I am from a small town in Texas, and have contacted several plumbers to have repairs done in my home, and have not been able to get anyone to even come look at the problem, so am going to try to do it myself. I dug out the lines under my house and have found a broken line(1 1/2"going in to the 4" main line. It is broken pretty close to the main line, so a splice will not work. I would like to replace it with pvc, but am unsure how to go about removing what is left of the old pipe, or how to attach pvc to it. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

you need a sawzall and a couple of real good metal cutting blades for thick metal.
you cut the cast back as far as you have to so you get to good pipe.
join the cast to the plastic with the appropriate sized sheilded rubber couplings.

lastly, check the size of the pipe as 1 1/2 inch cast iron would be very rare. more than likely it is 2 inch.

If you can show us a picture we will be better able to help you. It may even be galvanized piping, you might be able to unscrew the broken stub.

Pictures would help us to help you.
Best Wishes

It looks to me like it is all collared cast iron. You are probably right about the size; it was a guess. I will try to get pictures today or tomorow; I am down in my back and some days are worse than others. Appreciate your input, i will let you know how it goes.



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Ok, I managed to get a couple of pics from the access hole above it. The 4" mainline is submerged, I believe water from the shower is flowing back out of the break. I will post images as soon as i figure out how......

As you can see, the pipe hase about a 2" long hole in the side, just before it goes in to the collar. I intend to replace everything after the break with pvc, as the shower, bathroom sink, washing machine drain, and dishwasher drain are all serviced by this particular piece of pipe. My question is, can I remove what is left of the broken pipe from the collar? And how do i attach pvc to that collar if i can? If not, i will have to replace the 2' section of 4"(not in pic, submerged)



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that sure is 'bell and spigot' cast iron.
sad to say that you have quite a project ahead of you..

That doesn't sound good. Open for suggestions....

you need to dry that all up, disinfect the area, remove as much dirt as necessary to expose the pipe back to where it is not rotted and get us some better quality pictures so we can advise you on how to proceed.

Above are a couple of better pics of what I have to work with. The 2 sections of the vent pipe are also cracked and i will need to replace them as well; the top one is also the toilet tie in. My biggest concern atm is the hole in the 2" pipe. Need to fix it first, then in process replace the other 2 pieces. Please let me know your thoughts; any help or guidance will be greatly appreciated.

in the first of the 2 new pictures i see some plastic pipe coming in from the left.
for a homeowner repair you could extend that pipe a little, put a sanitary tee in it to pick up what ever is coming down. use a rubber coupling on the vertical pipe to tie it into the existing 2 inch plastic. now extend the 2 inch plastic into the opening of the "Y" to the right.
i think i would just stick the plastic into the cast iron and (seriously) duct tape it to stop the big awful leak for now.
you are a homeowner who can't get any plumbers to help so for now do the best you can.
once that open pipe is patched you can dry things up and remove some sludge and get a grasp on the severity of your problem.

I still have the piece that came off of that pipe. Maybe clean up the pipe and the piece that came off, jb weld it and wrap with some fiberglass type heat shrink to patch it for now untill i can get it dried out and dug out some more?

Not a plumber but that's what I would do as an emergency temp fix.

First I would spray bleach everywhere to disinfect.

I would probably put that piece back then wrap a few layers of fiberglass cloth over the pipe after cleaning up any loose materials. JBWELD makes an epoxy called waterweld that supposedly would cure when wet. I might try mixing the two part epoxy up and coat all around the hole and around the pipe.

Wait for the sewage water to dry up then either call a plumber to fix it right or bite the bullet yourself - looks challenging with so many fittings.