DIY Home Improvement Forum banner

Drain connection for basement utility sink

21K views 5 replies 2 participants last post by  Ron The Plumber 
#1 ·
I would like to install a utility sink in my basement, but wanted to get some opinions about drain connections.

I have 4" cast-iron going out through my basement wall to the city sewer. The cast-iron runs horizontally for a while, then connects to a wye with a 45 going to a vertical stack that goes all the way up the house and through the roof. The other connector on the wye is capped with a cleanout plug. The distance from the floor to the center of the cleanout plug is 24".

I was hoping that I would be able to remove the cleanout, connect a PVC pipe (3" or 4"?), connect to a wye with a 2" or 1.5" and cap the other end of the wye with a new cleanout.

First question, is 24" too high off the ground for a utility sink p-trap to be connect for a gravity drain? I know I can mount the utility sink on blocks to get it raised up, but how high would I need to raise it? Should I consider using a pump instead?

Second question, how do connect the PVC to the cast-iron wye? The cleanout looks like it's screwed on to a pipe that has been fitted into the bell of the wye. If I wanted to use a 4" donut, I would imagine I would have to remove all of the oakum and lead from the bell of the wye. Could I use a donut on the pipe that cleanout is threaded on to?
 
See less See more
#3 ·
Ron, thanks for the reply. Would raising the sink 9" make it awkward to use? What about the stability of the sink sittiing on 9" of blocks?

Yes, the clean out has a metal plug. It looks like it hasn't been opened in a while. Last month, I had a clog in my main sewer line, and the drain cleaning company wasn't able to unscrew the same kind of plug further down my line. They had to break it up with a chisel. I wonder if I will need to do something similar to remove the plug.

Anyways, if I have to use a pump, then I will probably tie the drain to an existing PVC pipe that is already coming out of the main stack about 6' off the ground instead of trying to remove the plug.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top