Advice for newbie on soil stack

[keepitlive]

Hi,
I’m a reasonably competent DIY’er looking to replace the existing soil stack at the back of my house. The background to this is that I want to install some bathroom furniture, but the internal soil pipe (which runs at right angles to the WC) is too high to fit under the base of the units. The bottom edge of the pipe is 4.5 inches from the floor and it needs to be just above floor level as it passes through the external wall.
My questions are:
1. Is there any mileage in my idea of bricking up the external skin of the wall, then using a coring bit to make a neat new hole, or should I concentrate on fitting the pipe and then make good round it as best I can? (this is what was done originally, and it looked as if a three year old had done it!). One problem I can foresee with my idea is that the bend of pipe that comes out of the wall won’t fit the neat new hole I had just drilled.

2. Should I use solvent or pushfit connections for the exterior stack? I know that some allowance should be made for expansion. At the moment, the only two pushfit joints that I can identify are the top of the WC branch and the top of the pipe coming out the ground.

3. Should the use of solvent weld be within the capabilities of a careful DIY’er?

4. Can you recommend a good make of pipe? The current make is Marley, but I’m not sure about the pipe coming out the ground. I’ve read that Marley has a reputation for not being compatible. Also, I’ll avoid FloPlast – I’ve seen some and it looks and feels rather cheap.

5. Can you spot any faults with the current installation and/or suggest any improvements?

Thanks for reading this far and thanks again in anticipation of any answer.

 

[Guest123]

I hate these types of jobs as when diyers make a pigs ear of it, they call in a professional to bale them out. Not a personal dig at you mate, but maybe you should have enrolled the services of a professional first and his/her advice would have saved you a lot of head scratching.

1/ Probably best to fit the pipe and spend some time making a neat job of the brick work, or get a local brickie to do it as such a small job would be cheap but done professionally.
2/Solvent or Pushfit are fine as long as they are correctly installed. Chamfer the end of pushfit pipe and lubricate the fitting with silicone lube before insertion.
3/Solvent is easy, but it's permanent and you can't dismantle the fittings again.
4/Marley is a good make. Buy the same make of fittings as the pipe and then it will be compatable! Avoid cheap foreign imports.
5/ Sorry but all that white stuff (silicone or glue?) looks awful. I don't use strap on bosses as they are rubbish. You could easily have 2 x 4" straights with bosses built in. Is that an overflow on your cistern? Assuming it is and it's a close couple WC then modern fittings have a internal overflow. If there was absolutely no way of shortening that horrible black pipe or hiding it from view by boxing it in and tiling it, I'd look at a corner fitting WC which hides everything as the cistern sits at right angles into the wall corner.

I'm assuming that you've informed building control if this is an extra or new installation into the existing soil stack? If not do so or you could end up with a major headache further down the line.

I still stand by what I said earlier. Undertaking such a job should at the very least involve consulting a professional.

 

[mjt]

dont think he did the original stuff by the sound of his thread

 

[Guest123]

dont think he did the original stuff by the sound of his thread

Yes mate, but consulting a local plumber first would save him a lot of heartache and in the long run money.

 

[mjt]

well i guess thats what he is trying to do now -

 

[mjt]

or make a silk purse out of a sows ear-

 

[keepitlive]

Sorry to disappoint you, but the absolute mess you can see in the photos was made by a so-called professional. We had a large first-floor extension built by a local builder - father and son were the bricklayers and they subcontracted other trades - the bricklaying and plastering were excellent, the electrics fine, but they seemed to have a blind spot with regard to the work done by their 'plumber'.
He was responsible for all the solvent smeared round the joints and also the (now removed) brick fragments jammed into the gaps and held together with mortar that looked as if it had been applied by fingers! The hole in the wall is down to me as I prepare to do a proper job of the bricks and the pipework. I have removed the top half of the stack and covered the top with duct tape until I start the job proper in a day or two.

I might only be a DIYer, but from what I have seen of the work of quite a few plumbers over the years, I reckon that I can do a better, albeit slower job than many! All I'm asking for on this forum is some decent advice to enable me to do the job correctly.

Far from getting professionals to 'bale me out', I have on quite a few occasions had to undo and/or redo work that I have paid for - and please don't assume that I get a bad job because I only want to pay peanuts - I look for a good reputation and recommendations above all else. It just seems to me that many tradesmen these days are not doing as good a job as perhaps they ought.

 

[mungo]

looks like you either need to renew the soil and bring it accross in line with your toilet soil (right angle straight in to the wall to hook up to you toilet soil) or possibly try an adjustable soil bend (very handy bit of kit, you can turn them to form the desired angle).

 

[Guest123]

The guy who did this was subcontracted by some other trade? I doubt it if the guy who did this was a qualified plumber, maybe a newbie with little experience.

 

[keepitlive]

Yes, I doubt he was qualified too, but he was certainly not a newbie. From what I remember of conversations at the time, he had been working with the builders for years - maybe he just had an off day or didn't like the look of me.

Mungo suggests using an adjustable bend (presumably near the bottom of the soil stack) to allow the main part of the stack to be moved to the right so that the pipe from the bathroom could join the external pipe at 90 degrees. Would this work or could it cause problems with flow?

Unfortunately I can't easily move the underground pipe as some steps and a patio have been built since they were laid.

 

[Guest123]

Should be fine if you can keep the radius of the bend as long as possible. If installed at an acute angle, you'll get blockages. The bends I use have a large central locking nut on them and are really useful. Try if possible to incorporate a rodding eye or access plate. If I lived a couple of hundred miles closer, I'd pop round and help!

 

[double d]

Well said!