Hi all, I'm currently laying a patio and while digging I have discovered that my soil pipe is cracked at the collar where the downpipe connects with the underground pipe. There is no leaking when the toilet is flushed but this is probably because the crack is on the top. Is it possible to repair the crack without removing part of the pipe? Any help would be greatly appreciated
It ideally needs to be replaced. Is stack pipe cast iron. Sometime you can cut out damage clay pipe with grinder & used a piece of plastic soil pipe with flex seal couplers to make a repair. But, in your case space is tight, plus you have that block of concrete around pipe, which things even more harder to access.
Hi there, thanks for the reply, yes the stack is cast iron, so ideally I would have to dig back away from house and cut the pipe then put a join in? Is a repair to the crack itself not feasable? My hope was to excavate (carefully) around the whole collar around make sure the only crack was at the top and then fill/repair the crack and encase the joint in a suitable concrete or is this unsuitable? I dont want to take any chances as it's a soil pipe? Cheers
Might be possible with GRP or some other suitable product, but I've found it then crack somewhere else in the pipe. Also digging out might also cause rest of pipe to break.
Best to cut it out as suggested. However if the concrete surrounding the cracked area is fairly crumbly you could try carefully chipping away with a lump hammer and half inch cold chisel, then make up a box and cast a small block around the pipe with a mix of 3 and 1 sharp sand to cement. Have done this successfully on occasion, but make sure the ‘joint’ is well supported/stabilised
Thanks guys, If I was to cut the pipe would I not be able to leave the 'insert' part of pipe (that which goes into the collar) intact and just remove the collar and part of the pipe? Sorry for poor terminology! The pipe that come out of the bottom of the concrete block at a 90 degree angle seems too short to cut away?
It is very difficult working from a photo & not seeing the actual pipe. But, looking at your second photo,the penny dropped,was too early,need coffee to function. You are right, forgot to allow for the pipe insert into bell end, cut on furthest white line should give you enough room for repair. Possible might have to cut even further back & use a shallow bend (you can get adjustable bends) to allow you to get perfect alignment, all depend on pipe & it's angle coming from concrete block.
That would be my answer, Isitreally, dig around the cracked area, seal with silicone and then use it for a few days to make sure there's no leaks and then concrete the whole area in.
Clear out the whole area of mud/dirt ... spray the whole lot down with a hose, getting the internals of the crack as clean as possible ... let it dry ... smear some sticks-like-**** or something similar into the crack ... worry about it in the extremely unlikely event that it ever poses a problem. It's not a problem now, so is even less likely to be a problem in the future. The only risk it presents now is that roots might find their way into the pipe, but if you seal it off well using above method, that's extremely unlikely to happen.
Hi Hi I’m a newbie I’m so glad I came across this post. I did a similar thing. I’m currently digging a pond. However I’ve just hit a 6 inch hole into a clay rain/ storm pipe. Would I need to use flexiseals and pvc pipe or can I cover the hole with hard bendy plastic & pond mastic ? I’m concerned about cracking it more if I try to dig round it. Thanks for any advice in advance.
Ideally I would say needs to be cut out and replaced unfortunately. A patch would work as a temporary measure but is a bit of a bodge as a permanent job