Sewer Problems Crop Up

Sorry, no digital pictures on this page. Not sure you would really want to see what we went through here anyway. It was quite the mess. We do have a couple drawings so you can understand what work we had to do.

It started with a break in the neighbor's sewer line. We discovered that we share a common portion of sewer line with the next door neighbor. We never had any trouble with our drain, but at some point in late 2001, the neighbor started having sewer problems. The ruter company came out and cleaned the pipe several times. We started having trouble shortly after. At the time no one knew it but there was a break in the pipe just before the two homes connected. Because of all the expense of our remodeling project, we couldn't afford to replace our pipe. We really weren't having any problems so why bother right? Well the neighbor kept having problems. She was a very elderly lady and thought the problem was caused by us. The plumbers that came out and the city inspector all said since our drain was working and hers was not the problem had to be on her pipe not ours. We had originally considered simply replacing the pipe by doing the work ourself. The city wouldn't allow that because the two houses were connected. And since the main pipe was on our property, the neighbor would have to remove herself from our line or we would have to replace both lines using licensed contractors. So naturally, we said forget it and let the problem continue.

Eventually, the neighbor had a contractor come in and remove her house from the common pipe. Unfortunatly, the contractor capped off the drain line before the break in the pipe and then tossed the old pipe back in the hole instead of hauling it off to the dump. Everything seemed ok for about a month then we started getting backups again. We had a ruter company come out and then we purchased a hydro snake. This divice goes on the end of a garden hose and expands to seal the pipe. A jet of water punches through the block and the pipe is clear again. This worked a few times then we noticed water pumping up from the ground. We new there was a break in the pipe at this point.

Now that we were on our own line with no connection to the neighbor, we were allowed to do the replacement work ourself. Saved us over $1,500 doing it ourself. Most companies were bidding between $1,900 and $2,300. Including permits and material we spent just over $400 to replace our pipe and add another clean out to the system.

We took the time to remove all of the old pipe. We found that rocks and dirt had fallen into the system and blocked our line. When we pulled the pipes out we round all the pipes between the plug that the plumbers put in on the neighbor's line to the joint to our line were packed solid with dirt and "other debris" material. ICK!!!!

The old line was concrete pipes. The new line is ABS and should last quite a bit longer. Each link is 10' except at the very end and at the one bend. We went all the way back instead of just replacing the parts we had to. The permit was the same price for 30' or 50' so we replaced just over 45'. And by adding another cleanout near the front of the house we shouldn't have any more trouble.

You may be wondering how we dug out the hole... Well, it was done by hand 100%. Myself and my sons got out there and dug it all out. It was hard digging too as there is about 1' of gravel just under the surface. When it came time to fill it all back in, the neighbor from accross the street (not the old lady from next door) helped some too. It was quite nice having an extra set of adult hands filling it all back in.

All in all, the project took 5 days. We started by digging it all up on a Friday. Saturday we pulled the old pipe and put the new pipe in so we could use the restrooms again. That was a long day and we had to borrow restrooms at least once that day. Once the new pipe was in place we had to wait until Monday to get the pipes inspected and demonstrate a pressure test to show they wouldn't leak. Monday and Tuesday were spent filling the hole back in. Mainly because most of Monday was used up with the testing process. Waiting on the city inspector and all.

It isn't until something goes really wrong with the plumbing that you truely appreciate a working system.

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