So I came home from work yesterday (after a day of torrential rains here) to find my new basement pipes (see my recent posts) full of water. It was extremely strange as the water level wasn’t dropping.

So I did some tests and figured out my pipe had a blockage. Ran a 25’ snake down the pipe and hit nothing. No resistance at all. That distance puts me out past the house to the front yard.

Called a drain cleaning guy out this morning and he brought his 100’ snake. He starts shaking and gives me the head shake and tells me my Orangeburg pipe is blocked and he can’t get the snake thru. The water level didn’t significantly recede. He says he can return later with his hydrojet gear and can “probably” open it as a temporary fix, but that his advice to me is to replace my lateral to the street. (He does not do that work).

Let’s assume I have a collapsed/degraded 4” Orangeburg pipe:
1. What should it be replaced with?
2. Should my (1957 copper) water line be replaced at the same time? I suspect it’s installed in the same ditch.
3. If so what should the copper be replaced with?

Also, this is going to cost me quite a bit of money today to hydrojet. If he can clear the water he’s going to video the pipe also for me. How does payment work if he cannot clear the blockage? Sorry I’ve never been in this sort of situation before so I’m not sure am I paying him for his time or am I paying him for a service/product of an unblocked/usable drain??

Thank you

Did you ask the drain cleaning tech now payment works?

Is he bringing in a hydrojet as continuation of the original blockage clearing? Or is it additional?

Down here in south Florida the few companies that I have dealt with would quote you a fee for snaking the line regardless if it end up clearing the blockage.

If you want to jet the line that's additional.

If you want to video the line that's another additional. If you want a copy of the video on DVD that's yet another additional.

Your locale and tradesman may be different.



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There are many reasons a sewer can be blocked, and not all of them can be cleared with machinery, so NO ONE will guarantee their efforts will be successful, but they still put their time in and deserve to be paid for it. The water line has NOTHING to do with the sewer, so it should not have to be replaced.



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Well it took 3 tries with various cutting heads but finally the hydrojet (a huge trailer-mounted unit) got the water flowing.

However, the bad news is it appears there’s a section of pipe all the way out under the sidewalk or the street which is damaged.

I will post the videos here tomorrow.

Sum thanks for your comments. I didn’t ask but he was about to give up so I almost found out.

Hj I agree they are putting in the work, I just don’t know if that “risk” of failing to clear the drain is built-in to the price quoted. I say this because he quoted me a price prior to knowing exactly how long it would take to clear the drain.

Also, at least here, the water pipes are often installed in the same ditch as the sewer, a few feet above the drain line. Not sure how the excavator can dig down to the sewer without destroying the water pipe on the way.



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I never quoted a price for a drain cleaning, because I never knew whether it was going to take 30 minutes or 3 hours. But, if someone insisted, I would have quoted for 3 hours, and then they would have said, afterwards, "but it only took 30 minutes".

Here’s the video from the point of the pipe issue, then pulling back to the insertion point in my basement:

[youtu.be]

Of note, at the top right of the video you will see the distance from the insertion point.
The blockage is at 87’
(The front of my house is ~17’, so this is about 60’ away from my front door, which puts it under the sidewalk or street in the “lower lateral”.

My plumber believes this shows damaged Orangeburg pipe in the lower lateral. He also believes the upper lateral between the front of the house and the ~sidewalk is cast iron pipe in decent shape. I would appreciate any comments on this and suggested actions to resolve this problem permanently.

Also, of note, there’s no water running in the house during the video. All the water flowing is infiltrated groundwater. At 22.1 feet, there appears to be a suspicious wye in the pipe. This would be under my front yard and I don’t have a cleanout pipe. At 14’ we see a clear groundwater leak. Probably under my basement floor.

The Orangeburg would only be outside the building, and once ANY part of it goes bad, replacing the entire line is the only proper solution.