Soil pipe problem when fitting new WC

[Tony]

Hi,

As is always the case on bank holiday weekends, it's diy-tastic for the missus - so this weeks task is to fit a new toilet!

However I've one minor problem when I hope someone can help with. I have tiled the floor with ceramic tiles, which increases the new WC's height by about 6mm or so. Not to much of a problem in itself, but when the new toilet is put into position, it's slightly too high for the soil pipe.

The toilet itself is your bog standard (pardon the pun) WC, with the soil outlet coming out of the back horizontally. The soil pipe itself looks like a P shape in reverse, coming out of the floor.

The soil pipe also seems to be embedded in concrete, which is a bit of a pain seeing as every post or site I've been to shows the 'P' pipe connecting into an outlet from the floor. I've tried pulling the pipe upwards (to allow me to connect the toilet), but it won't budge, and I'm worried I might cause problems 'underground' seeing as I can't get to it.

I'm toying with the idea of buying a flexible adapter to allow me to connect it ok, but the big downside to that is the toilet would be a little too far away from the wall for my liking.

If anyone can offer any ideas or advice I would be extremely grateful.

Thanks in advance,

Tony

[Bob Minchin]

How about cutting the pipe off at or around new floor level and fitting a P type Multikwik adaptor?

Bob

[Grunff]

You can buy an offset connector, like this:

This should give you plenty of room for maneuver.

[Tom]

How much of an offset does it give you, judging from the pic it's only approx an inch, is this so? Tom

[Grunff]

Yes, about 20-25mm.

[John Rumm]

If the offset of the coupler is is too much, you should be able to reduce it by moving the pan to the side a little.

[Tony]

Hi chaps,

Thanks for all of the advice. I've now cut the top part of the pipe off, which allowed me to pull the straight section out. Bit of a pain, as it was concreted in so had to get the chisel out. Once I got that out I could see what was going on. The pipe going underground looks to be the same diameter as your usual connectors ( I think that's about 90mm or so), and then the rubber 'flex' was attached to the underground pipe and connected to the pipe that I just took out.

The major problem now is I cannot get anything to fit, and the rubber seal is under floor level by about 10mm. They're tricky to get on when you've got easy access, but when it's surrounded by concrete that can be multiplied by a factor of 10! I tried to be crafty by cutting

2 slits down the bottom connector of an extension pipe, which would allow me to fit it into the underground part by compressing the tube, but obviously the major drawback of that idea is possible leakage - which I'd imagine is not pleasant.

So now I'm back to square one - albeit with no pipe coming out of the floor, and the inability to fit a new one!

One other idea I did have though. If I cannot get better access to the pipe below, I figured the only real problem I have at the moment is I can't ensure that the gap between the pipe below, and the new swan neck fitting ( I'd guess the gap would be about 1-2mm of concrete) will prevent leakage into the surrounding concrete. So my alternative would be to lay down thick plastic sheeting across the hole - allow it to go into the piping so that I am effectively sheilding the outer wall, then insert the swan neck - leaving about

50mm of plastic sheet draped into the lower pipe. This would prevent anything coming into contact with the gap. I can't think of anything else to try, and having read this news group I'm loath to call out a plumber as I know it'll be a case of 'Ooh - that's a big job that is. We'll have to drill out the concrete, reseat the piping below etc.etc' for £40 an hour!

Thanks again for your help!

Tony

[Tony]

Hi chaps,

Well - I think it's all sorted now! I tried and tried to fit the god knows how many connectors I purchased from the local DIY shops, and everything just wouldn't go down that damn pipe - so I had to concede and call out a local plumber.

He was good enough to pop over today, so I gave him the saga and he took a look. "Got a pair of pliers?" he says. I dig around in my toolbox, and hand him the pliers. He fiddles around a bit down the pipe, and pulls out a rubber adapter. "There you go" he says, "The hole's big enough now!". So, in all my efforts to fit the pipes down there, I was trying to fit a rubber seal within an existing rubber seal! To be fair, when he pulled it out is was covered in concrete, so to all intents and purposes it looked like the inside of the pipe - but yes, that is a pretty lame excuse!

I've now widened the concrete at the top to give me a bit more room, and it all fit's quite snugly now so well chuffed. Thought the room was going to explode when I turned the light on last night, it stunk so much of methane!

So thanks for all of your help. Learned a lot on the way - now how do you fit a T connector to an existing pipe? (just kidding)

Cheers!

Tony