Soil Pipe Woes....

[Andy]

Hi,

Changing out an old WC and have some problems with the new WC and the soil pipe.

The existing soil pipe and WC is in the corner of the bathroom. The soil pipe exits through a solid wall and is about 6" away from the rear wall (pipe runs parallel to rear wall).

My problem is that the new WC has to go fairly tight to the rear wall and the height of the soil pipe is higher than the outlet on the new WC. The old WC has a small concrete plinth

so perhaps the height has always been wrong and the pipe was originally installed incorrectly.

I have thought about using a Swan Neck connector to get the new pan closer to the wall, but I'm a bit stumped about the height problem???

It would be a bit of a nightmare to lower the soil pipe to fit the WC, building another plinth may be tacky, a new WC would be costly.......

Any ideas, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Andy

[Chris Bacon]

Raise the level of the whole floor; raise the level of part of the floor, so that there's a good "step" that doesn't look as if it's a "bodge"; fit something reasonably decorative under the bowl that's nicer looking than concrete. Alternatively, an offset pan connector might help (although the water level in the pan would rise). What're the height differences, what's the soil pipe made of?

[Andy]

The idea of raising the whole floor could work, also going to tile which would also help. Would the offset pan connector help with height problem? The difference is no more than 2". Is the swan neck connector the right thing to push the pan back to the wall?

[Chris Bacon]

Shit. Please don't top post, I've had a few. What is the set-up, you talk about a swan-necked connector, I assume you meana space saevere. If you're thinking of fitting one of these, how come tou've got a height problem? Surely it's just up or down? You sdaid it went throuygh the wallo, well, I don't know. If it goes through the wall, ISTR seeing an fooset connector of 1 1/"2, but you;'ve got the level in the pan to think about. Would it matter? I don't klnow, an ASCII pic. or better uploaded to A WEB SDITE OE WVEN W-MAILED WOULD HELP. No further content.

[daddyfreddy]

The offset connector shouldn't be used if the soil pipe is higher than your pan, AFAIK.

Either step the floor up (which may trip people up and have them landing head first into ur lav!) or rearrange the soil pipe. I've had a similar problem and it meant taking the old cast iron soil pipe out and installing a new plastic one. It seemed like a big task but wasn't so bad in the end. If you've currently got a plastic soil pipe then it should be even easier.

[Dal Birk]

Andy, Just to clarify you have two problems :

1 Distance from wall - yes a swan neck connector will help reduce the distance - it's shaped like "?" . It is not an offset connector.Normally it's used for soil pipes in the floor but one to the side should work just as well. However, you could use a 90degree connector plus an offset where it enters the pipe - this may give you more flexibility. The swan neck does it in one.

2 Height of toilet - You must raise the toilet or lower the soil pipe. If soil pipe is higher than the toilet, there will be standing water in the pipe and the joint will eventually leak. I think the old toilets used to be higher that's why someone built a plinth last time it was upgraded. Use the existing plinth, just disguise with tile edging or something