Rental Rehab replacing cast iron pipe

Rental Rehab replacing cast iron pipe

Flipper · Elk Grove, CA · Member since 2015 · 11 posts · 1 vote

Bought a 2 bedroom 1 bath house that I'm fixing up, and planning to rent.   I'm building an addition to add a third bedroom and bath (master bedroom with onsuite) and a laundry room. 

The house was built in 1950, and much of it is still original.   The kitchen was original.  The bathtub is original.   My question is primarily about replacing the cast iron plumbing.   The bathtub drain was clogged, I snaked it out a couple times and got it draining again.  The house has a crawlspace.

I had to cut open the floor to get into the crawlspace, as the vent openings were not big enough to fit though only 12 inches.  Plumbers must have been midgets in the 1950's?   It does appear the plumbing has been untouched since it was built?

The issue is the drain lines from the tub and show and bath sink connect into a lateral

that tee's into the toilet drain that goes into the sewer downpipe.  It looks like this lateral run has settled over the 50 years and is now LOWER than the tee, and I think this is where the tub drain was clogged.   I'm thinking this is just going to clog up again as the drain isn't 'draining', but has a low spot.   So I'm thinking I need to just replace ALL of this cast iron pipe while I'm rehabing before renting it, and having to fix a bigger problem in the future.

Or should I just leave it be and fix any issue when it happens?   I will need to tie into the stack for the addition's plumbing, so I'll need to get in there already, but don't need to replace all of it.

0Reply
25 views

3 Replies

Jump to latestLatest
  • Member since 2016 · 13k+ posts · 12k+ votes
    10y

    Replace everything, drain and feed lines with PEX and PVC/ABS .

  • Investor · Lake Worth, FL · Member since 2014 · 378 posts · 184 votes
    10y

    Im doing the same thing here in south Florida.  my rehab is built in the 60's and is cast iron also.  When cutting thru the floor for adding a second bathroom I exposed the pipe and it was cracked and corroded.  I dug it out to the outside of the house and exposed all the bad pipe.  about 30 feet and will be replacing it with PVC on Monday.  actually glad it happened so I could correct it before everything was finished because I dont have a crawl space.  It will not get better only worse.  Good luck.  

  • Rental Property Investor · Cedar City, UT · Member since 2016 · 209 posts · 45 votes
    10y

    hello,

    It is best to fix the problem before you have renters in there. There is something that we do. You can locate someone with a sewer camera. They can then look at the inside of the pipes. Old cast iron sometimes collects rough deposits (like rust) and it builds up over time and this causes clogs. If the pipes are clear you can leave them alone. Then you can raise the lowered portion, that you were talking about, and see if that fixes it. Or you can go with replacing that section with ABS & no-hub bands, or replacing all of it.

       When connecting your new addition you don't need to connect under the house, you can tie into the line that is coming out of the house before entering the sewer/ septic tank. 

    Just some ideas for you.

    Jacob

Join the conversationCreate a free account to reply, vote on answers and follow this thread.