By the way, a Ridgid 226 heavy-duty chain cutter sells for $436. The general rule of thumb on rentals is 10% of cost, so you could be able to rent it for less than $50 a day.
If you’re going to cut up a lot of cast iron, you can do all the pipe in a house in less than one day, pretty easily.
BTW, your last photo shows a clean-out that looks like it was inaccessible. When you re-plumb this, you may as well install a clean-out that you can get to if you ever need to snake out the line.
Looking at the pictures again, you cannot just replace the cast iron in the wall that has been opened. You have a Y at the bottom, and as Dag Otto correctly pointed out, a useless clean-out. If you cut above the Y and attach a Fernco, you still have the useless clean-out. But there is not enough pipe below the Y to attach anything. And you cannot chisel out the lead and oakum at the top of the Y and put in PVC - again, the only acceptable connection between cast iron and PVC is a Fernco.
You could, in theory, strap the upper T in place with plumber’s strap (mandatory - there is a lot of weight involved and you have to keep it from moving) cut the silver painted pipe, work the joint off, and put a Fernco to connect to the new PVC. But I wouldn’t. I’d cut open the ceiling and put a new floor flange for the toilet. You’re going to have to re-seat the toilet after fiddling with the cast iron and it is going to break the wax seal.
Any work you do risks causing additional damage, and - again, if this were my house - I’d remove every bit of cast iron possible, going all the way down to the concrete in the basement. The PVC costs nothing compared to the cost of patching the walls. You want to do that once, and only once.
Yes, I think I used the Torch blade that was made to cut that type of material. I wouldn’t cut them in 2 ft sections as it’s not that heavy but I’d have to weigh the number of cuts via sawzall versus a rented chain cutter. I thought I was in for a real battle but it cut right through it. I only had to make 3 cuts and only one of them was the size we’re discussion.
The sawzall blade is half the cost of the chain cutter so depending how many cuts is necessary that would be the deciding factor.
Interesting how threads like this go on for 2 dozen posts with never a peep out of the OP. I does look like smoke is checking out our posts.
Connecting PVC to belled cast is a problem I have never needed an answer to. My bet is that somebody does have an answer. Hermann, md2000, and Rick all 3 seem to have different solutions. Might want to use schedule 40 to connect and not the lighter DWV.
I always put more weight on the posts claiming to have done it than the ones saying it can’t be done. Same with the Sawsall.
Hate to disagree, but you most certainly can dig out the lead and oakem and replace the old cast iron with a schedule 40 test tee. Just go get a 4" Ty-Seal gasket and lubricant. I’ve done this many times and it works like a charm. I’m curious as to why you say it can’t be done.
I stand corrected. I’ve never run across those before, and have never used one.
Out of curiosity, how is this done? I was thinking of replacing the actual pipe with more cast iron but when I put a chisel to the leaded material it appeared to be a substantial amount of work. I quickly abandon this for the rubber seal connector.
Also, as it applies to the op’s project, if the entire stack isn’t removed is it possible to work in a PVC pipe without a rubber gasket?
Before chiseling on the lead, get a 1/4 inch drill bit and drill a bunch of holes into it. If your bit is too short it might get into a bind between the hub and the pipe and break, so have extra bits handy…the longer the better. After the holes are drilled you can dig it out with a long skinny flat-tipped screwdriver. There is a groove just inside the hub, so be sure to dig the lead out of that out, too. That’s the groove the rubber gasket needs to seat in in order to work right. The bad news is that you’ll need to get rid of the pipe above the hub…leave a piece about a foot long that you can grab hold of and wiggle around in circles to flatten any leftover lead. Personally, I’d just take a hammer and break it offabove the cleanout wye. The fitting end that goes into the hub isn’t flat, but has a small knobby end that holds the oakem when you pack it, so be sure to dig the old oakem out. The only way I know of to connect PVC back into the hub without using the gasket is to use lead wool. The problem with this is that you’d need to get some oakem, also, and a lead packing iron. Believe me, the Ty-Seal gasket is the easiest way to go. Any plumbing supply house should have it. I’ve been a licensed plumber since 1985 and there’s no way I’d have cast iron in my house.
Oh, I also read above where somebody noted that the cleanout wye you have now is useless. True, but with the pipe being painted I’m led to believe that at one time the pipe was exposed and not enclosed in a wall. Doesn’t make any sense to paint a pipe that’s going to be in a wall.