Old outside toilet

[gowman]

I've a small yard at the back of my 100 year old terraced house. The yard had a raised portion in one corner where previous occupants have had soil to grow plants. I began to dig this out inorder to level the yard when I found what looks like the end of the old outside toilet that has been capped off with concrete and then covered with soil.
I need to remove the pipe, which sticks out about 4 inches above the level of the yard. A quick look at some of my neighbours' yards shows they have already done this. Is it difficult to do? I'm a willing amateur?

Aaron
PS Excellent and informative site

[flowjoe]

The pipe work will break out easily enough, vitrified clay is basically earthenware and shatters easily.

Carefully open up the top of the pipe and to make sure the pipe drops sufficiently for your project, then make sure you stuff some plastic bags or rags down the pipe while you smash it out so you don`t lose any great chunks of pipe work into the main line drainage. When you reach the required depth cap the drain off property with a bung or concrete to stop rodent access to ground level.

And on that subject make sure you wear protective gloves when playing with the pipe, if you get rats p1%% in you blood stream you won`t be around long enough to enjoy your hard work

Have fun ???

[lutonlagerlout]

normally these outside loos will be on the end of your run.just try and make sure that its not in the middle of a run,a row of manholes across the front or back gardens will help you ascertain this
and do what joe said above
LLL

[gowman]

Thanks for the advice. Hopefully it will get done this weekend.

[matt h]

SHOULD BE FAIRLY STRAIGHT FORWARD . IF YOU USE A NINE INCH GRINDER OR EQUIVALENT YOU'LL GET A REASONABLE JOINT, A LINE OF TAPE AROUND THE PIPE HELPS KEEP THE LINE STRAIGHT, AND SO WILL REDUCE DEBRIS FALLING INTO PIPE RUN ALSO. as ALREADY SUGGESTED A RAG PAD CAN STOP HEAVY PARTICLES GOING DOWN THE DRAIN AND CAUSING TROUBLE FURTHER ALONG, IE AT YOUR MANHOLE/SUMP BEST OF LUCK