"Pete Verdon" d wrote in
message ...
As I get closer to the date of the Great Bathroom Refit, I can bash holes
in things to find out what's inside without having to live with the
resulting mess for too long. I've just done exactly that with the boxed-in
soil stack:

http://pverdon.csoft.net/stuff/DSCN3581.JPG
http://pverdon.csoft.net/stuff/DSCN3582.JPG

My new layout will require the toilet waste to enter from a direction at
90º to the current one; more or less from where the picture was taken.

Do you think I'm likely to be able to simply swivel the branch on the
pipe, without having to break into the stack at all? Would make life a
hell of a lot easier if I could...

It looks like solvent weld pipe. If so, the answer is no.

If not, I'm presumably going to have to pull everything upwards to
disassemble it. This is the highest fitting on the stack; it then goes
through the loft and out the roof.

That won't work with solvent weld either. You need to cut the pipe below the
branch, fit a new section of pipe and fit your branch to that. You may be
able to reuse the pipe above, by cutting it immediately above the branch and
dropping it into the top of the new one. I would revise the bathroom layout.

Colin Bignell