Sewer Line Repair

Here's how we tell the difference, and how you can check before we even get there. Flush a toilet and see if anything else reacts. If you flush upstairs and water shows up in the downstairs toilet or shower, or the tub gurgles when you flush, that's the main line. A single clogged drain stays in one spot. A main line backup hits more than one fixture at once.

The best check is out front. Look for a cleanout, a capped pipe at ground level, usually near the front of the house, by the front door, in the garage, or roughly in line with where your bathrooms sit inside. If that cleanout is holding water, your main line is backed up. If it's empty, have someone flush a toilet inside while you watch and listen at the cleanout to see if the water is even making it that far. That tells us where the blockage is.

We had a sewer in the Alta Loma area of north Rancho Cucamonga where a eucalyptus root never even broke into the pipe. It ran along the outside of the line for about 60 feet, and over the years it crushed and folded that ABS pipe until it was pancaked flat. The line started at three feet deep and dropped all the way to nine feet, so we trenched the length of the yard with a four ton excavator to get to it. Twenty plus years in, that one still reminds us what these trees are capable of.

Once we know what we're dealing with, there's usually more than one way to fix it, and the right call depends on how much pipe is bad and where it runs.

A spot repair is the most cost-effective option when you've got just one section that's broken or has a single root intrusion. We fix that area without tearing up the rest of the line. When we make that connection, how we join the pipe matters. A lot of companies use a Fernco band, which is basically a rubber sleeve held on with two hose clamps, and that's the only thing holding your pipe together. We use a Husky heavy duty band with a full metal shield and screws you can tighten down. It's a stronger, longer-lasting connection, and it's the difference you don't see until years later.

A liner is more and more common now, and the data backs it up. Most liners carry a 25 year manufacturer warranty. The catch is the pipe has to be lineable, meaning no bellies and no big offsets, and if we're lining clay, we have to get all the roots out first. When the pipe qualifies, lining puts a new pipe inside the old one without digging up your yard, and it makes for a very strong repair while keeping the cost and the mess down.

Pipe bursting is the other trenchless option. We pull a new poly pipe through the old line and break the old pipe apart around it as it goes. When the situation allows it, this is often what I'll recommend, because you end up with one continuous piece of pipe with no hubs or sections for roots to ever find their way into again.

Full dig and replace is always a top tier repair when it comes to durability. With new ABS, every joint is solvent welded with ABS cement, which is a true chemical bond, so there are no loose hubs for roots to attack. The tradeoff is the excavation. Once we've dug up the line, the yard usually isn't going to look quite as pretty as it did before, and that's just honest. We save full replacement for the lines that need it, like a fully collapsed pipe or one that has to be regraded.

One thing worth saying straight: a lot of what we see is homeowners getting talked into full sewer replacements they don't actually need. If a liner or a spot repair will hold, that's what we'll tell you.

If you've got a root intrusion, that access point is there for good until the pipe is either lined over or that section is cut out and replaced. We can hydro jet the line, which cuts the roots up and flushes them out to the main, and that buys you time, but be straight with yourself about what it is. Jetting roots is a band aid, not a cure. The roots grow back through the same opening. The permanent fix is lining or replacing that section so the roots have nowhere to get in.

We'd rather show you the problem than just tell you about it, which is why we put you in front of the camera screen instead of handing you a bill and a story. We give you the honest read on whether you need a spot repair, a liner, bursting, or a full replacement, and we won't push you toward a full replacement you don't need. When we do make a repair, we use heavy duty connections like the Husky band instead of a rubber Fernco and two clamps, because the repair should outlast the truck payment. Twenty plus years doing this in these same neighborhoods means we usually know what's under one of these houses before the camera even confirms it.