Updated - WWYD: Crack in Cast Iron Pipe?

[OscarQ]

The main water pipe has a 3' long hairline crack in a 5' section.  Overall the pipe is 30' long.  If the city sewer backs up, we could have sewage back up into the house, flooding the basement (if the crack gives) and ruining our newly installed boiler (about $6k).

As this is a 110+ yo townhouse nothing is standard, nothing is made anymore that matches.  So the cast iron pipe is 5" but new pipe comes in either 3" or 6".

So these are our options:

1. Repair the crack with an epoxy (suggested by my crazy neighbor but I confirmed this could work and hold with legit plumbers).  Once I have the estimates in we may do this as a temporary measure so I can worry less and schedule the work vs do it urgently.

2.  Replace just the 5' section of pipe *not sure how this will work as new pipe is a different size.  Hope remaining sections of old cast iron hold up.

3.  Replace entire 30' pipe.

Estimates are coming in and I'm told there will be a big gap - which seems reasonable.

Also, just to make this more fun, the main shutoff valve to the house is broken so we have to have that replaced too.  If we have an emergency now, we'd have to get the city to come shutoff our water and we'd really be up sh*t creek.  Pun intended.

Update:  The cracked section has been replaced.  A new water valve is in place (and, although the city came out to shut off the water my plumber was able to get the old shutoff valve to work so he cancelled the shut off order).  I need to have the curb box (city water cutoff) raised up by the city but we are good to go for now.  Total cost just under $600.  I will be hugely relieved if this is it for now.

[CrazyLucky]

Definitely use the epoxy to buy yourself more time. Is the line in question underground? if it's accessible, see if you can get some testing done to determine if it is still in good shape. If it is, just replace the 5 foot section. I'm also wondering if it's possible to put a plate around the crack to keep it from growing.

[lurknomore]

We epoxy'd an old cast iron pipe and it lasted about a year. But it was a stack that wasn't used nearly as much as a main water pipe and it was a much smaller crack than 3. I wouldn't count on that as anything more than very temporary under your circumstances. I also would imagine that you wouldn't be covered by your insurance if you epxoy'd it and it gave out. You may have trouble with the partial replacement too because it is hard to tie new materials into cast iron. It can be done, but it isn't super reliable and no one will do that in our town. I would opt for a full replacement if you can swing it, but I know those are insanely expensive. I'm assuming the town isn't responsible for any of it because the crack is in your section? Does any basement concrete have to be dug up?

[bunnymendelbaum]

Wait, is this a water pipe or a sewer pipe? I'm assuming sewer because water pipes are not 5" diameter.
I would not worry about the difference in pipe size, they have collars made for this specifically. If this is a lower section of a tall vertical being replace with PVC and there is a long length of cast iron above it, I'd try to replace the whole thing.
If it is running horizontally, I'd be ok with replacing just a section, although it would be MUCH better to replace the whole thing.

Get the water shutoff valve installed for sure. AND ask for a backflow preventer valve on the sewer.

[dr.girlfriend]

I am by no means an expert, but isn't there a way they can thread a smaller-diameter pipe through an existing pipe? I remember this being an option when my co-worker had a sewer line problem.

[OscarQ]

Dec 8, 2016 13:22:15 GMT -5 bunnymendelbaum said:

Wait, is this a water pipe or a sewer pipe? I'm assuming sewer because water pipes are not 5" diameter.
I would not worry about the difference in pipe size, they have collars made for this specifically. If this is a lower section of a tall vertical being replace with PVC and there is a long length of cast iron above it, I'd try to replace the whole thing.
If it is running horizontally, I'd be ok with replacing just a section, although it would be MUCH better to replace the whole thing.

Get the water shutoff valve installed for sure. AND ask for a backflow preventer valve on the sewer.

It's a sewer pipe and back flow preventer valves are illegal in my city. It's a horizontal pipe and it's above ground (in my basement) so they don't have to dig up any concrete as far as I'm aware.  They will have to remove the original cast iron sink as that is over part of the pipe and makes it inaccessible.

I want to replace the entire thing but I'm nervous about costs and if all you had come back and said "just replace a section, nbd" that's how I'd push my H.  



I'll check to see what our homeowners insurance covers.

Thanks all!

[thatgirl2478]

Dec 8, 2016 16:09:47 GMT -5 OscarQ said:

Dec 8, 2016 13:22:15 GMT -5 bunnymendelbaum said:

Wait, is this a water pipe or a sewer pipe? I'm assuming sewer because water pipes are not 5" diameter.
I would not worry about the difference in pipe size, they have collars made for this specifically. If this is a lower section of a tall vertical being replace with PVC and there is a long length of cast iron above it, I'd try to replace the whole thing.
If it is running horizontally, I'd be ok with replacing just a section, although it would be MUCH better to replace the whole thing.

Get the water shutoff valve installed for sure. AND ask for a backflow preventer valve on the sewer.

It's a sewer pipe and back flow preventer valves are illegal in my city. It's a horizontal pipe and it's above ground (in my basement) so they don't have to dig up any concrete as far as I'm aware.  They will have to remove the original cast iron sink as that is over part of the pipe and makes it inaccessible.

I want to replace the entire thing but I'm nervous about costs and if all you had come back and said "just replace a section, nbd" that's how I'd push my H.  



I'll check to see what our homeowners insurance covers.

Thanks all!

It might not be that expensive if you'll replace it with PVC. We had to dig up and replace a significant portion of our sewer line at a previous house, it cost about $3-5k if I remember correctly - but they needed to break up concrete and do a lot of digging to get down to the line (it was the exterior portion of the sewer line that got infiltrated with tree roots and cracked).

Save

[OscarQ]

Dec 11, 2016 21:47:42 GMT -5 thatgirl2478 said:

Dec 8, 2016 16:09:47 GMT -5 OscarQ said:

It's a sewer pipe and back flow preventer valves are illegal in my city. It's a horizontal pipe and it's above ground (in my basement) so they don't have to dig up any concrete as far as I'm aware.  They will have to remove the original cast iron sink as that is over part of the pipe and makes it inaccessible.

I want to replace the entire thing but I'm nervous about costs and if all you had come back and said "just replace a section, nbd" that's how I'd push my H.  



I'll check to see what our homeowners insurance covers.

Thanks all!

It might not be that expensive if you'll replace it with PVC. We had to dig up and replace a significant portion of our sewer line at a previous house, it cost about $3-5k if I remember correctly - but they needed to break up concrete and do a lot of digging to get down to the line (it was the exterior portion of the sewer line that got infiltrated with tree roots and cracked).

Save

Fingers crossed it's in that range.  Waiting on first estimate, second plumber is coming tomorrow.

[downtoearth]

I would just replace the current 5' of pipe - they make adapters from cast iron diameter to new pipe diameter, so no bid deal there.

[thatgirl2478]

OscarQ did you ever figure out what you were going to do about this?

[OscarQ]

Dec 24, 2016 17:06:24 GMT -5 thatgirl2478 said:

OscarQ did you ever figure out what you were going to do about this?

Sorry, just saw this tag.  Yes, the plumbers are here now attempting to replace the 5 feet of pipe.  Had three plumbers out for estimates in addition to the plumber who originally caught the problem and all said they'd attempt to replace just the damaged section first.  Fingers crossed!

[mrsukyankee]

Thanks for the update. I hope it all works out in the end.