Matthew Ravas
New Member
Hello everyone,
I have a 125 year old house in the Pittsburgh area that I've owned for about five years. My downspouts empty into my sewer line, so, once in awhile, a long lasting rainstorm would cause water to back up through a floor drain in our basement.
I've had my sewer line looked at multiple times and received different answers each time (from multiple companies). We did find that the pipe running from the clean out to the road was mostly smashed and blocked by tree roots, so a company came out, excavated, replaced the clean out, and a ran a new liner the rest of the way to the road. So far, 8k, but in theory the biggest problem was fixed.
As my sewer line is terracotta and at least several decades old, I asked if they could also put in a new liner from the clean out to the house. They said they could not because 55 of the 80 feet of pipe was bellied and defective and retaining water. They wanted another 12k to excavate and replace the pipe.
When I asked the plumber if this was causing the backup problem or if the first fix was adequate, he said he couldn't actually tell just from looking at it. My question is, is 55 feet of belly possible (out of 80), and if it were a/the problem, wouldn't it be fairly severe? The line to the street made sense as it was smashed into a half moon shape and clearly slow draining, but we've never had a normal usage blockage or backup that we know of.
Thanks for the advice.
I have a 125 year old house in the Pittsburgh area that I've owned for about five years. My downspouts empty into my sewer line, so, once in awhile, a long lasting rainstorm would cause water to back up through a floor drain in our basement.
I've had my sewer line looked at multiple times and received different answers each time (from multiple companies). We did find that the pipe running from the clean out to the road was mostly smashed and blocked by tree roots, so a company came out, excavated, replaced the clean out, and a ran a new liner the rest of the way to the road. So far, 8k, but in theory the biggest problem was fixed.
As my sewer line is terracotta and at least several decades old, I asked if they could also put in a new liner from the clean out to the house. They said they could not because 55 of the 80 feet of pipe was bellied and defective and retaining water. They wanted another 12k to excavate and replace the pipe.
When I asked the plumber if this was causing the backup problem or if the first fix was adequate, he said he couldn't actually tell just from looking at it. My question is, is 55 feet of belly possible (out of 80), and if it were a/the problem, wouldn't it be fairly severe? The line to the street made sense as it was smashed into a half moon shape and clearly slow draining, but we've never had a normal usage blockage or backup that we know of.
Thanks for the advice.