I just want to say that I'm very impressed by this forum. I've spent a couple of weeks searching on the internet and this is the best resource I've found so far.
I'm in Dallas, Tx., and a few years ago we bought a slab-foundation house here for my sister. She could no longer afford it so we decided to move into it - we have allstate insurance as a part of the mortgage. We had to fix a few minor shower leaks and we thought we were ready to turn the hot water on, but we've since learned that we have both a sewage leak and a hot water leak.
We bought the house in 2000 - it had foundation problems and we had them repaired at that time. To further complicate matters, I think my sister's dead-beat husband poured caustic chemicals down the kitchen drain. One side of the sink has numerous dark spots that look like a bit of abrasion - the spots leak water once the sink fills. Also, when we try to auger out the drain pipe from the kitchen sink we get soil constantly. There were empty bottles of nitric acid and potassium hydroxide that we had to throw away while moving in.
There is a cleanout on the side of the house very close to the kitchen drain. Interestingly, if we leave the auger in place from the kitchen drain, we can see the auger traveling down while looking into the cleanout from outside. The cleanout pipe seems to curve straight down as you auger but we can see clearly that the pipe wall has corroded or been eaten away. Repairing this will likely require removing part of the exterior wall.
In addition to the cleanout/kitchen drain problems, we found that one of the two the toilet drains has a hole just a bit bigger than a silver dollar. It's at the part of the drain pipe where it begins to curve horizontally to go under the slab.
Outside of the toilet drain problem mentioned above, the single working toilet seems to have issues as well. When we flush the toilet, air bubbles rise into the bowl. I'm unsure if that leak is as easily accessible as the toilet we have removed.
Unfortunately we do not have the money to have the leaks repaired. My biggest concern is how tearing up the slab will affect the repaired foundation. I searched for a while before posting and someone seemed to imply that it may be possible to cut out the slab as you go, once you see the direction the pipe travels. This would be great if it's possible in a house that's had the foundation repaired.
The hot water leak sounds loudest in the bathroom used by the master bedroom. It is in this area that the foundation was repaired in 2000. The grass is noticably more lush and greener in this corner. The kitchen/cleanout leak is over twenty feet away.
We've already done a bit of remodeling so we're not complete newbies, but we're in the dark about details for this type of job.
We intend to have a leak detector service find the hot water leak - the same company can use a sewer cam to give info. about the drain problems. When they look for hot water leaks, can they see more than one? We have copper piping and a few other threads implied that working with the pipe can weaken other sections - it would be nice to fix all of it at once but I'm not sure what would be necessary.
Any suggestions are appreciated (outside of setting the house on fire).
I'm in Dallas, Tx., and a few years ago we bought a slab-foundation house here for my sister. She could no longer afford it so we decided to move into it - we have allstate insurance as a part of the mortgage. We had to fix a few minor shower leaks and we thought we were ready to turn the hot water on, but we've since learned that we have both a sewage leak and a hot water leak.
We bought the house in 2000 - it had foundation problems and we had them repaired at that time. To further complicate matters, I think my sister's dead-beat husband poured caustic chemicals down the kitchen drain. One side of the sink has numerous dark spots that look like a bit of abrasion - the spots leak water once the sink fills. Also, when we try to auger out the drain pipe from the kitchen sink we get soil constantly. There were empty bottles of nitric acid and potassium hydroxide that we had to throw away while moving in.
There is a cleanout on the side of the house very close to the kitchen drain. Interestingly, if we leave the auger in place from the kitchen drain, we can see the auger traveling down while looking into the cleanout from outside. The cleanout pipe seems to curve straight down as you auger but we can see clearly that the pipe wall has corroded or been eaten away. Repairing this will likely require removing part of the exterior wall.
In addition to the cleanout/kitchen drain problems, we found that one of the two the toilet drains has a hole just a bit bigger than a silver dollar. It's at the part of the drain pipe where it begins to curve horizontally to go under the slab.
Outside of the toilet drain problem mentioned above, the single working toilet seems to have issues as well. When we flush the toilet, air bubbles rise into the bowl. I'm unsure if that leak is as easily accessible as the toilet we have removed.
Unfortunately we do not have the money to have the leaks repaired. My biggest concern is how tearing up the slab will affect the repaired foundation. I searched for a while before posting and someone seemed to imply that it may be possible to cut out the slab as you go, once you see the direction the pipe travels. This would be great if it's possible in a house that's had the foundation repaired.
The hot water leak sounds loudest in the bathroom used by the master bedroom. It is in this area that the foundation was repaired in 2000. The grass is noticably more lush and greener in this corner. The kitchen/cleanout leak is over twenty feet away.
We've already done a bit of remodeling so we're not complete newbies, but we're in the dark about details for this type of job.
We intend to have a leak detector service find the hot water leak - the same company can use a sewer cam to give info. about the drain problems. When they look for hot water leaks, can they see more than one? We have copper piping and a few other threads implied that working with the pipe can weaken other sections - it would be nice to fix all of it at once but I'm not sure what would be necessary.
Any suggestions are appreciated (outside of setting the house on fire).