So my home has (had) a cast iron main stack which turns horizontal under the basement floor as cast iron.

According to my neighbors, we all have Orangeburg pipe from the houses to the sewer under the street. (Built in 1957)

Two questions:

1. Where does the cast transition to Orangeburg? Under the basement, or just outside the house? Or somewhere else?

2. Everything is still working fine - should I preemptively have the Orangeburg replaced now, or wait til it fails?

The reason I ask is I need to remodel my basement this year, and so this is the time to break thru the floor if I need to get underneath to replace the Orangeburg.

Thanks for any advice!



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Everything is still working fine - should I preemptively have the Orangeburg replaced now, or wait til it fails?

Yes, if it really is orangeburg, replace it now. Orangeburg is just rolled up tarpaper. If it hasn't failed yet, it's a miracle.



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I agree about replacing it. Your Cast Iron should penetrate your footings by a couple of feet before it changes to Orangeburg.

For what its worth. The 4 or 5 I have replaced only had cast at the stack and then about 8 to 10 ft. Then changed to orangeburg before it went out the foundation. But these were crawl spaces and dont know if the practice was different for an actual basement.
If it was me I would go ahead and get a drain cleaning service to camera the line. To see what you have and the condition.