A homeowner makes a DIY repair to a porcelain soil pipe with a hairline crack around its entire diameter caused by an unstable bathroom floor pulling a toilet away from the wall it was connected to.

Case Study Overview

Site Bathroom
Location United Kingdom
Pipe Type Porcelain toilet waste pipe
Repair Type Crack repair
Products Wrap & Seal Pipe Burst Tape

Pipe Defect

The porcelain soil pipe connected the toilet with the sewer pipe behind it. An increasingly unstable bathroom floor meant whenever the toilet was sat on, it tilted forward. This movement pulled the pipe away from its fixed connection to the back wall.

Eventually, the stress being put on the pipe by this frequent movement resulted in a hairline crack appearing around the entire diameter. Water dripped through the crack whenever the toilet was flushed, potentially making the floor even more unstable.

With the homeowner planning a full bathroom renovation including replacing the toilet in the near-future, they wanted a cost-effective DIY repair to stop the soil pipe leaking until said renovation took place.

SylWrap Solution

The crack was too thin to force epoxy putty into and the repair needed to be flexible enough to account for the continued movement of the floor. Any repair which fixed the pipe rigidly in place would leave the potential for new cracks to develop all the time the toilet could tilt forward.

One 50mm x 4m Wrap & Seal Pipe Burst Tape was applied around as much of the pipe as possible. It created a large watertight rubber ring bonded to the porcelain; not just over the crack but across an extended area.

The ring sealed the leak, allowed the pipe an element of movement to reduce stress, and prevented water escaping from any other cracks which developed elsewhere in the porcelain now covered by Wrap & Seal.

Despite the space constraints between the back wall, the pipe and the toilet, the homeowner was able to stretch Wrap & Seal by three times its length, creating maximum tension to seal the leak.

Outcome

The homeowner completed the porcelain soil pipe repair in 15 minutes and for under £30, including delivery of the Wrap & Seal Tape. This represented a significant saving on replacing the pipe or hiring a plumber for a repair.

Water was contained whenever the toilet was flushed, providing a straightforward solution until the bathroom renovation and installation of new fittings took place.

Follow Up

Over 18 months later and the homeowner was still waiting for a new toilet to be installed due to delays with the bathroom renovation. The Wrap & Seal repair was holding strong with no sign of deterioration.

Products Used

Wrap & Seal Pipe Burst Tape
Silicone tape which fuses together to form a solid rubber band, sealing leaks and cracks

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