Adventures in Home Renovation - Kitchen Cast Iron to PVC Drain

When it comes to mid-century houses, #castiron was the thing. Really it was the thing since the 18th century, but if you have a house pre-1970s in the US, there's a good chance you have cast iron drains. Here in South Florida we certainly do, and a few weeks ago I discovered the drain from our sink was leaking. Not a lot, but as soon as you see a leak you know in a house from the early 50s you're looking at end of life issues.

Video of the replacement process.

The great thing is, our kitchen right now is non-existent, a series of pieces of furniture doubling as storage and cabinets, with most of the concrete floor exposed and half the plaster walls already removed, waiting until we can afford the kitchen remodel. That remodel mind you, has higher priorities preempting its immediate attention, including paying off the air conditioner; the house did not have one when we moved in, and it above almost all else seemed like the most pressing need down here; and installing storm windows. The jalousie windows we have, even though we lined them with plexiglass and covered them in black out curtains, means our house leaks as much cool air as the corroding cast iron pipes we replaced.

When the plumber came out to take a look, he thought our leak would be at the joint between the copper and the cast iron, but we removed the rest of the plaster wall covering the drain stack and found that it was not the copper pipe, but the main cast iron drain leading from the kitchen to the back yard. In discussing prices, that same plumber, whose boss apparently set the price over the phone, quoted $4500 for the job. Then the discussion became, okay, well, that's not going to work, so what if we do all the prep work for you and all you have to do is replace the copper pipes for the sink and the cast iron connection and drain? That got us down to $2000, which fell a bit further with some haggling, but still landed at $1600. That too seemed overpriced, but for our first foray into dealing with old piping, it hurt, but it hurt a lot less than the original quote.

The video takes you through the physical steps: uncovering the piping, determining the leak and then freeing the pipe. That part was new and pretty fun using a hand held demo hammer. I couldn't hurt anything, except if I hit the pressurized lines, which I was careful not to do. Otherwise I wasn't too worried about the cast iron pipe since it was coming out anyway. I was concerned about the stack above, that goes through the ceiling, falling, but when I did cause it to fall, the copper pipes in the wall that connected to the sink, held the weight overnight until the plumber returned.

As you can see, at the end, we have a lovely, clean, PVC stack and kitchen drain, that should hopefully last 70 years. Since the kitchen is still just our temporary solution, I couldn't bear to show the sink reconnected. But don't worry, when we renovate the kitchen I will share all the unfinished details. In the mean time, I am worrying about the bathroom drains, as well as the drain that connects to the main city line. Hopefully, they will wait until we renovate the bathroom. C'mon cast iron - hold out for a couple more years:)