Just had a 4 inch cast iron stack crack on me in a high rise in Chicago

I'm on a job in a 12 story building downtown, and I'm replacing a toilet on the 8th floor. Last Tuesday I'm cutting out the old flange and the whole damn stack just splits vertically from the 8th down to the 6th. Must have been a hairline crack from years of settling, but now I've got to coordinate with the building manager and get a crew in to replace like 30 feet of pipe. This is gonna eat my whole week and the profit from this job is shot. Any of you guys deal with a sudden vertical crack in old cast iron, or do I just have the worst luck lol.

2 comments

2 Comments

claire37821d ago

Old cast iron does stuff like this all the time... it's like the building is holding its breath for years and then just lets go when you touch it. I've seen it in old houses too, not just high rises, where a simple job turns into a whole system failure because of one hidden crack. It's like the universe has a way of making sure nothing is ever as simple as it looks on paper.

vals3819d agoMost Upvoted

I heard an old plumber say cast iron has a memory, it just takes time to show you what's wrong.