The stack replacement was a pretty intense thing. When we saw that the stack needed replacing in the home inspection we figured that they could cut it and install a stretch of PVC or at worst replace more of the stack above ground.. This was not really the case. As you can see in the picture below, the corrosion was pretty close to the ground. This meant that they needed to dig up some of the floor and replace the part of the stack that was below ground.
So we called a plumber and he came by and told us the stack above was in good shape and us a very reasonable quote for replacing the section of stack, however he said the pipe downstream of the stack was also probably very old and might need replacing as well. We crossed our fingers and hoped that this was not the case because this would be a very expensive item. After replacing the bottom of the stack it looked good and we were hoping that would be all we needed but when the head plumber showed up with his fancy video scope and brought us down to look at the pipe it got a little scary... turns out at some point a section of the clay pipe had shifted and now did not completely align with the following section, this shift in turn caused sewage to be leaking into the ground and water and sediment to build up inside the pipe. So we bit the big bullet and got the whole remainder of the clay pipe replaced.
It was hard to take pictures while they were working but here are a few that I managed to take:
After the first section of the stack was replaced with PVC.
The beginnings of the massive trench that stretched across our basement.
The stack and the section of pipe that they originally removed
Pieces of pipe from phase 2 of the replacement, mmm what is that thing on the end of the pipe...
Yep that's some kind of plastic bottle embedded in concrete on the end of one of the pipes... I don't even want to know what the purpose of this was.
Above are our shiny new cleanouts. They barely poke out of the ground. I wish we had a picture of the rusty old breather for comparison... Knowing the expense/inconvenience of doing this type of repair I think we will consciously avoid houses with old stacks/breathers next time we house hunt, or ask for a credit off the price (not that we are house hunting any time soon). It's definitely a hidden cost that we didn't know about.
Above is our new stack and trench all cemented back in. The cement has dried quite a bit since this was taken.
3 comments:
Is it sad that I saw 'Stack replacement' and immediately thought of memory?
Ah man, painful. I was google searching for "replace sewage stack toronto" to try to find people who went through it and see quotes. Unfortunately, this is next for us and I'm trying to swallow the expensive pricetag that comes with it.
Hi Michelle. Good luck with your stack replacement. www.247reno.ca did a similar repair and got a better price than we did. I can't remember off hand who they used but you should be able to find it in their blog.
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