Plumbing Nightmare
 The cracked waste pipe in our living room wall, coming down from the second floor bathroom
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 The waste pipe where it connects to the toilet, with the cement that encased it already removed, viewed from the living room below
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 The old toilet, removed
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 The clamp that we attached to the vent section of the pipe, in the 3rd floor bedroom
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 We had to cut open the bedroom wall to attach the clamp to the pipe
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 The pipe with the clamp attached
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 Jimmy cutting the cracked section of the pipe in the living room
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 After we replaced the cracked pipe, we made a temporary PVC connection for the tub drain so we could at least use the shower. You can see there’s no framing at all to support the toilet
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 In addition to being poorly framed, what framing was near the toilet was rotted, so it all had to go. Bye bye to my new tile floor
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 New framing in place, as seen from below. Working around all the old pipes was a challenge.
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 The new subfloor, matched to the height of the existing subfloor
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 The finished framing and completed plumbing work. The shims are for lining up new drywall with the existing ceiling
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 The new waste pipe. I took the opportunity to put in new insulation too
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 The new subfloor, with the waste pipe roughed in (and some mortar to patch the gap on the side)
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 Setting the new tiles. They blended in nicely with the existing tiles
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 Eidan trying out the new toilet
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 The finished floor and new toilet. The blue pad at the bottom is something we picked up in Japan – for catching little boy pee.
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Like many other horrible things in life, it started simply enough, with a small, barely noticeable water stain on the living room wall. It was near the bottom of a window, and the downspout above that window was clogged, causing water to pour down on the glass during heavy rain, so I figured it was a window leak. I took the downspout apart and cleaned it, and put some extra caulk around the window. But the water stain only grew bigger. That spot also happened to be below the toilet in the 2nd floor bathroom, which got me worried.
So I cut a small hole in the living room wall, and could immediately see that the waste pipe from the toilet was cracked. My neighbor Jimmy is a plumber, so I asked him to take a look. “Cut the wall open from floor to ceiling!” he said. I did that and then brought him back again – he made some ominous sounds and then said “cut open the ceiling under the toilet!” The crack ran most of the length of the pipe, and the connector to the toilet looked like its days were numbered too.
I spent a day with Jimmy, removing the cracked section of the pipe. Before we could do that though, we had to cut a hole in the wall in our 3rd floor bedroom, so we could put a clamp on the pipe (it continued all the way to the roof – once above the toilet it serves as a vent). Otherwise it would have collapsed down on top of us in the living room when we cut it.
What ended up taking a long time was removing the section of pipe in the ceiling that connected to the toilet. The entire pipe was encased in concrete, and we had to be careful chipping it out because the water supply line for the toilet ran right above it, and was also covered in concrete. It was like an archeological dig, except over our heads. To make matters worse, once we removed the board that was under the concrete and finished removing the concrete, there was nothing to support the toilet anymore.
It was too much work to finish in one day. We replaced the cracked pipe, and at the end of the day made a temporary connection for the tub drain, so we could at least take showers until the rest of the work was finished (we only have one shower in the house).
The joists in the floor around the toilet were rotted – I could tear out pieces of them with my hands. I ended up having to completely tear out a 3ft x 3ft section of the bathroom floor/living room ceiling. I tried not to cry as I smashed up the new tile floor I had put in the bathroom just a couple years ago 
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Putting in the new framing wasn’t too difficult, but getting the subfloor in was a huge pain. I had to get it dead even with the existing floor, and work around where the new toilet waste pipe would be, the existing water supply line for the toilet, and two pipes from the radiator system. I’m proud to say I got it exactly right: the only thing distinguishing the new tile from the old tile is that the new grout is a fresher shade of white.
We took the opportunity to put in a new water-efficient Toto toilet. It has two flush buttons, one of which uses half as much water as a regular flush. Our water bill has dropped significantly since we put it in.
Now I can get back to the project I had started just before all this happened: tiling the fireplace and hearth, and installing a new fireplace mantle.
March 6th, 2009 at 9:43 am
Similar thing happened to us with the half bath under our extension. Luckily we were able to do it all through a crawl space.
First six months in the house had this and a busted HVAC. Joy!
I can see the MLS listing now. New HVAC half bath no longer outhouse.
May 28th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
It loos like you did a good job, but the nightmare wasn’t all that bad. I see these things on a regualr basis and many people put off the repair for as long as they can. The result is a mess of mold, mildew and dry rotted lumber in the home. The plumbing bills for this kind of work are only moderate (okay they are still high), but the secondary damages typically run into the tens of thousands of dollars. Good job.