Drain pipes are attached to the walls of our apartment building subterranean garage. Over the years, the ground level cement walls became saturated and degraded when it rains making the drain pipe anchor brackets unreliable and to loosen attachments. The anchoring bracket of a six foot length drain pipe snapped, and the pipe fell and broke. We called a plumbing company to replace the brackets and fix the problem.
The plumbing company came and asked us if we have been regularly flushing and maintaining our drainage pipes, and we said "No". The plumbing company said that reinforcing the brackets will not fix the problem, because the main cause is that we have old and rotten never maintained pipes that are ready to burst. I heard of pipes bursting when I was living in Wisconsin, but our building is in Southern California. The plumbing company recommended we should replace all pipes or the entire drainage system will collapse. Our bill will be 30 to 40 thousand dollars. They said it will be a hazardous environmental mess if we do not act soon.
They did not use a pipe camera to investigate the condition of the pipes. An apartment manager friend of mine told me that it is the "plumbing industry standard" to use a diagnostic pipe camera before replacing a major pipe. Are we about to be scammed?

yes, you are

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"Measure Twice & Cut Once" - Retired U.A. Local 1 & 638

"They said it will be a hazardous environmental mess"
ask them if any job they have ever been called to for a stoppage and the ensuing sewage spill. if so, did they contact the EPA for enviromental mess clean-up protocol?
me thinks you are being scammed.

You need to contact a different plumbing company.

Definitely. I though only unscrupulous HVAC companies did that.

To: bernabeu, packy, North Carolina Plumber, and hj,
Thank you for your kind replies.



Edited 2 times.

I am not a plumber but I had a similar situation where a plumber told me I need to replace all my drains because "my cast iron drain pipes have collapsed the bottom is now corroded to thinner than paper and need to be all redone" because he put a snake down and it got stuck.

Turned out the reason it was stuck was he couldn't negotiate his snake head past an elbow. Turned out I cut open a section of my pipe to see how it has "collapsed" and "corroded to thinner than paper" and I had good solid metal at least 3/8" all the way around.

Quote

anchoring bracket of a six foot length drain pipe snapped, and the pipe fell and broke.

You have the a sample to look at now, the piece that came off and broke you can look inside, cut a cross section and judge for yourself if it's going to "burst any minute". What kind of pipe is it that fell and broke? cast iron? clay?