So, we have had back-ups off and on for the last three years that have been getting progressively worse. After a camera looked at our sewer line, we realized it was a 110 year old pipe full of tree roots that only has about a 1 in. area of flow... The company preferred to do the re-lining method but said it would be a bad candidate due to the state of the sewer line - it has several bellies in it and is generally in bad shape.

So, I received two separate opinions which suggested excavation. We have a basement, so the line is approximately 60 feet long and maybe close to 12'- 14' underground under the slab foundation of an existing garage. Is there any way to excavate carefully and selectively and just remove that bit of the line? Or, run a new line?

The site constraints are that the garage and it's foundation cover almost the entire back of the property except for a small 6' wide pathway. Can we say, jack hammer a portion of the foundation, bring in a small Bob Cat through the garage door with it's 12' foot ceiling? Is it possible to do the job with minimum disturbance?

My main worry is rebuilding and tearing the garage down is not only expensive but difficult with local zoning. We have a garage because we were grandfathered in and putting in a new one would take some politicking and a lot of paper work.

Any advice?



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I'd consider installing a pump system.

I would recommend pipe bursting. It is a complete line replacement, not a liner. It is trench less, and can go under existing structures. If there is a company around you that can do it, I strongly suggest going that route. Trenchless still requires a hole at the beginning, and at the city main.

Now I need to ask.. Has a professional company augured the line out recently? If it has been done within the last 6 months, they didn't do a very good job. I would contact the service manager and ask them to do the job again, with camera verification afterward to prove that the job was done correctly, and have them do it for free. Every drain won't be cleaned perfectly every time, but they should warranty their work because mistakes and oversights happen.

The wiki page here has some excellent information. [en.wikipedia.org]


Again, this process is a complete replacement, not a liner; not all situations are able to utilize this technology.

-edit- I forgot to mention that yes, you can get a small track hoe into the garage and dig most, if not all of the hole with the machine, and finish by hand. I was fortunate enough not to be on a job that required that, and 2 guys in safety harnesses with confined space measures being used to hand dig the rest of a 24 foot deep hole. Small shovels and buckets on ropes to haul out dirt.. *shudder* I brought them lunch and made myself scarce before the boss decided to have me help.



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First, you would do concrete saw cutting, not jack hammering. Second a small Bobcat would not have a boom that would reach that deep. Pipe bursting and replacement MIGHT be an alternate. Depending on the basement and upstairs plumbing, you might be able to go out the side wall "overhead" and go around the building and garage. Then install a sump, or ejector pump for the basement. That would be my preference, if conditions permitted it.



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WHO would give a "6 month guarantee" on a sewer line when they have absolutely NO IDEA how fast the roots will grow back.

Anybody that cleans sewer lines with 4" blades and removes the roots should guarantee their work for 6 months. I always did.

If I do the job and it clogs again within 6 months they need a new sewer, NOT another cleaning.

Unclogging a line doesn't guarantee that it is free from roots.

A 4" cutter through a 4" line SHOULD remove them.

Thanks for all the great ideas! Hopefully one of these methods will work. The line had been augured maybe a year and half before the clogs really started giving us problems.

Will the pipe bursting method work if the line has several bellies in it? We might also be able to go through the basement side wall and go around the building and garage- that sounds like a reasonable solution.

Thanks again- I'm fairly clueless on this so its hard to even know where to start.



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