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I live in an apartment building, and recently I had to uncover some pipes which were covered with dry wall. I want to replace the dry wall, however one of the pipes (120mm diameter - for rain water draining) is now sticking out about 10 milimeters (I think some of my neighbors have done some repairs, and now the pipe is bent outwards)

Initially I was thinking to put some wood wedges where the pipe enters the apartment (2.5 meters distance), however, this doesn't push the pipe back enough and the force required to push the pipe is quite big.

Another alternative is to put a holder around the pipe, but I don't have access on the back of the pipe, and in the back it's a thin concrete wall (around 20 mm)

If I simply push it back and mount the drywall, can the drywall be damaged ? The force needed to push the pipe back in the point it contacts the drywall is quite small. After further consideration, I don't think this is viable, the force isn't that small.

enter image description here

Any other ideas to push/pull this pipe ?

2 Answers 2

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You could use plumbers tapeplumbers tape to try and restrain the pipe but if the force required to move the pipe is significant and you already have the wall torn open you might want to just fir that wall out before reapplying your drywall.

After seeing the picture you will probably want to just drywall around the protruding bit, which is almost certainly a clean-out. It's bad karma to bury them anyway and there are these sharp looking clean out covers made specifically for the job. It will save you miles of heart ache.

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  • Thank you. I didn't know about plumbers tape, and it would solve the problem with not having access to the back of the pipe. However, the back of the pipe is a thin concrete wall, and I think a screw would pass trough, and damage the tiling.
    – Sorin
    Sep 1, 2014 at 17:48
  • You know now that I see the picture you might want to consider not burying that at all. The part sticking out appears to be a clean out which is used to access the pipe for maintenance. You'll need to talk to someone who's a better plumber than myself but I'm 90% sure that's whats going on there.
    – user23534
    Sep 1, 2014 at 18:08
  • It was buried before, and all the other apartments have it buried. The story behind this is very long, this pipe was broken somewhere at the third/forth floor (I'm on the ground floor) and they couldn't be bothered to fix it until I threatened legal action because they had it buried. I accept the fact that if something is wrong I would need to break the whole thing up, but I can't leave it uncovered, it's practically in my living room.
    – Sorin
    Sep 1, 2014 at 18:15
  • What I meant was drywall around it and install a clean out cover. I'm going to edit my answer in a minute and I'll add a link.
    – user23534
    Sep 1, 2014 at 18:21
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Use the drywall panel itself to hold the pipe back, just push gently on the panel and fasten it in place. If the force required is indeed "quite small" it should be no problem at all.

Alternatively, you might be able to do something simple, like wrap one or more wide zip-ties around it and use a concrete screw to fasten the "tails" of the zip-tie/s to the concrete panel behind, pulling it back. You could use a torch to carefully heat and bend the pipe, creating a "dog-leg" inside the wall, this takes caution and finesse.

This definitely appears to be a clean out. If only the protruding fitting interferes, what about cutting a hole in the drywall to let it come through, then screwing a decorative clean-out cover to it and painting the cover to match the wall?

enter image description here

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  • I decided against pushing the pipe with the drywall, the contact surface is really small and the force doesn't fill that small. I will definitely consider the torch, if anything else fails.
    – Sorin
    Sep 1, 2014 at 17:52
  • I wish I could select both answers.
    – Sorin
    Sep 1, 2014 at 18:38

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