Is home sewer pipe relining a good idea? As opposed to trenching and laying in a new sewer pipe.
Does it really last 50 years like the plumbing companies that do this claim?
The drain is supposed to have a leak and fill with water at a low spot, and that's why the basement toilet will back up if the other two toilets are flushed in quick succession, or if the washing machine drains.
If there is a low spot, chances are water would just lay in there anyway. I'm not so sure how a liner is going to solve that problem, but a new line could.
So any low spot is bad. I suppose a leak in terra cotta pipe could let water in or water out, and the water coming out could make the ground settle more around the leak, if there were some place for it to settle to, but could it wash enough away for the line to sag?
This had been a well line which worked fine until a week ago. So presumably it had no low spots then.
The line was roto-rooted a couple days ago, and then again with bigger blades, all the way out to the city sewer. I keep thinking a clogged vent pipe might be a lot of the reason the toilet backs up.
did the line have roots?
if so before replacing try rock salt dissolved say 4 times a year/.
its cheap, and very effective if roots are in the line. it kills the roots but leaves tree and bushes unharmed.
25 pounds of rock salt dissolved in basement wash tub in very hot water has served me great for over 12 years.dissolve most then go out for day so no water is run
I had a whole post written starting with the answer to this quetion ("I don't know."), but it wasn't finished, and by the time I got home I got a message from my friend.
Last night I mentioned B's problem to a mutural friend C, who said he should call a fourth friend D, so I called B and told him to call D, and today he told me that he did, and D said to call the county. (That a fifth friend of all of us E, an old man, had had a similar problem and the county fixed it.)
So last night around 5:30 B called the county and they came out in about 90 minutes, found some problem, fixed it, and everything is fine now.
My friend didn't have to replace the pipe or reline it, and might not have had to rotorooter it either. But he's happier about the money he didn't spend than he is sad about the possibly wasted money he spent. And no dug up yard, no replanting grass or mandatory watering etc.
E's house and B's house are only a quarter mile apart, and though one is at the top of the hill and one at the bottom and around two corners, they have the same floorplan. Probably the county sewers are the same age too.
But if there is a clog already, it doesn't dissolve the roots that are there, does it? You have to roto-root that first time (as he had done) or use a long snake and then the salt thereafter, iiuc what you're recoommending?
I talked to him on the phone just now and told him what you wrote.
BTW, it turns out the plumber couldn't find the cleanout in his basement and removed the toilet to use that, even though my friend could find his own clean out later.
Plus, the guy said he went 100 feet, but when the county came out, they used a second cleanout plug in the ffront yard, that had to be on my friend's property, and went from there into the street and he said the clog was only 7 feet from the cleanout. He crushed that and then went another 70 feet.
My friend's yard is about 50 or 60 feet from the house to the sidewalk and another 4 feet to the street.
Did the plubmber roto-root the clog twice as he said but it still wasn't enough to clear it? Did he only go 40 feet and not the 100 he said, so he didn't reach the clog?
There is no doubt the plumber is NOT a cheat, but I think he may have learned his "trade" by figuring it out and not as an apprentice (or at least not long enough) or at a decent trade school. If it were up to the plumber, my friend would have some sort of backhoe in his yard today, and a bill for mucho money.
Similarly the deck next to my house was built by guys who were proud of what they did, but they never took off the "pressure treated" stickers stapled to the end of each flooring 2x4, and it looks terrible. Neither did the owner at the time or the new owner for the last 2 years. I may be a rank amateur but when I do do things, I learn about it until I do them right.
How could a clogged vent pipe cause back-ups. They are there to prevent siphoning water out of traps for other fixtures on the same line when someone flushes a toilet .
I don't know. I thought I read it here. That it was something that was often overlooked that could cause backup problems, or at least slow flushing.
Maybe because it can be hard for the air to exit the drain pipe quickly enough to make room for the water. By having a functioning air vent, there is a second way for the air to exit, in addition to the drain pipe itself.
Things invented for one function often serve other functions, right? Maybe since the use of air vents, they've been able to make drain pipes smaller, and now the air vent is essential to toilet draining.
I don't know and I don't remember exactly what I read here, but it's not impossible.
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