There was a pile of old plumbing in our building much of which could not be seen when we purchased the property. At some point long ago, somebody did some random plumbing renovations and judging by the decay in the cast iron pipe it was some 80 – 100 years ago. In the corner of one of the bedrooms there portion of sewer pipe that was boxed out by drywall.  When we opened the drywall to access the pipe to do some demolition we were shocked to realize that the sewer gases had not been venting to the exterior as they should, but because of a large crack they were simply venting into the interior wall cavity.

This is the image below of cracked sewer pipe leaking sewer gases into the interior wall cavity of the building.  It is almost as if it collapsed and I am surprised that none of the black water actually leaked into the walls. Totally gross.  I love this image because it is a great example of the problems that are often hidden in the walls of old buildings and what to be wary of when making a purchase…

Thankfully we are replacing all the existing plumbing with new cast iron pipe and we should be good for another 100 years…