Not car related part 2..... Anyone a plumber???

[kamaroman68]

Hey everyone have an interesting problem. When flushing upstairs toilet(2nd floor) I am getting water running down the outside of the pipe in the basement. This pipe is manifolded to the bathtub and sink in the same bathroom. Now when I run the sink or shower/bathtub the pipe does not leak but when I flush the toilet it does. Did a lot of troubleshooting and figured it had to be a leak on the vertical pipe going into the basement. I figured it would be a glued fitting. I was right about the location of the leak in the vertical pipe.... hairline crack in the 4" pvc drain line. Now the problem is fixing it.... This 4" pipe runs between 2 x 4 studs and is sandwiched on either side with drywall. The drywall touches the 4" pipe all the way down the wall as a 2 x 4 is not truly 2 x 4. This leaves no room for a coupler or union. Is there anything made for something like this??? sorry so long. Chris

[twosaturns]

sounds like you'll be bustin drywall, unless you can drop the whole pipe down and slide a new pipe up in there. 2 ways to join PVC: big fat rubber connectors, or glue in new PVC connectors.
I'm surprised there is a crack, unless it got banged up or something. did it get hammered on, or was there work going on near the pipe?

[parsonsj]

Chris,

You'll have to fix this with rubber repair sleeves that slide on the pipe. I think that means you'll have to space the drywall out 1/2" or so to clear the rubber sleeves. I'd make damned sure the repair is good before re-installing drywall.

Good luck.

jp

[kamaroman68]

Guys thanks for the responses. So i was talking it over with our ex-union plumber this morning at work. He said the same thing as 2Saturns.... he has never seen schedule 40 pipe crack unless it was frozen. So we talked further and he asked if someone was maybe banging on something or the wall in which i replied no. Then he said something that struck a chord... he said the only thing he has ever seen is a puncture of some sort ie drywall screw/ nail. At first I thought he was crazy than i started thinking about it and right above my toilet there is a picture that has a screw holding it to the drywall. This screw has been there since we moved in we just hung our own picture on it. He/We think that maybe the screw went into the pipe way back when. The screw sealed the hole it made while going in. 18 years later of showering/ flushing the toilet rusted out the screw and voila we now have this leak. Now i am not saying this definitively because i am still at work but it makes the most sense at this point. Wish me luck. Chris

[kamaroman68]

Alright guys so my ex union plumber was correct big props to him. previous home owner hung a picture in my downstairs (1st floor) bathroom in the center of the wall above the toilet. Exactly where the 4" drain pipe runs. Perfect 1/8" hole directly in the center of the pipe. The drywall actually touches the pipe making this leak even harder to find. Thanks all for the help. Chris