My sump pump was going off every minute for three days and it smelled like sewer. I redirected the discharge into my outside clean out temporarily so I wouldn't have a swamp in my front yard. Plumber came and could tell water was backing up by looking down clean out. He power rodded to the street and then inspected with camera. I was at work but my neighbor took pictures and I'm trying to fully understand where the water was leaking from. There's a 5 foot piece of ductile metal going through the front basement wall that connects to a PVC section that drops two feet deeper and connects to the original clay pipe. Plumber didn't feel the clog as he was rodding but thinks the clog started at the street connection because there is a lip for solids to get hung up on. Under the sidewalk there is a bend and crack in the clay pipe (used to be a huge tree near there).

I created a viscous cycle by connecting the sump discharge to the sewer but did all that water leak from a crack 5 feet underground and 43 feet from my cleanout? See pic below

Would the clay pipe joints every 2 feet leak substantial water if filled with water from clog?

Would the aggressive drop in the PVC be a good clog spot?

Below is what they installed last July




SCOPE CAMERA PICS
Below is the PVC connecting to clay a little more than 8 feet from cleanout

Below is the crack in clay pipe 43 feet from cleanout (under sidewalk)

Below is the connection to main sewer in the middle of street (60 ft from cleanout)

Below is another pic of street connection (59 ft from cleanout)



Unfortunately I don't have a SCOPE pic of the first connection (ductile metal to PVC) but it was scoped and my neighbor thought it looked good and he thinks the plumber said it was good too. That connection is closest to my drain tile so I wish I had a scope pic. Plumber says my line has sunk 1 or 2 inches from the main under street and could detach tomorrow or in 15 years. What do you guys think. Thanks for reading.

P.S. My sump pit barely gets a trickle after the rodding



Edited 2 times.

Another pic of the crack 43 feet from cleanout. I'm assuming it's a close up but I'm just guessing

you may well have a hole in the cast coming through the wall itself, possibly damaged during or after the portion of the line was replaced. As much water as was being recycled from the pump>sewer>foundation drain> sump pit I think you have a problem close to the house

Since it's ductile and twice as strong as cast iron I'm assuming it doesn't have a hole. It's been there half a year with no activity that I know of damaging it.

The pipe separation under the street is not your problem- it is the towns. Your problem will be convincing the town to act preemptively.

with the slight exception of the connection at the street, everything i see looks fine.
the installers and the last plumber who did the cleaning and scoping did first class work..
get some flourescent dye and flush it down a toilet. look around for any signs of it.

Depending on the city, it may still be his problem.. even at the city tap.

how true KC.. around here the homeowners liability used to end at the property line (sidewalk).
now the town wants you to pay for all the piping into the main.

Re: Sewer clogged/cracked creating waterfall in sump pit
Author: KCRoto (MO)
Depending on the city, it may still be his problem.. even at the city tap.

I believe I'm the unlucky one who has to pay for everything including replacing the asphalt in the street. I should check with my village but that's what my plumber said. He said it's roughly an 8k job (replace remaining 2/3 of front yard clay with PVC all the way to middle of street).

I had a customer in Kansas that paid about 14k just for the street repair on their line when they had to do that. The previous owner opted out of connecting to the city sewer when it was installed and the city would have only charged about a third of that.

don't forget you also have to pay a police detail..

One thing that popped into my head was the fact that I was out of town for 6 days recently and the problem started occurring a few days after I got back. Maybe the solids by the lip of my street connection dried up and created a larger blockage than the sewer main lip.