SEWER LINE LATERAL REPAIRS

Because we live in a community with older homes, we naturally have a larger number of sewer line problems in our aging homes.  Most homes built prior to the mid 1970's have a clay tile sewer line leaving their home and headed towards the City main line which in most cases is also clay tile.  The most likely cause of problems relating to your sewer line are either tree roots or a broken riser pipe in the alley.  I will explain both situations.

If you have large trees in your yard or near your yard (they could even be your neighbor's trees), you are susceptible to having tree roots in your sewer line.  Trees naturally look for moisture and nutrients in order to sustain themselves.  The ground in which your sewer line lies is more loose than the surrounding native soil.  This is because it had been dug up at some previous point in time in order to install the sewer line.  Because of the weaker structure of that soil, moisture tends to pass through it more easily.  The tree roots will naturally migrate to the weakened, moist soil and seek out the water that they need to sustain the tree.  The further down into the weakened soil that the moisture goes, the more it accumulates (read - gravity).  In other words, at the bottom of the trench where your sewer line lies is where the most moisture is.  The bonus for the tree is that your sewer line, full of nutrients, (read - jackpot for the tree roots) is there also.  Clay tile was good pipe if laid properly.  It's weakness, however, was the joints.  Most of the time, the pipes were either joined with cement or mastic.  The roots will enter these joints and form a network of small hair like roots (read - mop)  Over time the mop becomes so large that solids passing through your sewer line become entangled in the roots and then results in a backup into your home.  

Rarely will any type of drain cleaning technique be a long term solution for tree roots in your sewer lateral.  What typically happens is that the sewer cleaning machine will create a small hole through the root mop.  Over time, and depending on the density of the mop, the hole will seal up again and your problem will return.  It is best, if you plan on a short term fix when you have roots to have a sewer camera working in conjunction with the sewer cleaning machine so that the technician can see if they entirely cleared the problem.  Without the camera, the technician is only guessing that the entire mop has been removed.  Of course, the best long term solution is to install a new sewer lateral.  

Two methods currently available of installing a new lateral are to open cut the entire trench and replace your clay tile pipe with pvc or to open cut a small portion of your lateral and insert a new pvc pipe within your existing lateral.  Both methods achieve the same end result, however each individual project  may require one or the other methods or a combination of both.  Please contact us to discuss which type of repair would work the best for your situation. 

The other source of sewer line lateral problems is due to poor construction practices way back in the day when the City mains were installed.  Typically the City main is deeper than your lateral.  As the City main was installed and then backfilled, the soil was not compacted properly.  When your lateral pipe comes across that uncompacted soil to reach the main, it settles away from the 90 degree elbow which connects your lateral pipe to the vertical pipe coming out of the City main.  The greater the depth of the City main, the more likely and pronounced this problem will be.  

Rarely, the home may have a trap where the building sewer leaves the building and enters the lateral pipe.  This is a problem as typically, you can not insert a drain cleaning machine or a camera through this trap.  Typically, we have to remove the trap (either inside or outside the home) prior to diagnosing and or repairing the actual cause of the backup.   From my experience, traps were installed in less than 10% of homes constructed prior to the 1970's.  The current plumbing code neither requires nor recommends a trap as the building sewer leaves the home.  

At times, we have come across the rare problem of an unconventional installation where the blockage is in the middle of a run.  This is not very common however.  

We are equipped to repair and or replace your sewer line laterals with the most modern tools and equipment and years of combined experience.  We have available sewer cleaning machines, sewer cameras, pipe locating technology and again over 100 years of combined experience to repair and or replace all of your sewer related problems.  Please contact us if we can assist you in any way. 

Nick