Toilet PVC pipe help needed

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tomeczekj

tomeczekj

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Hello,

I've been working on my bathroom by myself. I took all of the outdated stuff out, Whilst removing my old toilet I noticed the old wax ring broke some time ago before I owned the house and I was forced to remove a good amount of wood from the surrounding area. I somehow managed to damage the PVC pipe while removing the metal part around it.

I was wondering if somebody on here could tell me what I need to do to fix this... Please be detailed (what materials i'll need, how/where to cut, etc...)

Thanks very much!

-Tom
IMG_1001.jpg
 
That is a sanitary tee on it's back, which is a completely improper use of that fitting. To fix it correctly is a little bit of a job. I don't like to say this, as we normally try to help everyone fix their plumbing problems themselves, but you might consider calling in a professional plumber on this one.
 
Money is a bit of a problem. How much should this cost me/how many hours of labor?

Thanks :)
 
I am going to make a swag that the left side of the picture leads to the vent stack and to the right is the drain stack. The way this is laid out suggests that the one who plumbed this was unable to run the drain stack directly to the roof easily and took a shortcut - the method used is highly irregular. The pipe coming from the right should end in a 90 degree closet elbow connected to the stool and the vent where the T your system has should have been used to connect the pipe from the closet elbow to the drain stack going down and the vent stack going up rather in this arrangement that the picture shows. You should have a plumber friend advise you, but the riser pipe should not go horizontal like this and the correction for your situation can best be described by him to you. It could entail a lot of remodeling. Also a DIY plumbing place like Home Depot might be willing to give you some hints.

I think what you are asking is how to fix the problem you have here with the pipe cut off to close to the T. The solution is to cut out the entire horizontal pipe and replumb it properly according to what a plumber tells you. The stupid solution is to cut the pipes on either side of the T and install a connector on each side of a new T.
 
if you cut down the pipe on the inside of the T wye's hub you could likely pull the broken pipe out in a few peices, you will need a hacksaw blade, flathead screwdriver, and a hammer, cut it untill the hacksaw blade meets the hub and then peel the pipe out of the hub using the screwdriver and hammer. You will then have a hub that can be fitted into.

like others have said, this is improperly done and is a fairly large problem the way its piped, but I underrstand what you were asking and gave my best advice to remedy your situation.... this will clog often and never work quite right the way it is, it is against code and could potentially be dangerous to your health if sewer gasses are able to escape the piping configuration.

Good luck.
 
I think i'll bite the bullet, put in some overtime and hire a pro to fix this disaster. Any recommended plumbers on here in the 21037 Maryland area?

Thanks for all of the help guys.
 
UPDATE:

I called a local, high rated plumber.

He just wanted to cut it out and fix the T connector rather than redo everything to code. I told him I spoke with several plumbers online who recommended this be redone "to code" and he kind of shook his head saying that there was nothing wrong with the lay out. So here are more pictures for you guys... Perhaps I will get a second opinion... What do you all think?

PS: disregard the temporary toilet placement.

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IMG_1038.jpg
 
perhaps a second quote from a different plumber. A t cannot be installed on its back, a wye 45 is possiblle but unlikely given that that is a toilet.. Would need to see the entire piping to determine the placements of vents and branch takeoffs to properly determine just how to correct this to code. I hater the 3" pipe in the wall with the 90 is the vent that continues to the roof?? if so then it is an irregular way to do it, but not specifically wrong however, as mentioned the connection would a minimum be a wye 45, Most would opt to ake a wye off horizontally and recieve the Toilets discharge with a 90' bend.. I would do it this way. but as i said.. impossiblle to determine without knowing the entire bathrroom groups piping what is venting what... and, Why would you stack vent the Toilet?.. doesnt make much sense.
 
I can't speak for all codes, but the code that is in use in my area specifically disallows sanitary tees being used in that particular manner. There is almost no direction given to the waste and water that drops into the tee, and it is almost as likely to flow upstream towards the vent as it is to flow towards the drain. In fact, I would garuantee that some of the waste and water flows back toward the vent. This can build up and possibly choke off the vent of the toilet, particularily if there is no fixture draining through the vent of the toilet, as is appears to be the case from the pictures.
 
What else I'm seeing is what looks like the 3" vent running horizontally in the picture were the toilet is sitting. It looks to be below the flood rim of the sink. Which is another code violation. From the looks of it I would say the lav is washing the vent. But the vent is to low.

John
 
It looks like that the 3" vent going vertical in the first of the new pictures is the one that jogs to the right and then down to the drain pipe and over to the T on the floor under the stool. The water from the bath/shower is dumping directly into the 3" pipe that goes into that T. If the water is running toward a drain in the wall next to the lav, the bath/shower would be washing the drain rather than as everyone seems to be supposing (me too till now) that the drain was near the bath/shower. It looks like the plumber did not have a good way to get the closet el and the drain for the bath/shower into the pipe so he elected to use this method - which looks really poor. I think the lav and bath/shower should have been tied together or tied in similar to LiQuId's suggestion behind the current T there should have been a Y; one leg for the stool and one for the bath/shower.

But at least I think I understand why he used the T now - still should not have done so. If I'm right about where the drain is, that is how I would re-plumb this. If there is enough room.

John: it is very close - the picture might be distorting the perspective a little. And there might be another vent going up and over to the vent from the lav. Wouldn't matter then would it? That would be a lot harder to fix.
 
I've spoken to two more plumbers and showed them the above listed photos. They said there is nothing wrong and all they would recommend fixing is the part I damaged.

I honestly don't know what you guys are talking about and neither do any of the plumbers I've spoken to. I want to do the right thing here and not have toxic sewer fumes slowly kill me in my sleep. With that being said, would it be helpful to you guys if I knocked out all of my drywall and took pictures of exactly what I have? I don't know what else to do. I can't seem to find the right answers from plumbers in my area.
 
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LOL, that is the problem with not being able to see what is going on and what you have done is what the others here have suggested, ie, get a professional to look at it. No, don't remove any additional drywall.

The only thing that might be wrong is that those looking at it here do not believe that the use of the T is to code. The stool should feed into the drain using a closet el, not a T. That would require a Y between the drain stack and the stool. While I agree, I don't think that we can claim to know the code for your area. Earlier posts explained that. I recommend that you follow your licensed plumber's advice because they can see what we cannot and know your local code and practice. Good luck!
 
tomeczekj said:
I've spoken to two more plumbers and showed them the above listed photos. They said there is nothing wrong and all they would recommend fixing is the part I damaged.

I honestly don't know what you guys are talking about and neither do any of the plumbers I've spoken to. I want to do the right thing here and not have toxic sewer fumes slowly kill me in my sleep. With that being said, would it be helpful to you guys if I knocked out all of my drywall and took pictures of exactly what I have? I don't know what else to do. I can't seem to find the right answers from plumbers in my area.
Click to expand...

Let me try to explain it this way: The fitting into which the broken pipe from your toilet goes is called a sanitary T. Think of that 3" drain in the floor as a highway and the T is the on-ramp. If you were trying to get onto that highway going the right direction you'd have a 50/50 chance of going the right way. The Y fitting guys are telling you about have a built-in direction of flow which would only allow you to go the right way. That said, I'm confused why yer plumbers do not comprehend that T's cannot be installed on their backs. It's because the waste only has a 50/50 chance of going the right direction. While every state operates under their own codes, I'm pretty certain that all of them don't allow the use of T's on their back for drainage. My installation of that 3" pipe when it came through the floor & started to run horizontal would be to get the pipe over to one of the floor joists on either side of the bay your toilet sets on. That way a Y could be installed down-stream of the toilet & then properly stubbed up for your toilet. If you don't care about code compliance then sure, have your plumber cut the broken pipe out of the T & put new pipe in and be done. I would suggest putting a cleanout in the wall though. That way if the drain clogs you'll have a way of cleaning it out.
 
^ absolutely.

Thank you so much for breaking that down for me. Explaining this to my plumber shouldn't be a problem now.
 
UPDATE:

I went to a third plumber. He said the same thing the last two plumbers said, he insisted on replacing the sanitary T at an estimated cost of $190.00. He added that I could repair it myself with a screw driver and a hammer.

So here is what I did (with a side sander drill):

Ov5LT.jpg


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obEqh.jpg


I plan on using the purple primer and pvc cement. Seems sturdy... Do you guys think this will hold up?
 
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