February 13, 2012

100 year old drains

The old houses in our neighbourhood have constant problems with basement flooding and sewer back-ups. It's a stinky, messy, expensive problem if it happens in a finished basement.  Usually the root of the problem is exactly that -- big old tree roots.  The old original drains are typically made of soft clay that are easy for the roots to get into, break apart, and block. 
With our basement currently unfinished, now's the perfect time for us to deal with all this unglamourous stuff.  We decided to replace the old cast iron stack while we were at it.  They are quieter than the newer plastic models, but it is really old and rusted and an extremely heavy weight to support.  We'll just make sure we insulate the new stack for sound.



That's the old clay pipe sitting to the side.  A few roots are visible but there were a lot more!  The white pipe is the new main drain that exits the house and hooks into the city system.  We also put in a cleanout just outside the house.  There wasn't one at all before.


We had to measure out and mark the basement layout on the concrete floor in order to place the new drains for the bathroom and laundry room.  Kind of neat to see it all laid out in spray paint on the floor.
We'll have to leave all this work open for the inspector to look over so this is the way it is going to be left until then.

 

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