I recently purchased my first home. We decided that we would under
take some upgrading. When we stared on the bathroom we where planning
on just repainting. After further investigation we determined that the
drain pipe from the sink was corroded and leaking. We didn't like the
sink anyway so we pulled it out and hope to replace it with a pedestal
sink. When we removed the sink this what we found.

http://www.eganllc.com/images/pipes1.jpg
http://www.eganllc.com/images/pipes2.jpg

The end of the pipe that you can not see is into a cast iron pipe.

As you can see there are many issues. 1) Do I need to replace the
galvanized pipe? 2) Should I call a plumber to do this? 3) Can I just
shorten the coupling so that the drain is not over the water pipe?
(Shorten the coupling that is.)

Any help is appreciated.

Jonyskids

I'd base the course of action on whether that galvanized pipe is
obstructed. Does the sink drain rapidly ? Can you get a wire hanger
thru there ?

If it seems healthy I'd leave it alone. If it's a problem right now,
that is, water doesn't drain, it's probably because the galv. pipe is
corroded down to where only a trickle of water can pass.

I'm pretty handy but I'd call a plumber cause of the junction of that
pipe with what probably is an iron stack, assuming it's an old house.

I would replace all the galvanized pipe. It's nothing but trouble.
Make it plastic all the way until you get to the cast iron pipe. May
as well do it now while the wall is open and you are redoing stuff
anyway. Galvinized pipe is a problem waiting to happen, espically on
water supply lines. I am not sure how bad it is on drain lines, but I
still wouldn't want it.

The pipe drains fine although the angle is slightly the wrong
direction. If I choose not to replace, the issue is where the pipe
comes out of the wall. Need it to be at least 5 inched to the left.

wrote:
I'd base the course of action on whether that galvanized pipe is
obstructed. Does the sink drain rapidly ? Can you get a wire hanger
thru there ?

If it seems healthy I'd leave it alone. If it's a problem right now,
that is, water doesn't drain, it's probably because the galv. pipe is
corroded down to where only a trickle of water can pass.

I'm pretty handy but I'd call a plumber cause of the junction of that
pipe with what probably is an iron stack, assuming it's an old house.

wrote:
The pipe drains fine although the angle is slightly the wrong
direction. If I choose not to replace, the issue is where the pipe
comes out of the wall. Need it to be at least 5 inched to the left.

wrote:
I'd base the course of action on whether that galvanized pipe is
obstructed. Does the sink drain rapidly ? Can you get a wire hanger
thru there ?

If it seems healthy I'd leave it alone. If it's a problem right now,
that is, water doesn't drain, it's probably because the galv. pipe is
corroded down to where only a trickle of water can pass.

I'm pretty handy but I'd call a plumber cause of the junction of that
pipe with what probably is an iron stack, assuming it's an old house.

The PVC pipes and galvanized pipes are interchangeable in terms of
couplings -- in other words they use the same sizes and threads. So
yes you could take off the coupling and put a different one on,
although whether you could save 5 inches that way is hard to tell from
the photo. Sometimes you can get creative with drain pipes, loop it
around and so forth to get the geometry you need. Extra bends are not
good practice, of course, but as long as they don't clog up they won't
really hurt anything. Or you could take out the galvanized pipe,
replace it with PVC, and make everything nice and neat. How handy are
you and do you have the tools you need? One way to get comfortable
with the task is to go the hardware store, pick up some of the
couplings and play around with them, see how they go together, and what
different kinds there are. If you want to remove the galvanized pipe,
you will need a pipe wrench and perhaps a good amount of
strength/leverage to get it started. There is always some possibility
of disaster -- the pipe breaks or worse yet, breaks the cast iron stack
-- when dealing with old pipes. Personally I've had good luck though.
-- H

Thanks for the feed back. My concer is wheather or not the galvniazed
pipe is welded into the Cast iron? I am certain this is a difficult
question to answer unless you could see the pipe. To pose the
questions better, was it standard to weld the galvanized in to the iron
pipe of should I just be able to unscrew it?

Jonyskids


Heathcliff wrote:
wrote:
The pipe drains fine although the angle is slightly the wrong
direction. If I choose not to replace, the issue is where the pipe
comes out of the wall. Need it to be at least 5 inched to the left.

wrote:
I'd base the course of action on whether that galvanized pipe is
obstructed. Does the sink drain rapidly ? Can you get a wire hanger
thru there ?

If it seems healthy I'd leave it alone. If it's a problem right now,
that is, water doesn't drain, it's probably because the galv. pipe is
corroded down to where only a trickle of water can pass.

I'm pretty handy but I'd call a plumber cause of the junction of that
pipe with what probably is an iron stack, assuming it's an old house.

The PVC pipes and galvanized pipes are interchangeable in terms of
couplings -- in other words they use the same sizes and threads. So
yes you could take off the coupling and put a different one on,
although whether you could save 5 inches that way is hard to tell from
the photo. Sometimes you can get creative with drain pipes, loop it
around and so forth to get the geometry you need. Extra bends are not
good practice, of course, but as long as they don't clog up they won't
really hurt anything. Or you could take out the galvanized pipe,
replace it with PVC, and make everything nice and neat. How handy are
you and do you have the tools you need? One way to get comfortable
with the task is to go the hardware store, pick up some of the
couplings and play around with them, see how they go together, and what
different kinds there are. If you want to remove the galvanized pipe,
you will need a pipe wrench and perhaps a good amount of
strength/leverage to get it started. There is always some possibility
of disaster -- the pipe breaks or worse yet, breaks the cast iron stack
-- when dealing with old pipes. Personally I've had good luck though.
-- H

On 10 Oct 2006 11:45:51 -0700, wrote:

Thanks for the feed back. My concer is wheather or not the galvniazed
pipe is welded into the Cast iron? I am certain this is a difficult
question to answer unless you could see the pipe. To pose the
questions better, was it standard to weld the galvanized in to the iron
pipe of should I just be able to unscrew it?


Probably not welded. Typical would be screwed into a hub that is
Lead/oakum jointed to the cast iron hub. After many years, you may be
better off to peel out the leaded joint and replace with
plastic/rubber gasket joint. Failing this, galvanized pipe can be
sawed and re-connected to plastic with a nohub or Fernco coupling.
It is possible that the galvanized is lead wiped into a ferrule leaded
into the cast iron hub.
Looking is the only sure way to tell.
--
Mr.E

I am not a plumber !

It's not welded into the cast iron stack, it screws in. However, it
might as well be welded if my experience means anything. It can be
bloody difficult to undo these. If you're flush with cash you could
have a plumber come in, rip out the galv., and put in plastic, roughed
in however youi need it. It'll take a real plumber little time to do
this and sometimes it's just worth paying for the expert help.

In article .com, wrote:
Thanks for the feed back. My concer is wheather or not the galvniazed
pipe is welded into the Cast iron? I am certain this is a difficult
question to answer unless you could see the pipe. To pose the
questions better, was it standard to weld the galvanized in to the iron
pipe of should I just be able to unscrew it?

It's unlikely that the joint was welded originally. However,
it probably is now! Thanks to the corrosion.

The galvanized pipe is trouble waiting to happen so I would
get rid of it if at all possible.

I'd be inclined to give it a shot myself but be willing
to back off and call a plumber if undoing that joint
appeared to take the kind of force that could create
even bigger problems (rather likely IMO).

--
|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
| Malcolm Hoar "The more I practice, the luckier I get". |
| Gary Player. |
| http://www.malch.com/ Shpx gur PQN. |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks for the feed back. My concer is wheather or not the galvniazed
pipe is welded into the Cast iron? I am certain this is a difficult
question to answer unless you could see the pipe. To pose the
questions better, was it standard to weld the galvanized in to the iron
pipe of should I just be able to unscrew it?

It's unlikely that the joint was welded originally. However,
it probably is now! Thanks to the corrosion.

The galvanized pipe is trouble waiting to happen so I would
get rid of it if at all possible.

I'd be inclined to give it a shot myself but be willing
to back off and call a plumber if undoing that joint
appeared to take the kind of force that could create
even bigger problems (rather likely IMO).


I don't see why the pipe should be any major problem,
esp. given that you can look in the open end and
see how rusted up it is. But if you really
want to remove it, it doesn't have to come out in one
peice.

The unfortunate thing here is the galvanized pipe is level(no slope for
total drainage) and that is why it rusts out as sludge accumulates and
holds moisture there longer. Really, a plumber told me that bachelors
places are the worst as they are stingy with water, (so, with little
water use, it really never flushes out the pipes be they metal or
plastic and the pipes clog up) I know from experience that he spoke
the truth. It wood be nicer if you could turf the metal pipe for
plastic, but maybe it is not necessary yet . Unscrew the plastic from
the metal and have a peek inside. There will be rust and scum forsure.
Those are fairly thick pipes and it takes quite awhile to rust through
them, but looking at the picture again I see it is pretty easy to get a
wrench in there and unscrew it out, and go plastic.
wrote:
I recently purchased my first home. We decided that we would under
take some upgrading. When we stared on the bathroom we where planning
on just repainting. After further investigation we determined that the
drain pipe from the sink was corroded and leaking. We didn't like the
sink anyway so we pulled it out and hope to replace it with a pedestal
sink. When we removed the sink this what we found.

http://www.eganllc.com/images/pipes1.jpg
http://www.eganllc.com/images/pipes2.jpg

The end of the pipe that you can not see is into a cast iron pipe.

As you can see there are many issues. 1) Do I need to replace the
galvanized pipe? 2) Should I call a plumber to do this? 3) Can I just
shorten the coupling so that the drain is not over the water pipe?
(Shorten the coupling that is.)

Any help is appreciated.

Jonyskids

If you decide not to remove the galvanized pipe, you should at least change
the plastic pipe arrangement. The 90 degree elbow attached to the pipe is a
slip coupling fitting that should never be built into the wall, they are
intended for open areas such as under a sink or in a cabinet. All fittings
buried in the walls should be threaded or solvent welded fittings to
eliminate possibility of leaks that slip joint pipes are prone to do.

wrote in message
ups.com...
I recently purchased my first home. We decided that we would under
take some upgrading. When we stared on the bathroom we where planning
on just repainting. After further investigation we determined that the
drain pipe from the sink was corroded and leaking. We didn't like the
sink anyway so we pulled it out and hope to replace it with a pedestal
sink. When we removed the sink this what we found.

http://www.eganllc.com/images/pipes1.jpg
http://www.eganllc.com/images/pipes2.jpg

The end of the pipe that you can not see is into a cast iron pipe.

As you can see there are many issues. 1) Do I need to replace the
galvanized pipe? 2) Should I call a plumber to do this? 3) Can I just
shorten the coupling so that the drain is not over the water pipe?
(Shorten the coupling that is.)

Any help is appreciated.

Jonyskids