I hired a plumber to correct the slope on my 3" cast iron drain line. The pipes and no-hub couplings are several decades old.



He did fix the slope, but since he did not have new couplings on hand, he reused the old rubber. He also tightened some of the screws with an impact driver instead of the standard 60-80 in-lb no-hub torque wrench. I see a little bit of water seeping out from the joints now and I am concerned that this repair will not last very long.

My gut feeling is that years-old rubber seals/gaskets should always be replaced after taking something apart, because they'll never be 100% watertight again. But I'd like to see what the experts say. Is it standard practice to always replace them in this situation, or is it common to reuse the old hardware?

I have never re-used a no-hub coupling. A lot of the time I slice the rubber part so I can peel them off.

I have used an impact driver to tighten them, but always finish up with the torque wrench.

To re-use one, then have it leak, then have to re-do the job ? Not worth it in my book.

You 'hired' a plumber.

You paid a shoemaker.

The 'rubbers' are NEVER reused.

The screws MUST be torqued.