Main Sewer Clogs: Causes, Indicators & Replacement Options

Each of the plumbing drains, and pipes in your home are linked to the biggest (and most important) piece of plumbing in your entire home — the main sewer line.

Between improper use of these fixtures, drains, and pipes and many other outside factors, the primary sewer line can take a defeat. Eventually, the main sewer range can become clogged (or even collapse) to the point of needing serious repair or even replacement. Let’s discuss a headache you want to avoid!

Knowing what causes sewer lines to clog and the warning signs to look out for can help prevent you from ever having to deal with a major repair or replacement.

What are the things that can cause a clog in your sewer line?

Marvin, the Sewer Experts technician holding up very long and large string of debris that was clogging up a Denver Community home’s sewer line.

Almost every homeowner has run into the unfortunate situation of having a stopped up drain or a slow-running sink or bathtub. Whilst a single clog can become a pain, it’s typically easy to fix.

On the other hand, what happens if all the drains in your home start backing up at once?

It can be a sewer line clog. The repair or replacing an entire sewer line (or even simply a section) is sometimes required when drain clearing efforts do not work. Listed here are the primary indicators that a repair or replacement procedure is necessary:

1. Severe Pipe Damage

When sewer pipes are broken or ruptured, the sewage won’t be able to properly drain through the system — leading to immediate and frequent backups. Common causes of sewer water pipe damage include:

• Sewer water pipe rupture due to shifting soil, settling, increased traffic on the ground above, or use of heavy construction equipment above floor.

• Corrosion of a more mature pipe, leading to the water pipe to break or failure.

• Leaking joints in which closes between sections of water pipes have broken, allowing normal water and sewage to get away.

2. A Sagging Sewer Line

While this is out of a homeowner’s control, sagging sewer outlines happen over time. This particular “bellied” pipe occurs when a portion of the water pipe has sunk due to ground or soil conditions.

The low spot in the line will start to accumulate paper and waste resulting in repeat blockages.

3. Tree Root Infiltration

Piece of a sewer pipe with root attack damage. Older sewer outlines were sometimes constructed out of clay or other porous materials. In addition, the connections involving the water pipe sections weren’t as tight as today’s PVC water lines.

As tree and plant roots grow, they search for sources of normal water. Should they latch onto a sewer pipe, they will grow into the water pipe in order to achieve the water inside. As the roots expand over time, it can cause the line to break.

4. Flushing Debris Down the Toilet

With regard to your plumbing related system’s health, it’s important to really know what you can and can’t flush down your toilet.

Treating your toilet as a trashcan will cause sewer drain issues. The number one rule to consider when flushing the toilet—make sure only human waste and toilet paper falls.

5. Flowing Grease To waste

Piece of kitchen pipe filled with fat laying on tile floor. Grease, fats, and oil are all some of the biggest culprits when it comes to clogging outlines. It’s NEVER a good idea to pour grease, oil, or other fats down a drain.

Always pour hot fat into a coffee can or jar. Once it solidifies, you can chuck it away. People wrongly believe that running hot normal water when pouring grease down a drain helps wash it away. This is not the case.

When grease cools off, it will harden and stick to your pipes leading to sewer line clogs. In order to be sure to never run into problems, educate yourself on things you shouldn’t put down your garbage disposal or drain.

Warning signs you might have a sewer line issue

When you’re concerned about catching your sewer line concern before it’s too overdue, we’ve gathered four alert signs you need to look out for:

1. Frequent Back ups in Your Drains

Our advice to you is usually to steer clear of liquid “drain cleaner” plus call a professional to check if it worked! If you have a drain that continuously clogs, especially in the minimum of your home, that could come from a break or blockage in your sewer pipe.

2. Numerous Fixtures Are Clogged

A person aren’t sure if the particular toilet or shower empty keeps clogging because of an individual pipe blockage or perhaps because of a sewer collection issue. However, a really obvious sign of the sewer line issue is usually when multiple plumbing fixture backs up at the same time.

3. Things to Pay Attention to When You Suspect a Sewer Block

The next thing to consider when you suspect a sewer drain block is any unexpected or perhaps unusual reactions when making use of plumbing fixtures. You could have a problem if:

• Flushing the toilet causes drinking water to back up from your tub or shower.

• Toilet water starts to bubble. Should this happen, run water in the sink nearest the toilet for a minute or so. If the particular water continues to bubble (or rises), then it’s not a fluke.

• Hearing the gurgling noise as the particular toilet flushes or the particular water within your bathtub or perhaps shower is draining. When you hear this, make contact with your local plumber.

4. Your Backyard Changes

A sewer collection typically extends from your home, through your front lawn, and into the particular city’s sewage system. Head outside to see if you can notice any of these becomes your yard:

• If you have a break in your sewer line, you’ll see an indentation in your lawn.

• If you discover a soggy patch of grass when it hasn’t rained or snowed recently, it might be sewage from the broken sewer pipe.

Sewer Line Repair And Replacement Options

Whilst some drain cleaning plus maintenance tasks can end up being safely performed by the homeowner, sewer line repair and replacement tasks ought to always be performed by a certified, professional plumber.

Video Sewer Inspection

By employing an in-line video inspection digital camera, it will be possible to see the condition of the pipe. Here’s how it works:

• Images captured from the digital camera are transmitted to some gadgets operated by the digital camera technician. These images usually are recorded for further overview.

• At the same time, a radio transmitter within the camera records the particular physical location of the particular line and its details from the surface, therefore the appropriate repairs may be properly planned and implemented.

Once it’s determined that a sewer line must be restored or replaced, there usually are a few options to choose from.

Traditional Sewer Line Repair or Replacement

The traditional repair or replacement is usually performed using a backhoe to be able to dig up the area surrounding the line, allowing effortless access to the condition location. Once the repair is usually made, the backhoe can be used to refill the location.

This option may end up being the only option at times, according to the condition of your pipes, their configuration, or perhaps where you live.

Trenchless Sewer Line Repair Strategies

Trenchless repairs involve making small access holes wherever the damaged pipe begins and ends. A new pipe is then pulled through the present pipe, which bursts the old pipe into pieces while simultaneously laying new pipe.

Trenchless repairs cause fewer damage to yards plus driveways than traditional repair methods because only the particular dirt at the start and finish of the particular line is disturbed.

Get In Touch With The Local Plumber for Your Sewer Line Repair

No matter what alternative you eventually choose, the particular work needs to end up being completed by a knowledgeable and licensed professional plumbing engineer. At Sewer Experts engineer, we’ve been serving the particular Mid-Atlantic region with unrivaled plumbing services for years, plus we consider our plumbers are the best in the business. When you’re having a sewer or drain issue, we guarantee we can identify and fix it, often the same day!