[COMPLETE] Aux Room: cover old drain

There is an old toilet drain in the floor by the west wall of the aux room. It hasn’t been used as a toilet drain in ages, so it’s not gross. The bio lab people used it as a sink drain, but that’s strictly non-code; I plumbed the utility sink into the properly vented drain instead. I got a cover for it, but the bolt circle is filled with wax from the old wax ring that sealed it long ago. I need someone to clean that out and install the cover.

Is that just old beeswax filling up the space between the soil pipe and the tile? liquifying the wax with a heatgun would allow you to soak up the liquid wax with gauze or a rag. (LOTS of rags To toss later). It sounds like a gross job but the right method, tools and gloves would make it short work.

I don’t think there would be a danger of spontaneous combustion with waxy rags.

All that said, I’m not sure this is the right product for the job. Oatey describes this product as a temporary cover for a soil pipe while construction is ongoing.

Instead I think the soil pipe flange should be removed by splitting the PVC glue joint. Once the metal ring is removed (the part filled with wax) the concrete surrounding the fitting needs to be removed. At that time the soil pipe flange is exposed maybe 4" to 5" down using a chipper hammer drill and then a sawzall cut to the outside of the fitting made. Driving a flat screwdriver into the kerf will break the joint and allow you to remove the flange fitting.

Clean the outside of the pipe and sand it smooth and THEN install a DWV (wrain waste vent) cap to seal the pipe permanently.

Backfill the space with mortar or some cement product flush with the floor or below grade and replace the two tile.

I am not trying to remove the pipe flange altogether. It’s not clear to me that we would even be allowed to do this; remember, we are leasing this facility. We won’t use this ever, but the next tenant may. Plus, what you are describing is a massive amount of work; we do not want to put that level of effort into a facility we will likely only be at for another 15 months.

There are heavier duty plugs and covers I looked at, many of which are designed to hold against significant pressure. But they are also overkill. I only want to cover it to prevent items from falling into it and to keep odor (potentially, not an issue so far) and noise (which is an issue) from coming back up.

The suggestion to use heat for the wax is great; I’m sure it will help whoever undertakes this project.

No worries. I forgot it’s a rented facility. Just thought about people tripping on something that stuck up like that…

There’s probably going to be either a workbench-like device or storage there soonish, so tripping won’t be a problem.

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Complete

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Wonderful! Thank you!

By the way, I just used a small flathead screwdriver to remove the wax and some paper towels to aid in cleaning. Not sure how they managed to get the wax ring into EVERY crevice. :slight_smile:

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Many thanks!