Leaking joint in internal lead soil stack

[krispy]

Hi, this is my first post. My background is as a brickie then general builder, with an ability to do basic plumbing when required.

This one I have never had to deal with before, and of course is in my own house!

The problem is shown in the final picture, where two sections of the pipe (I know there are two because the seam gives it away) join. In the long distant past it had a repair using a red lead soaked bandage?, which has failed and water can be seen dribbling out when the stack is used. There is no evidence of any sort of socket and spigot, though maybe it's under the bandage. The lead itself appears to be in very good condition.

Q.1 What should the joint have been like originally?
Q.2 How can I restore it to a good and durable condition?

The pipe is recessed and access to the joint is not good, though I could improve it by removing some bricks.

The house is an overdwelling (on a steep hillside in the Pennines) and there is an underdwelling below the level of my cellar. The soil stack disappears into the hole in the stone-flagged cellar floor, picks up the underdwelling's outflow, and crosses from one side of the building to the other before connecting to the sewer in the street below. Upwards it goes through our stone-flagged ground floor and continues up to the bathroom and eventually vents on the roof.
All that is just to illustrate the difficulty I would have if I wanted to replace it all with plastic.

Thank you for patiently reading this, any hints would be welcomed.

 

[SimonJohns]

You could get a specialist lead worker. Or a good plumber who works with lead to weld on a patch. But I would reccomened ripping it out and fitting plastic

 

[tamz]

No need to replace in plastic if the lead is sound.
There are a couple of ways to fix it. Get a roll of grade D solder and wipe a patch on it or find an old plumber to do it for you. It is an easy enough job like everything else, if you know how.

The original joint will either be a wiped solder joint or burned probably with a soldering bolt.

 

[krispy]

Access for soldering is a problem I think, assuming that the joint needs doing all the way round. I can remove bricks to the left, even to the extent of removing the doorframe, and I can widen the hole to the right, but still the back would be mostly inaccessible. Is there no modern version of the bandage I could try? As long as it was really good of course
I wondered whether it was an option to remove a section and replace just that bit with plastic, and have a socketed joint at either end. Though cutting the pipe square, and not having the top section collapse down has been bothering me.

 

[tamz]

You could use a 2 part resin stuff like the ones you get in the car spares shops or you could wrap it in denso. Either will work and last a good few years. Do it right and it will last 40+ years. Depends what you want to live with.
If you can get your hand in you can fix it properly.
It is probably just a crack and easily fixed.

 

[krispy]

Should I be thinking of water activated fibreglass tape like Pipewrap?

 

[kirkgas]

do as Tam says and do a temp repair with denso tape, then in about 10yrs get round to fixing it properly, it will still be fine, and like the rest of us work in your own place can wait