60 year old cast iron sewer pipe

37 chief

Well-known Member
I have a house on the place that is about 70 years old. When Dad had it built Cast iron sewer pipe was about the only thing available. we have had plugged lines for the last 25 or so years. The main line stopped up. I called a plumber. A camera down the line indicated a blockage of some kind. For this he said we have to use our Hydro Jet, and blast out the pipe. A hour later the Hydro Jet truck pulls up. It's a small van. When the van door was opened up ,I was expecting to see a big diesel engine with a huge pump to blow out my line. What sites in the back of the van is a pressure washer. Connected to a 1/4 in. line with a nozzle to pressure out my line. What a disappointment . Today I purchased the line and fittings for 75.00 from Amazon. All I need is to connect the line to my pressure washer. Now I can do my own hydro blasting, and save several hundred dollars. Stan
 
Here is what i figured out. So cast iron pipe gets a rough texture inside so to speak form years of rust. Mix that with water saving toilets. It takes water to float the load down the pipe. With less water used on a flush, the load is floating lower and the toilet paper snags the roughness of the cast iron. It plugs the line. Long story short, there is nothing wrong with my line. Cameras tell me this. What i do is double flush and NO problem since. You decide.
 
In our area cast iron sewer pipe was required beneath the basement floor and out to the septic tank. Where the septic water sat in the line, it corroded badly to the point of collapse and complete blockage. Because of the acidic fumes from the septic tank, the pipe also rotted through where it entered the septic tanks. I have replaced all the iron pipe outside of the basement walls and footings with schedule 40 4" plastic pipe. So far I do not think the cast iron has failed beneath the basement floor. I built this house in 1972-3 and had these failures 10 to 15 years ago.

Paul in MN
 
Also use modest quality Paper. Charmin is so tough it will hang up and plug lines like facial tissue. Put a single sheet in water. in 3 minutes it should be so dissolved that it can't be picked up. Jim
 
My home was built in 1938 and the cast under the cement is still good. It is also good out to the new plastic at 50 feet from the foundation. My neighbor had the under the basement run plug up from rust flakes. Jetted it out and still has enough wall thickness. that home was built in 56. Jim
 

Yes, those work very well. I was going to hook a garden hose onto my hot water pressure washer in order to open up the frozen floor drain in my shop. I went to my friend that I bought it from for an adapter fitting. He gave me the tube and nozzle to use. Once I got it fed down the pipe it cleared it literally in seconds.
 
Jim, try to tell my wife about Charmin, she loves the Charmin Ultra Soft, good thing we live in a city and once the paper makes it to the street it is the city's problem. The city has a very good sewer maintenance routine and they run a robot with a camera down the lines regularly to determine where maintenance is required but of course we pay many $$ on our water and sewer charges.

Not to get off topic, cast iron sewer pipes were in the farm house where I grew up and they were installed by my uncle in the mid 1940s and were still good. When my brother and SIL took over the house in 2010 they removed all the existing plumbing and electrical and installed new bringing it up to the building code standard at that time as the insurance company would no longer insure the house with the old plumbing and electrical.
 
I have never understood how water saving toilets save water when you have to flush them three times to get it down.
 

I replaced all the cast iron in my house thru the years sink drain pipes were where bypassed with plastic. I went for the kill a few years ago removed it all put the drains back in the wall and replaced the vent pipes. The big reason I am still working and could fund it I did not want to deal with the issues as I age out of this world.

Everything you do to keep a cast system working in my opinion is throwing money away it is going to expire.
 
Back in 1968, when I was ten I helped Dad plumb a house that his friend was building.
All cast iron drain pipes with the lead an oakum packing in the basement.

One year later he started and built the new family home.I
Everything was then the new fangled pvc and cpvc.

Dad was not licensed nor trained in any of the trades but was not afraid of using the new products.
 

To make a jetter out of a pressure washer you will need the right nozzle. If you have roots I would recommend a Root Ranger. You also need to be careful to know where the nozzle is going - some rookie jetter operators have destroyed toilets or flooded rooms when the nozzle took a wrong turn.

Honestly though that cast is going to be trouble from now on if it is that degraded.
 
(quoted from post at 11:23:53 02/28/21)
To make a jetter out of a pressure washer you will need the right nozzle. If you have roots I would recommend a Root Ranger. You also need to be careful to know where the nozzle is going - some rookie jetter operators have destroyed toilets or flooded rooms when the nozzle took a wrong turn.

Honestly though that cast is going to be trouble from now on if it is that degraded.
guess some get lucky, as Mom & Dad built their house in 1927 and the cast iron to septic tank was still functional in 2000. Lateral lines were replaced at about mid-point.
 
10 years ago I took the Folk's house down. It had cast sewer pipes. I took a sledge hammer and broke them loose for salvage sure didn't take much to break them.
 
Many years ago I had a sewer company use hydro jet unit to clean out a basement drain. $300 and they went to town to rent the unit.

My blockage was about 100 feet away. I recall it had a rotary nozzle too.

May check into a diy rental place and see what it costs.
george
 

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