How to fix a PVC drain pipe broken flush against the wall
When a PVC pipe breaks completely flush with or recessed inside an exterior wall, standard couplings cannot be glued onto the outside. Using a rotary tool to slightly widen the inside diameter of the remaining pipe allows you to slide and glue a smaller fitting directly on the inside. This lets you complete the repair from the outside without having to tear open the wall.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Using a rotary tool or file to clean up and slightly widen the inner edge of the recessed PVC pipe to slip a smaller fitting inside.
- 2Using a repair coupling that slides all the way on if there is enough play in the line.
- 3Replacing the drain when installing a new HVAC system.
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I recently bought a house and discovered that the previous owners’ Rottweiler apparently chewed the exterior A/C condensate drain pipe off almost completely flush with the exterior wall.”source ↗
“The remaining PVC is recessed enough that there doesn’t seem to be enough sticking out to simply glue on a normal coupling.”source ↗
“I had similar problem with a chewed pvc pipe last year and used a dremel with sanding drum to widen the inside just a tiny bit, then primed and glued a smaller fitting inside.”source ↗