Unless you are a particularly knowledgeable Do It Yourselfer, you probably don’t know too much about sewer line repairs. For instance, Angie Hicks of Angie’s List recently found that even 78% of the users on a home improvement site had never heard of trenchless plumbing, the standard technology for sewer line repair.
So far as most homeowners are concerned, when you empty a drain or flush a toilet, the waste simply gets flushed away for good, never to be seen again. Unfortunately, out of sight doesn’t always mean out of mind. Because if you have a clog or root intrusion messing up the sewer line under your property, you could very well find your sewer backing up into your home. And, yes, that’s exactly what it sounds like. Without warning, your toilets and bathtubs could start flowing backwards, filling your home with waste.
So if you own a home, or are looking to buy, you need to learn about sewer pipe repairs ahead of time. The city or county you live in is responsible for maintaining the giant municipal sewer lines; however, each homeowner and commercial building owner is required to repair sewer lines on their own property. These sewer lines are usually expected to last for 40 to 60 years. That might seem like a long time, but many of these pipes are already pushing 100 years old. If you live in an older house, then your sewer lines could be on their last legs, especially if they’re made from clay or some other out of date plumbing material.
Grease, debris, and most commonly, tree roots can fill up your home’s sewer lines, causing them to back up into your home and make all your worst plumbing nightmares come true. Clogs can often be fixed, but if the problem goes deeper than that — if your pipes are broken or leaking into your property — then you might need to replace them altogether.
In the past, that meant spending a small fortune to dig up your yard, driveway, and even part of the street so plumbers could access and perform sewer line repair. Now, there’s trenchless sewer repair available, which allows plumbers to use existing access points to replace underground pipes.
So how do you know if your sewer is on the verge of disaster? Hire a local plumber to perform a sewer camera drain inspection. This allows plumbers to stick a camera all the way from your access point to the city sewer pipe. If problems are identified, you can get them fixed before your worst sewage nightmare becomes a homeowner’s reality.
