"Lobster" wrote in message
...
Got a bit of a problem with a leaking soil pipe and would appreciate
some advice...

I have a boxed-in, steel (not cast iron) soil pipe, which feeds into
what I assume to be the top of a clay drain pipe at ground level (ie,
inside the house). Sort of like this...


steel soil pipe
| |
| |
| | | |
-----|__|_ _|__|------------ground level
| |
| |
| |
| |
| | clay drain


The gap/interface between the steel and clay pipes had been plugged and
sealed with mortar, but this had cracked (radially), and there's been
quite a bit of slow leakage within the boxing over time (fair bit of wet
rot).

I've tried to gently chip out the mortar 'interface' in order to reseal
it with new mortar, but not unsurprisingly have managed to bust the clay
pipe. That is itself embedded in concrete - see
http://tinyurl.com/ap2fg for a photo of the current situation! (there's
also a new crack now, just visible at the 3 o'clock position).

At this point I really don't know what the hell to do. Digging out the
broken clay pipe

Is the pipe broken below floor level ? If not try to cut it off with and
angle grinder to restore a clean edge and then go off to your local
specialist plumbing merchants and they will sell you a 'precision fit' (i.e.
hammer job) fixing which slides inside and provides a new fresh standard
ring connector on the other end. Of course this will be for PVC pipe so
you'll then need to convert this to the steel pipe which hopefully they can
also provide.