The sewer line that leads from my kitchen stack has a leak. (We have an odor and a slight amount of water between the basement slab and the garage slab.) The stack goes under the basement slab. I'm wonder if this is something I can repair. I have installed gas water heaters, rebuilt my kitchen, rebuilt my bathroom which involved a good amount of demolition, built a deck. If I had a guide of what to do and some help from the forum I think that I could do it. From the kitchen I have 3" (I think) copper coming down, which unions to 3" cast iron, which goes under the floor.
From what I can imagine, I would have to break the slab around the
stack, and follow the pipe until I found the leak. If I'm lucky it might be close to the stack. Then, I'd have to cut out the bad section and replace it with PVC. And, replace the concrete. I know this is a huge simplification.
Is there a DIY guide out there? Is it a foolish idea to attempt this myself?
- Would you break the concrete with a demoliton rotary hammer? A sledge?
- How wide an area do you need to break up?
- After you find the leak, how much further do you need to go?
- What do you cut the pipe with?
- What kind of coupler/union do you use to go from cast iron to schedule 40? What kind of glue and primer does schedule 40 need. (I have a good pluming supply house close.)
- What kind of coupler/union do you use to go from copper to schedule
40?
Thanks!
Dan