, it wasn't galvanized pipe - it was 1.25" copper (didn't know until I cut into it). I bought about 3x as many supplies as I expected to need, and I still had to go back to the store (my PVC cement had hardened - I picked up the can before going to the store and it was heavy enough, but no good).

I cut the copper above the elbow and put in a Fernco transition (proper sized 1.25-1.5) with a short piece of PVC, PVC elbow and another piece of PVC with a coupling to tie into the existing. So far so good.

Thanks.

(Later, I get to return all of the stuff that I didn't need, which is good - the galvanized bits and pieces add up pretty quickly.)