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He determined that it would be necessary to cut out tee in stack where closet bent was attached since he had no idea how to repair old lead piping. He thought using that nifty PVC from Home Depot would do trick. He tried to cut cast iron stack with a hacksaw to no avail, then tried a sawzall, also fruitless, so.... yep, out comes good old chisel and hammer, but a bigger hammer this time.
He whacks on stack a few mighty blows and Viola' it splits into several pieces with one tiny segment still holding it all together. He pried last vestige of solid pipe out of wall with a crowbar and suddenly remaining section of pipe (the vent going through roof) lets go and with a mighty crash comes down and out of wall through sub floor into now plaster less ceiling of living room, continues its downward decent until it hits TV set, ricocheting off that and through floor of living room until it hit electrical panel plunging house into total darkness and finally comes to rest after shearing off main water shut off valve flooding basement.
This was a $27,000 toilet seat replacement.
Paul Forte has been in the construction field for over 25 years. For more Do It Yourself Stories visit: http://www.forteelectric.com/DIYproblems.html