"Lobster" wrote in message
...
About a month ago I started the following thread, asking for help on how
to sort out a leaking soil pipe:

http://tinyurl.com/b85ll

...which culminated in:

Lobster wrote:

fred wrote:

Right dave get on with it then ;-)

Thanks again! Yes I suppose I'd better, hadn't I! I won't be able do
so now until early next week (don't worry, soil pipe is now out of
service!) so stand by for panicked cries for help after I've cut the
pipe and it turns out that all assumptions made were wrong.... ;-)

Well, here I am finally, with panicked cries for help!

The 'steel' soil downpipe has turned out to be copper, extraordinary
though that may seem. I cut through it about 3' from the floor, and was
able to pull the end out from the busted clay pipe which I cleaned up.
However, the OD of the copper pipe is 93mm (ID of the clay pipe it fits
into is 95mm), and I cannot find any kwickfit type device to fit it.
The PMs I've been to sratch their heads and suggest I rip the whole lot
out and replace with modern plastic, which I'd really rather not: would
be a lot of work (the pipe goes right up through the first floor and
throught the roof.

I need to seal one end of the copper pipe to the clay pipe, and
rejoin/seal the other end back to the fixed copper pipe, where I cut it.

I could probably sort out the base by making shuttering around it and
filling with lots of mortar - as someone said I should have done in the
first place :-( - but that leaves the problem of rejoining the cut ends.

This pipe is internal to the house, and permanently boxed in, so the
solution has to be a good one - can't risk leaks or seal failure.

Would be eternally grateful for any ideas!
David

I'm not sure I fully understand your situation, but as one poster has
mentioned,
you could get a stick of plumber's solder a a greasy rag and make a 'wiped'
joint between the two lengths of copper pipe, as long as you can access the
pipe easily through 360 degrees.

For the copper pipe to clay, it depends on the situation, but here is an
idea that
might work. Get a glazed clay pipe-to-plastic adapter ( B&Q, £4.50 ) which
connects into
the flanged end of the clay pipe by being cemented in position. Then, on the
other
end of the adapter put a plastic-to-glazed clay pipe adapter (£9). This
mimics the
large flanged end of a glazed clay pipe. The beauty of that is that the
central hole
is 100mm, so you can slide your copper pipe down the centre of it, then
connect
the two by filling the flange with mortar. If you find it hard to visualise,
the two adapters I'm
talking about will form what is in effect a very short length of glazed clay
pipe, only in plastic,
and able to be fixed to clay pipes just like it is one. Of course, you have
copper at one end,
but my soil system outside had a glazed clay pipe joined with mortar direct
to a 4" cast
iron soil pipe and that was sound for 65 years.

Another adapter that may be of use is the universal waste adapter, which
fits
plastic fittings on one end, and the other is about 90mm diameter with a
rubber
multiple flange seal. This could be used to concoct another sort of
solution. For
instance, it will adapt your clay pipe to plastic, and it will also adapt
your copper
pipe to plastic in all probability.

Thyere are 100mm rubber cast-iron to plastic adapters etc, but I don't know
if they'll
shrink to 93mm.

Andy