Update on "The Dig"

The indoor portion of the sewer replacement effort has turned into a project in itself. As expected, Mark (indoor plumbing) came by early this morning to discuss the path forward. The cast iron laterals to the east room sink drain, the bathroom and the washer drain are all kaput. Looking at them this morning, all that is left of the piping is the hole itself.

Laterals to washer drain and east room sink drain.

Yesterday, we told "Jackhammer" John that we wanted to replace the line to the bathroom and were willing to abandon the east room sink. In place of the east room sink, we wanted to have provisions installed to install a new laundry sink in the west laundry room.

Sink in the east room (to be removed)

Mark's concerns this morning were in the bathroom. Replacing the lateral line to the toilet, sink and bathtub in the bath will require complete excavation of the bathroom floor. Due to the scope of this work, he felt certain the City would classify this as a "remodeling" project and not just a "repair". The distinction is significant. A remodeling job mandates that the completed facilities meet current code requirements. In addition to the unbudgeted costs associated with the underground piping replacement, we would also need to modify existing the bathtub and the vent piping to meet code.

Basement Tub

The tub is an ancient, ~ 300 pound, enameled cast iron, claw footed vessel. It has a water inlet nozzle only a couple of inches above the bottom of the tub. This was common in the tubs of this era, but it is completely illegal today. The decision we came to is to abandon the tub and make it disappear. We will probably replace the current sink and toilet at some time, but for now we will just re-install the current fixtures, moving them westward, along the brick wall, to conform to code spacing requirements. We will also have them install provisions for the future installation of a shower stall. I suggested T consider a sauna as an alternative to a shower.

Now, concerning the vent line. The current vent is 1-1/2" PVC pipe. That's fine except that current code requires the vent pipe to be at least one-half the diameter of the drain line which, by code, can be no smaller than 4". The current vent pipe ties onto the vent line at the washer drain, which goes up the interior of the south wall all the way to the roof. To meet code using this current route, we would have to replace the entire vent line through three stories to the roof. An alternative would be to tie the new 2" vent from the basement bathroom to the 2" vent coming off the first floor powder room. Yes, the same powder room we just finished remodeling over the past weekend. The tie-in would need to be at least four feet off the powder room floor. The only way to make this tie-in is to cut a hole in the wall, make the tie-in and then make repairs to the wall and T's new wallpaper. That's the plan for now.

The guys reconnected the main sewer line before they left so we can flush again. The house is full of the sickening sweet ketone stench of PVC cement. Tomorrow, they will be back again to work on the bathroom lateral and vent piping.

One further event in the basement today was the initial break through of "the bulge" in the concrete floor below the conservatory. "Jackhammer" John took a sledgehammer to it. There is definitely an air pocket under the bulge, but until more is broken out, we don't know how much of a project this will turn out to be. At a minimum, we will be pouring a new concrete floor. This may wait until the work on the bathroom is completed.