Drain collapse insurance covered?

[burnedtechie]

Probably a dumb question, but oh well.. I had a cast iron drain pipe break under my foundation (slab, 40 years old) causing the kitchen sink to lose the ability to drain entirely. It cost me around $3k to have the kitchen floor jackhammered all the way through the foundation down to the break and have that section replaced with PVC, and the concrete repoured, etc..

Would my homeowner's ins have covered this? Furthermore, if any of you have seen such iron pipes fail like this, am I in for having the entire house torn up to replace the REST of the iron someday? :-( :-(

[Charles Spitzer]

typically, no. it would pay to fix problems elsewhere, but the original damage not.

maybe yes, maybe no.

[louie]

Whether or not insurance covers it is something you'll have to check with your agent and/or policy documentation. I very much doubt it will cover such a thing, but you can always look. Iron rusts. Rust is relatively weak. When enough of the iron in the pipe turns to iron-oxide (rust), it will fail. It could just clog shut (as the iron supply pipes in my house did in a couple of places), or leak, or both. It's possible that the rest of the drain piping will eventually fail, but I wouldn't start tearing up the slab just to replace those pipes. Either wait for another one to fail or for some other project involving making holes in your foundation.

[Speedy Jim]

Are you *sure* it was really Cast Iron and not Galvanized Iron pipe?

Galv rots out in precisely 40 yrs but cast iron has a life of double that. (Obviously soil conditions greatly affect all this.)

Just because one branch failed, I wouldn't be overly concerned that the main drain (if CI) would fail too. A better indicator may be the experiences neighbors have had/. Jim

[hallerb]

made worse by using drain chemicals, best way to find out if it were covered is call company and ask.

insurance is big on sudden failure, not so big on slow failures

sure pipe wasnt terracota pipe? that collapses and breaks easy.

if one part of your under slab failed the rest is likely on its way out too

[burnedtechie]

That's what the plumbers said was used in this era home (for the drain lines, not supply), and that's what they dug out - a broken 90 degree elbow joint of heavy iron, or rust. There's some cast iron still under the house for the main line with subsequently-added PVC joining up to it in various places. The line out the front yard to the city sewer is cast iron, too, and has obvious-on-camera damage that will eventually fail it at any moment.

Oh, the joys of owning an older home..

[Joshua Putnam]

If anyone does it in your area, you might check out the cost of having all these old drains lined with fiber-reinforced epoxy resin. They basically run a liner through the pipe, impregnate it with epoxy resin, then inflate it against the walls of the pipe.

It's very strong, doesn't rot or rust, and doesn't require any excavation if they have good access to a cleanout. That means they can do it under or even inside a slab, and it can usually be done in a day so you don't spend a week with the slab broken up and no plumbing to use.