On 5 Dec 2003 05:06:00 -0800, (Stephen Jones)
wrote:

I am in the process of doing up my bathroom and am going to replace
the WC. The problem is the WC is cemented into the soil pipe pipe
which is set in concrete in the floor. Do I just chip away the WC
waste and put some sort of plastic insert into the soil pipe as it
comes through the floor to connect the new WC waste to ? How difficult
is this ?
Thanks for any help

Steve Jones

Basically, yes.

Typically the soil pipe in this scenario is cast iron so you should
try to avoid hitting it directly. The WC waste should break
reasonably easily when hit with a hammer. Then remove the pan out of
the way and carefully chip away any remaining pieces and the cement
from the soil pipe socket. Try to clean up the inside of the socket
to remove any lumps of cement and to provide a reasonably smooth
surface.



There are adaptors available from plumber's merchants or DIY sheds
which have a rubber gasket on the male end with fins. You basically
insert this into the soil pipe socket. Use washing up liquid if
lubrication is needed as a result of the fit being too stiff. It
*may* be necessary to seal with some mastic as well - that all depends
on how smooth the soil pipe is. Some of these adaptors have a
flexible section if you need it.

If this is a ground floor bathroom, then the pipe in the floor may be
an old salt glaze earthenware type. These usually have a wider
diameter socket where the cement is. On runs of this type of pipe
underground these were used to fit the pipes together with a wrapping
of sacking and grease to locate and seal the connection, followed by
mortar to finish the job.
If salt glaze is what you have, be a bit careful with the hammer
because it does crack rather easily. It doesn't matter too much if
the collar breaks away a bit because the adaptor is going to fit into
the main bore of the pipe anyway. You want to try to avoid breaking
a section of the main bore of the pipe away if you can.








..andy

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