broken soil pipe

[nospam]

Hi.

In our house the soil pipe is hidden inside the wall. At the bathroom there is a tee piece that sticks out the wall and a pipe from the toilet connects to that.

I was emptying the bathroom for re-decoration and I saw a crack in the pipe. I think I may have caused the crack if I hit it with the skirting board that I was removing.

The crack, which is now a hole because I picked at it to see if it had gone all the way through, is right next to the O-ring, so I hope that the pipe will go over the hole and it should not be a problem. I reconnected the toilet and it did not leak when I flushed it.

It seems to me that to replace the t-junction I would have to get into the wall cavity and somehow lift the old tee piece out and put another one in, which sounds very difficult and/or expensive.

What would you do? Would a lot of sealant do the trick?

Thanks.

[Merryterry]

I presume the hole is in the socket portion of the PVC and downstream of the 'o' ring? It will not leak at present because the spigot pipe is inside the socket and all the contents of the pan are being carried past the hole but it will probably cause a drain smell at some time.

Get an offcut (or broken piece) of 100mm PVC pipe from a plumbers merchant and cut it into a patch that will cover the hole. If the radius does not match just warm the patch you are adding with a gentle heat until it is pliable then force it onto the PVC Socket and hold until firm.

Then clean the area round the hole out to the edge of the patch to be added, (probably painted?) then use PVC Solvent Cement (obtainable from Plumbers Merchants) to glue the patch on. You will then have a permanent repair.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Excellent advice.

You could also buy instead one of those solvent type clamp on junctions that clip and glue round the pipe after tyou have drilled a hole in it, to take e.g. basin wastes. They come per curved to fit the pipe. Just cut one of the arms off and use that as a patch.

[nospam]

Thanks. This is along the lines of what I was thinking of doing but I had not realised you could use solvent cement on soil pipes. I thought it was for 32 and 40 mm solvent weld pipe only. This is worth knowing and would give a better join than the sealant I was planning to use.

Thank you very much.