You don’t have to dig a big hole in your yard to cut a piece of plastic PVC pipe that’s buried in the ground. Instead:
- Dig a hole around the pipe large enough to slip a piece of thin nylon string under the pipe.
- Attach each end of the string to a wooden handle.
- Holding a handle in each hand, pull the string tight and use a back and forth sawing motion to cut through the pipe.
Fantastic method. I did not know that nylon cord was abrasive enough to cut through plastic pipe.
I have a vertical piece of 2″ pipe to cut and I don’t want to cut up the sub flooring. I am replacing the shower pan in our bath room and the old pipe was leaded into the old shower pan. I’ve got to figure out a way to cut this pipe while working through a 6″ hole in the sub floor.
Thanks for the string idea. Great!
You are very welcome, John. Hope the string trick works for you. As I mentioned in the video, it’s very important to keep the string taut and moving at all times. Also, be sure to have plenty of string on hand; it’s easy to break the string until you get used to the technique. Good luck and thanks for writing.–Joe T.
Those wire saws they sell for emergency camping kits are great for this. You can find them for just a few bucks
You could also tie it in a loop then with some kind of a rubber pulley mounted in a drill use that to run the string quickly over the pipe and cut it.