I have some ABS sewer pipe that I need to take apart and replumb. There isn’t enough pipe between fittings to simply cut the offending fittings off and glue on new ones. What is the best way to dismantle ABS fittings?
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The glue that holds the fittings to the pipe melts the ABS together so there's no way to take them apart. You'll have to go all the way back to where the plumbing is good, cut the pipes there, and replace everything in between.
Actually you are wrong. At one of my local plumbing supplys, they sell a special tool to do just what he is talking about, & I have also seen 1 of my plumbers use it.
I can't remember the manufacturer or what they call it, but disassembly of abs/pvc fittings is just what it does.
disassembly of abs/pvc fittings is just what it does
If you get details next time you see this item, please post - I gotta see how one 'dissassembles' a solvent welded joint.
The way I remember it working , is it grinds out the inside of the hub on the fitting mechanically.
I have to buy a fuel oil tank in the next couple of days, I will go a few extra miles to purchase them at the supplier where I saw this tool, and update you.
Thanks to all who took the time to respond. JAYZOG recommended a reamer to clean out the fittings. I'm picking it up this afternoon. It is called a Ram Bit by Pasco. The guy at the plumbing shop said they work well.
Save your money. They only work in limited situations. On foam core they are a waste of time.
LOL
I have 'saved money' by brute force and even more time sticking a cutoff ABS fitting into my Clauson metal lathe to turn out the inside after cutting it off. Lots easier than a screwdriver as a chisel -= plus what did that say about the original joint?
I'd like to see what was 'inferred' - a device to pull apart solvent welded fittings from the pipe without damage to either, close to a time maching IMHO>
I guess I'm reading your original post wrong, you said that you didn't have enough pipe to use a fernco, but you have enough pipe play to glue a fitting in? Second part of the reply, the devices that the other posts were refering to only save the fitting [When they work] they don't save the pipe.Third part of the reply, most of the PVC and ABS joints are put together incorrect, thats why you can take them apart most of the time. If you got your scene working {May the brute force be with you]. Luck.
A- they don't work that good. B-If you are trying to add a fitting by glue and you don't have any play in the line, that won't work. I think we are dealing with an individual that dosen't have a lot of experience. The easy way is to go with fernco fittings.
Fitting Saver:http://www.wheelerrex.com/plastic_pipe3.html
You can cut out any part of sewer line by using fernco couplings. They will allow you to seal up a line that you don't have any play with. Put a little soap on them, it wil maken it easier. Luck.
2nds on the fernco
I have a T fitting pointing in the wrong direction. If I had enough meat on the pipe for a Fernco, I would also have enough meat for an ABS fitting.
I don't think I understand the post. Unless you have a couple of inches of play in the line there is no way you can install a glue type fitting. With a Fernco fitting you have to have approx. a piece of pipe the length of the fernco. I don't know any other way to do this. May luck be with you.
Cut the tee out on all three sides, buy a length of pipe and a new tee with 2 couplers and a fernco. Glue two sides and fernco in the last. $25 in material and 20 minutes in work. How hard can all that be? DanT
It can be quite hard. I plumbed the drains for a small bathroom a couple of years ago. The fixtures were closely grouped and the branch joined the main directly under the room. I had a group of 5 or 6 3" fittings all jammed together with very short nipples, and when tested there was a tiny pinhole leak right in the middle of that group--due to using lousy, low-VOC all-purpose ABS/PVC cement.
There was no way to fix just that one spot, with a Fernco or anything else. The only solution in that situation is to cut the group out, to the nearest points where there is at least 2-1/2 or 3" of exposed pipe, and start again from those spots. Oh, and the super-smelly dense-black Oatey ABS cement is what you want. Go to a plumbing wholesaler to get it... the local hardware places do not have it here.
A Fernco is not more useful in this situation than a regular hubbed fitting. If you do not have room for a hub you do not have room for a Fernco. A Fernco is great when you have to break into a line that has very little play--such as to install a wye for a new branch--because the Fernco can be slid into place on the pipe.
The last few times I've done ABS I have deliberately left space between fittings so that if I somehow get a leaker joint I can sawzall that fitting out and get a new one in with couplings or Ferncos.
I have probably repaired or replaced 50 or so sewer lines over the last 20 years. I can recall one or two that were the difficulty you describe. So we should assume with the limited amount of info we have with this gentlemans situation that it is one of the 4%? Ok, fine.
I now recomend you call a plumber. If you have a situation where you have multiple fittings and short nipples in a short group as described by david it is no time to learn by doing. Get a pro. DanT
From the first post:
"There isn't enough pipe between fittings to simply cut the offending fittings off and glue on new ones"
Thus my assumption that he is going to need to remove a group of fittings. I he can rehab the hubs and reuse the fittings, fine.
I've never seen the tool he mentioned, but I can imagine it. I recently saw a plumber on a job using his screwdriver to try to bust out chunks of pipe from a flange... I guess it's easier than either driving a well-stocked truck, or driving to town to buy a new fitting.
David, even the best equipped plumber in the world will go out to the truck once in a blue moon and find he's missing that one weird fitting he absolutely needs to finish that job. I learned the trick years ago when that happened to my plumbing sub on a basement remod we were building a new kitchen into.
First, he cut the fitting off flush to the hub, then he used a frameless hacksaw to cut a longitudinal slit into the inside of the pipe stub. Then he got a common screwdriver in between the pipe and the fitting and pried next to the slit. Once he got one edge to come up, he was able to grab it with pliers 'roll' sideways. The stub was out of the fitting in a minute or two. Damage to the fitting was minimal and repaired by a bit of hand sanding.
Saved him or me a 45 minute round trip at the end of a very long and tiring day....
Dinosaur
A day may come when the courage of men fails,when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship...
But it is not this day.
The guy came to set a kitchen sink. He had no trap parts with him. How sympathetic should I be? He was trying to reuse some goofy glued-together ABS trap under the sink when he should have had either chrome or PVC threaded stuff.
Okay if he came specifically to do a sink install and didn't bring any 1½ P-traps with him, he's a dork or an amateur.
I don't get you on 'goofy glued together ABS trap', though. It must be regional usage. Here, 95% of all residential 'outbound' piping is ABS. The P-trap can be made up from a series of 1½" MxF 90s, but this means there won't be a clean-out in the bottom of the trap, which is not a good idea. So if I'm installing an ABS P-trap, I'll use dedicated P-trap fittings.
A chrome P-trap is also common; and I'll spec it (or do the install myself, usually) if it's gonna be visible.
But nobody uses PVC pipe up here for anything except electrical conduit. There are some PVC 'insert' fittings made for use with flexible suction pipe such as we use for surface wells and lake supply lines. But no one uses that stuff in drains. And I don't use the PVC fittings, either; it's safer to spec brass or bronze, especially if it's gonna be buried under 5 feet of ice half the year....
Dinosaur
A day may come when the courage of men fails,when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship...
But it is not this day.
Normally I would expect 1-1/4 or 1-1/2 traps under sinks to be pvc or chrome, screw-together compression stuff that can be taken apart and cleaned. Plumbing in the wall would be ABS, with a trap adapter glued into the tee. Basically, none of the trim out parts glued.
Under the floor I would expect a tub or shower trap to be 2" ABS, glued and hopefully with a cleanout very close by.
That's here in WA and in CA where I also lived quite a while.
We use a compression fitting on the tailpiece with ABS traps, of course. The rest is all solvent-welded.
Dinosaur
A day may come when the courage of men fails,when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship...
But it is not this day.
Yor are correct, but I thought the post had very little experience working with plumbing, this method works about 50% of the time. There are other ways to get these fittings apart, but I'm not going to post them on the forum [They could cause problems]. May the force be with you.
If the fitting has been together for less than 24 hours you can sometimes just pry it apart. For longer times you can cut the pipe off flush and then pry the stub of the pipe out. There are reamers that will clean out the horn, providing a nearly perfect fitting, but you can usually clean it well enough with chisel/file/sandpaper/whatever, then really slop on the solvent to get a good seal.