Hello,

We are having issues with out sever lines at the daycare center my wife and I operate. We recently had a video inspection that can be seen here: [wwwzoub-my.sharepoint.com] The plumbing company that made the video is recommending we replace the entire line from the slab to the street. The information we were given state that there are roots at the tap, which is at the end of the 75' run (the video shows 126 feet but I believe that to be incorrect). There is a separated coupling in the middle of the parking lot, and the line is holding water along the side of the building. The paperwork also states that the tap at the street is clay pipe. Would anyone with experience with this type of issue please watch the video and give me your opinion on the work that needs to be done, and the best method to accomplish it. We have just spent a lot of money re-paving our parking lot and do not want to dig it up if at all possible.

Here is a rough diagram the technician drew: [wwwzoub-my.sharepoint.com]

please elaborate on "we are having issues with our sewer lines"

Sorry, the line is getting plugged up to where none of our toilets will flush, and the only way to clear the clog is to have the line snaked. The clog is happening at the tap where the root intrusion is, which is ~60 feet from the closest cleanout. This has happened twice so far this month. Each time some roots have been removed, but as the video shows, there are still roots present.

if you now know where the problem is, why not just dig there and fix that?

That's a good question, and why I am asking here. It seems other plumbing companies all want to charge me to do their own video inspection before giving me any suggestions, and the costs involved in that are not trivial. The biggest issue I see is the roots, which at most would require removing a small section of sidewalk to repair. I do not know a lot about plumbing or how serious the loose coupling or standing water issues are, but would like other opinions on what should be done and the best way to accomplish it. The pipe appears to be in decent shape, and I know there are other options such as trenchless repairs. Just looking for opinions on the best way to proceed, with the least destruction of property and interruption to the business, before I meet with the plumbing company to discuss the repairs and sign any agreements on the work to be done.

a lot depends on why there is standing water in the pipe.
is it because the pipe doesn't slope mat all ?
is it because there is something keeping the water from flowing freely?
in any case the pipe looks clean except for the roots.
my opinion is just fix the root problem.

So there are two issues reflected in the video: The roots at the most downstream point that appears at the beginning of the video, and a section of pipe that seems to be filled with water at about 3:56 into the video.

If the roots are penetrating at the tap, it would seem all you need is to dig down a fix that.

"There is a separated coupling in the middle of the parking lot, and the line is holding water along the side of the building." How did you determine that there is a separated coupling along your line? From the portion where the camera was under water? You can't see anything other than water, so where is the separated coupling? Or did the plumber conclude that the reason for the standing water there is due to a separated coupling? To me it seems if the problem is a separated or broken coupling, you would have seen debris, like sand and dirt downstream, plus roots coming in through there if you have a tree near by. There are many reasons for standing water in the pipe, such as something else downstream is making a dam, or could be a bellied section of the pipe, or a broken fitting. I would definitely ask the plumber why he concluded it's a broken/separated coupling.

Was it ever determined if the reason for the clog requiring snaking is the middle section with standing water trapping more and more debris, or the end where the roots are? or a combination?

How often do you have to snake the roots out to get it operational? Every month? You might also consider snaking the line at a regular interval, to keep it clear and serviceable for the time being, and look at the numbers, like how much you will spend on snaking the line every year which you can expense as maintenance? Versus digging down and repairing the root intrusion point which is expensed as repair. A new line would be capital improvement, so tax wise there is a difference. You are in FL, how deep is it to dig down?

I am not a plumber just a DIYer but I personally wouldn't replace the entire line just to solve two trouble spots. The root intrusion point probably need to be repaired, the standing water section needs more information. Can be even tell you how deep the standing water is in there? If the camera head is 1" and the depth of water is 1.25" it could appear to the viewer the entire line is full of water.

sum,

The roots at the downstream point are where the clog is occurring. This is something that I believe needs to be repaired. We first had a clog like this a couple of years ago and the plumbing company that came out ended up bring out a jetter (I think that's what they called it) in order to clear the line, which ended up costing us ~$500. At the beginning of this month, it clogged up and the plumber spent probably 5 hours snaking the line, although it cleared after a second plumber arrived and they had more line to use with the snake. I won't even go into how this plumber screwed us over. Now, this past week, it clogged again, and we called another plumber who removed the toilet closest to the tap and snaked the line from there, which only took a couple of minutes but still required ~60 feet of cable to reach the clog. We had them come out and do a video inspection the next day, and they are the ones who recommended replacing the entire line.

The separated coupling is under the parking lot and is not where the water is standing, and was determined from the technician doing the video inspection. The water is standing along the side of the building, and the issue appears to be that the pipe is not angled correctly. It looked as if the pipe stayed a little less than half full all the time, but as far as I know, this has not caused any clogs. This section of the pipe drains a single toilet and sink that only the staff use, most of the waste is dumped after the section that retains water.

I am leaning toward just having the root intrusion fixed, whether that be just having all the roots removed and using chemical methods to control them, or repair work on the pipe itself. I just don't know how much of an issue the standing water and separated coupling (if there even is one?) are.

Thank you and packy both for your replies, I appreciate the advice.



Edited 3 times.

my experience with chemical root killers is that they do not remove roots but they do prevent them from coming back.
of course there are varying amounts of root intrusion.
yours appears to be on the lesser side.