I’m painting my bathroom, and in the process, took out all the hardware. The toilet’s closet gasket was an extremely old cast iron number, the kind that was sealed on with melted lead. It was cracked nearly in half, and everything I read about it online said that it would be best to remove it and put in a new one.
After a good deal of drilling out the lead to break the seal, I’m now ready to replace the gasket. However… It would seem there’s nothing at the hardware store that would currently fit in there. I have a 3" PVC pipe coming in from the wall on which to put the gasket. Fine - the hardware store has a 3" gasket. The problem is that the gasket is about 4-5" long, with a rubber gasket at the bottom of it, and the pipe coming in from the wall goes down about 2.5" and takes a 90 degree turn to the wall.
Do they make a product that is either a) shorter or b) follows a 90 degree curve?
If not, can I cut this gasket to size (removing the rubber seal in the process), and attach it with copious amounts of sealing caulk?
If I were to call in a plumber, what would HIS solution be?
Hi ya im assuming the drain pipe is 3 inch you might be able to put an adjustable closet flange in the pipe this fitting fits inside the pipe and the flange compresses inside the pipe using allen wrench set screwshttp://www.homedepot.com/catalog/productImages/300/e8/e8607c76-2ba1-4b0a-b309-7e4b3315673a_300.jpg
Something’s not adding up here. I can’t imagine how a cast iron toilet flange would be attached to PVC without melting the pipe.
There are PVC flanges that are solvent-welded to the pipe like any other fitting. There’s also a beast called a flange repair kit that might be useful if your local shop has them.
As for what a plumber’s solution would be and what they’d do goes - they’d have just about every conceivable part, fitting and option in their truck, along with the knowledge of how to put them all together.
When I put a PVC into my cast iron pipe (drain stack) I used a product that was essentially burlap floss (?) with a lot of cement dust embedded. Wet it, pack it down good around the PVC pipe, and let it harden.
However, the cast iron pipe opening was a “bulb” designed to be a socket to receive another length of iron pipe which would slide in 2 inches or more; since iron is about 3/8 in to 1/2 in thick, and PVC 1/8, this left a substantial gap around the ouside edge of the PVC to fit this cement seal. Since it was a vertical drain stack, it was obviously not designed with flex or movement in mind.
Not sure if this this is the appropriate seal for a horizontal or angled pipe joint, but possibly this is how you would seal PVC to cast iron. IIRC there’s some sort of epoxy goop that does the same trick. Otherwise, the standard connector for dissimilar pipes is a ruber segment with screw clamps on both ends.
Ask your hardware store like home depot, take pictures of what you have with ruler or other size indicator(s).
Well, I think that’s what happened here. It was a typical cast-iron fitting, where they put the burlap batting down around the pipe between the flange, and then melt lead into that gap. The burlap prevents the lead from dripping (too much) down into the space below, and lead hardens quick enough to not (entirely) melt the PVC.
What happened - I think - is that the PVC melted a little bit, and shrunk from the tight fitting. The 3" pipe shrank down to about 2 15/16", just enough to make this fitting a right bitch.
With Mike from Home Depot’s blessing, I found a short 3" flange fitting, and sanded it down to fit. That sucker isn’t going to budge.