Drainage

[Aries25au]

Hope someone can help plz
I am renovating the bathroom and would like to chnage the old drainage pipes which I believe are terracota pipes as the house is about a 1950's. Is there any way or type of pipe\hose that I can use or push down thru the old pipes .......too save digging and ripping apart bathroom floor and outside concrete?

Adivce in advance is thanked greatly

[Pulse]

Why do you want to change them?

You can't change them without diging them up. PVC is the modern replacement for Drain, Waste and venting.

cheers
pulse

[ozwinner]

I cant see why you couldnt slip some 90mm plastic pipe down inside of the old 100mm terry cotter pipe.

You have to have a clear run to insert the new pipe though.

Im curious too as to why you have to change it?

Al

[Aries25au]

just thinking of doing it as I find that the drainage from shower is slow...so thought would be a good idea. Do you think it isnt?

[ozwinner]

just thinking of doing it as I find that the drainage from shower is slow...so thought would be a good idea. Do you think it isnt?

It could be tree roots and if it is you wont get the plastic pipe down the TC pipe.
I would be contacting a plumber with a camera to see what the problem is, it might be cheaper in the long run.

You could try some Rootex down the drain and see which trees die from it.

Al

[journeyman Mick]

If it's not draining well now, then slipping some pipes in which effectively reduces the bore of the pipe will make the flow worse, presuming you could do this, which you can't. Sometimes problems have easy workarounds, this isn't one of those times, I'm afraid.

Mick

[OBBob]

I agree above ... just call a plumber with a snake to clear it out in the first instance. A few little tree roots make a huge difference.

[joe greiner]

Yes and no. If there are tree roots intruding, I don't think a snake will get them. You'd need a rotary cutter, ala RotoRooter. Any inserted replacement will have to be beyond the traps. There's a product/process (in USA, might be in Oz too) whereby a fiberglass sock is inflated (by water, I think) to fit against the inside of the old pipe. (Still must be cleared of roots and such.) Then they inject some sort of resin to make a plastic pipe in place. Purpose of this is to prevent re-invasion by roots. Periodic rotary cutting might be more cost-effective, though.

Joe

[Border boy]

Our place was built in the eary 50's. We have experienced issues similar to yours.Line was cleared a couple of times with snake & cutter, but blockage came back. We discussed replacing sewer line with our plumber. A camera investigation revealed that most of the line was clear & sound but the area that was causing our blockages had been invaded by tree roots. We had just that section replaced 4 years ago & have had no problems since.
I like your idea though, our local council upgraded the local sewer mains recently & I quizzed the guys when they were out the front of our place. They pulled a fairly rigid flattened pipe liner, that was softened by high pressure steam to the next access point 100 metres up the road. When it was in place they inflated it with the same steam pressure unit, effectively lining the old earthenware sewer mains. Sounds like an opening for some enterprising person to do the same with domestic situations.
Cheers & Good luck.

[OBBob]

Yes and no. If there are tree roots intruding, I don't think a snake will get them.
Joe

Maybe I was using the wrong name ... but the plumber did teh tree roots in my sewerage pipe with what he called a snake. It has a long flexible metal tube that spins as it is fed down the pipes. You can put different attachments on the end ... one of which easily cut through our tree roots.

I guess it depends on the size of the roots ... but they only have to be whispy little roots and thy act like a sieve and clog up with hair etc. ... then the blockage becomes much worse very quickly.