# ductile iron drain?



## bct p&h (Jan 19, 2013)

Doing a reno at a house that went from septic to sewer withing the past 5 years or so. Had the inspector by for my underground, full bath with a pump, and while he's there we go over what parts of the existing plumbing he'd like changed. I ask him about the fernco that's coming through the wall and he wasn't happy the hub from the cast was gone but says he'd be OK with a pvc x nh adapter and a 4 band clamp. After he leaves I start taking it apart and realize it wasn't ci, it was ductile iron. I've never seen a drain run in it and have no idea how I could adapt to pvc without the fernco. The od of the pipe is 5", 4" id. Has anyone else ran into something like this? Most of the existing plumbing was not done by a licensed plumber so I'm ripping out everything except the vtr and I'm kind of stuck with the stub coming into the house from the sewer.


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## Tommy plumber (Feb 19, 2010)

Maybe the sewer is extra-heavy c.i. 

The O.D. is larger than service weight.







http://www.cispi.org/Products/Types.aspx


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## bct p&h (Jan 19, 2013)

Tommy plumber said:


> Maybe the sewer is extra-heavy c.i.
> 
> The O.D. is larger than service weight.
> 
> ...


I've worked with extra heavy before and it was never this thick. Extra heavy walls are usually ⅜" and this pipe is a full ½". It also has the goosebump texture of ductile and the edge of the pipe that was exposed to water had no corrosion on it like a cut piece of cast would.


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## Tommy plumber (Feb 19, 2010)

bct p&h said:


> I've worked with extra heavy before and it was never this thick. Extra heavy walls are usually ⅜" and this pipe is a full ½". It also has the goosebump texture of ductile and the edge of the pipe that was exposed to water had no corrosion on it like a cut piece of cast would.


 






Maybe it's 5" pipe.......?

I ran into 5" cast iron once while doing a re-model in an old condo. It was a laundry stack.


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## 504Plumber (Jan 26, 2011)

I've run a small amount of 5" cast iron and none of it had 1/2" walls.


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## DesertOkie (Jul 15, 2011)

DI is the same size as asbestos cement pipe I believe.

http://www.fernco.com/plumbing/shielded-couplings/strong-back-rc-couplings


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## SewerRatz (Apr 25, 2009)

Ductile Iron has the same OD as Cast Iron. So if it was say 4" iron be it cast or ductile the OD would be 4.80 and 6" pipe is 6.90


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## SewerRat (Feb 26, 2011)

I too thought that ductile was similar OD to asbestos cement which is larger OD than cast. Are you positive on that, Ron?


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## TX MECH PLUMBER (May 27, 2011)

Use a hy max coupling


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## DesertOkie (Jul 15, 2011)

SewerRatz said:


> Ductile Iron has the same OD as Cast Iron. So if it was say 4" iron be it cast or ductile the OD would be 4.80 and 6" pipe is 6.90



Same ID I believe. I have seen DI for water that looked the same as CI, I had never seen DI used for water and was surprised how thin it was. After having to get that POS out of the hole I was glad though.:laughing:


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## SewerRatz (Apr 25, 2009)

SewerRat said:


> I too thought that ductile was similar OD to asbestos cement which is larger OD than cast. Are you positive on that, Ron?


Here are the charts I found from various pipe manufactures.


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## SewerRatz (Apr 25, 2009)

I stand corrected, I failed to notice the many different standards of Cast Iron. Here is a web page with a full chart of different materials of pipe and an ID / OD chart. Sewer pipe cast iron is listed lower on the chart, there is a thickness difference, between DI to Service Weight CI of a little over a 1/2" http://www.tps.us/tps-classroom/pipe-outer-diameter-chart/


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## SewerRat (Feb 26, 2011)

SewerRatz said:


> I stand corrected, I failed to notice the many different standards of Cast Iron. Here is a web page with a full chart of different materials of pipe and an ID / OD chart. Sewer pipe cast iron is listed lower on the chart, there is a thickness difference, between DI to Service Weight CI of a little over a 1/2" http://www.tps.us/tps-classroom/pipe-outer-diameter-chart/


Don't feel bad, I don't have experience with ductile, the only reason I asked is because I knew that that fernco we use when doing spot repairs in orangeburg is labeled CI / PL X AC / DI and we use the DI side for the orangeburg which is larger than schedule 40.

Don't take me for a knowledgeable person.


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## leakfree (Apr 3, 2011)

There are a few towns around here that run ductile thru the wall in new const.,the logic is that it won't shear like C.I. would if the backfill around the foundation settles too much,Inverness being one of them.


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## SewerRatz (Apr 25, 2009)

Had a bowling ally in Lyons that had DI ran through the wall to the sewer stub. Thing is they used cinder from the steel plants as backfill, it turned all the DI into swiss cheese. Was a royal pain in the ass to dig in, almost as bad as running sand, with out the water though.


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## rjbphd (Feb 5, 2010)

SewerRatz said:


> Had a bowling ally in Lyons that had DI ran through the wall to the sewer stub. Thing is they used cinder from the steel plants as backfill, it turned all the DI into swiss cheese. Was a royal pain in the ass to dig in, almost as bad as running sand, with out the water though.


Geeezz, that's bad.. but what about the DI water mains in that area??


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## SewerRatz (Apr 25, 2009)

rjbphd said:


> Geeezz, that's bad.. but what about the DI water mains in that area??


When I dug up that sewer and came across the main it was PVC. Guess they changed it out a while back.


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