I recently had a situation with a sewer main replacement (a partial replacement actually) pop up, so I thought I would tell you the story, and see if maybe it will help others to make good decisions when faced with similar circumstances.  Out of all the types of . . . → Read More:]]> I recently had a situation with a sewer main replacement (a partial replacement actually) pop up, so I thought I would tell you the story, and see if maybe it will help others to make good decisions when faced with similar circumstances.  Out of all the types of emergency plumbing repairs that are made, sewer main repairs are one of the most common.  The situation that I am about to describe is also very, very common.

About a month and a half ago, I received a call from an old ex-girlfriend of mine (yea, it happens to the best of us).  She could not figure out why the shower was taking so long to drain, and while draining, it was making the toilet gurgle.  Well, if you read the post on this blog about “Residential Drain Plumbing”, you likely know that if any other fixture affects the toilet, it is a sewer main back up.

So, I gave her advice on what she should have the plumber do when he got there, and wished her the best.  The plumber came over; she had him do what I said to do and left her with a “cleared” sewer line, and a warranty.  He did recommend running a camera, but she did not like the plumber, so she declined… besides, he left no incentive for her to run the camera that day, rather than waiting.

Well, the other day, it backed up again.  This time she called for a manager to come by.  He came over, cleared the line under warranty, and ran a camera.  It turns out that the roots had infested the plumbing so badly that there was a major break in the line just barely under the sidewalk.  They gave her a quote for $2800 to replace the section of damaged plumbing.  She approved the quote without consulting me first, and the work began.

Now, it turns out that they did a pretty good job making the repair, and left the yard looking pretty good, considering the scope of work that was involved.  So what went wrong?  There are a few things, all of which I explained to her after the fact.  I am hoping you get to read this before the fact.

Where I live, the sewer line is divided into sections in front of the house.  The property owner’s line actually ends at the easement, which is five feet back from the sidewalk, or ten feet from the curb, if there is no sidewalk.  The city’s line begins there and runs to the connection to the city main, in the street.

If there is a problem with the connection within that easement, AND there is no approved cleanout within the easement, the homeowner is responsible for the repair.  This was the case in this situation.  The plumbing was broken within the easement, and there was no sewer main cleanout there.  The problem is that she should have had them install one.

In order to install a cleanout, and have the city take responsibility for the sewer line from that point out, the plumber (or the homeowner) must pull a permit, install the cleanout, and have the cleanout inspected before backfill.  In fact, whenever making a repair within the easement, permits need to be pulled and the work inspected.  They did not pull permits, not did they install a cleanout there.

Finished sewer line replacement with cleanout

The most popular place to have a main sewer problem is in the area where she had it.  The second most popular place is the connection form the lateral to the city main, in the middle of the street.  So what happens of there is a break there?  Well, if the line can be cleared, I recommend putting in a cleanout at the property line easement; so that the city will take responsibility for it next time there is a problem.  Once an approved cleanout is in place, it is the city’s problem, and they will fix it at no charge to the homeowner.  The line has to flow, however, to pass inspection (in most cases).

If the sewer line will not clear, a repair has to be made in the street.  The cost for a plumbing repair in the middle of the street can cost upwards of $20,000 or more.  In some cities, the permits alone cost around $5,000.  I would have liked it if I was consulted prior to the contact being signed, so I could have warned her about this.  There are also other things that could have gone wrong that would have cost her a lot more money.  Fortunately, all went well.  My concern now is what might happen if the connection to the main proves bad in the future.

This is all research she could have done on her own prior to getting the repair done.  She told me that she felt as if she was under the gun due to the nature of the problem.  She could have, however, had the line cleared again to restore flow temporarily, had the camera run, done some research, and collected some bids.  She could have likely had the work done with a cleanout and permits for the same price.

The moral of the story here is that, when dealing with your plumbing, always do your homework.  Many plumbers will try to make you feel like you are under the gun to make a decision right now, but the situation is seldom as dire as they make it seem.  Listen to your gut.  If it tells you that you have a day or two to do due diligence, listen to it.  It could save you a lot of money and headaches in the future.

Another bit of advice – it is a point of fact that if you have a sewer line blockage, the chances are better than not that you will have a problem with it again, unless there is a repair made.  Running the line with a sewer cable (even with a big blade on it) will NOT fix the problem.  It is a temporary solution at best.  Expect the problem to get worse with time, and prepare for it.  Get a camera survey done to asses the nature and location of the damage, and prepare, prepare, prepare.  If you stay in that property for long enough, you will likely need either a full or partial sewer main replacement eventually.

Quite often . . . → Read More:]]> A slab leak can be one of the more frightening experiences a homeowner has to deal with when it comes to emergency plumbing problems.  Actually, that is a bit of a misstatement, because they aren’t usually an emergency at all, although they are often thought of as one.

Quite often a slab leak isn’t even discovered until a homeowner finds themselves with a huge water bill.  They will call a plumber out to try to figure out why, and the plumber will inform the homeowner that they have a water line leaking under the slab. That means that the leak has been there for around a month or so already – so much for an emergency.

First of all, I want to let you in on how I used to find leaks under slabs.  This might help you, since most pros do it the same way.  Obviously the first thing to consider is whether the house is really on a slab.  If you don’t know whether your house has a crawl space, just stomp on the floor once.  If you get a hollow sound, you have a crawl space, and the leak can be looked for there (once the access is found).  If it is solid and unyielding, you are likely on a slab.

The next thing is to try to figure out whether it is the hot or cold water.  Simply feeling for hot spots on the floor may be the easiest way to tell.  Even if I do not find any hot spots, I will usually turn off the hot water and see if the leak stops.  You can usually hear the leak when walking throughout a house.  In the rare instance where you cannot, watching the meter will tell you if the leak has stopped or not.

I do need to backtrack a bit.  It is very important that you or the plumber check every fixture very thoroughly to make sure that something else is not leaking. I cannot count the times when what others thought was a slab leak, I found was a leaking hose bib, irrigation valve or toilet.  Even good plumbers overlook this sometimes.  It happens.

If you are lucky enough to have a wet spot or a hot spot on the floor, then you have a bit of a head start.  That will usually show you the area of the plumbing leak, but not always.  Do not depend on that, however.  I have seen leaks that were up to 10 feet away from the only wet spot.  Water finds the easiest avenue to escape, so what might seem like a spot where the leak is could easily be the spot where there is a crack in your slab.

The next thing I will usually do is try to map out where the pipes go.  I can often do this based on my experience, but it never hurts to actually locate the pipes with an electronic pipe locator.  This is not essential, but it makes finding the leak a lot faster, because you only need to look where the pipes are.  If you don’t know where the plumbing runs under your slab, you will be “looking” for leaks everywhere, including where there are no pipes.

Next, find the general location.  If you don’t have a wet spot or a warm spot, you need to very carefully listen for where the sound is loudest.  Listen behind the toilets, under the sinks, etc.  The pipes are usually noisiest nearest the leak.  Once you have the general area located and know where the pipes are, you can begin the fun part.  I have an air compressor (a very quiet one) and an adapter that I made so that I can connect an air hose to an outside hose bib.  I keep the compressor in my truck with the doors closed to further minimize the sound.  Then I turn the water off at the main and pump air into the line at about 60-80 psi. I try to keep it near the working water pressure of the house, so I don’t force air into the city main.  I will go into the house and open up one of the faucets until that faucet starts to spit.

I then turn the faucet off and let the compressor catch up.  Some very helpful will happen.  The air, mixed will small amounts of water will make a very specific and recognizable sound as it exits the leak.  The pipes themselves will burble and such, but there will be a distinct “spitting” sound at the leak.  Now you just have to find that sound.

I use one of two things when listening for the sound.  The one that I use primarily is called a Geophone.  You can actually get these (if you are so inclined) from PollardWater.  There are also a variety of electronic listening devices on the market.  They are a lot more expensive.  The Geophone will cost about the same as someone doing leak detection for you, so unless you plan on having a lot of slab leaks, it is probably best to get a pro to find it.  Still, it never hurts to know the process, so you are informed.

Once the leak is found, fixing it is really not that hard.  It is a bit dangerous though, so I do recommend having this done by a pro.  Basically the process starts with removing the flooring; whether it is tile, linoleum, wood, carpet, etc., then using a small jackhammer to remove a section of concrete.  I try to keep the hole as small as I can – just big enough to work in.  Next, the leak needs to be positively located, and a section of the leaking pipe removed and a new piece tied in.  Do not allow someone to “patch” the pipe.  The section must be removed and replaced.

Don't do this (bad)

Now, let me stop for a second and tell you that this is meant to be done with copper pipe.  There are still homes out there that actually have galvanized water piping under their slab.  If that is you, I do not recommend trying to repair it.  The best course of action in this case is to do what is called a partial or full bypass.  That basically means that you need to cut off the flow to some or all of your slab piping and run new pipes overhead.  This is usually done within an attic.  I have run across homes that do not have attics, at which point I needed to run the pipes on the roof.  This is the way it has to be with Eichler homes.  In fact, my “falling off the roof” incident happened towards the end of an Eichler re-pipe.

Finally, when the repair is made, I recommend turning the water back on to test before closing up the hole.  Once it has been verified that there are no more leaks, I will get rid of the old soil that I took out to get to the pipe and fill with sand.  I do this because the old soil is wet and will cause the concrete patch to settle.  Sand will be compacted 100%, and will fill in some of the gaps as well that were created by the leak.

Next, you just poor concrete into the hole, level it off and let it cure.  I recommend leaving it uncovered for at least 7 days before replacing your floor covering.  It sound like a pretty big process to go through – and it is.  Different companies in different areas charge different amounts for these, but I use to charge between $2500 and $3800 to find and fix the leak.  That included replacing the concrete to “patch” finish.

One final little bit of info for you, and this may be the most helpful part of this article:  Check with your insurance company and find out if they will cover you, and if so, what parts they cover.  In my area, many of the good homeowner’s insurance companies will pay for the leak location, the tearing out of the flooring and concrete to “access” the leak, and the replacement of the concrete and flooring.  Knowing this can really help.  The repair of the pipe is the easiest part, and can easily be shown on the invoice to have cost $150 or something, while the rest of it would be covered by your policy.  Out of all of the slab leaks I have repaired, I would say that about 80% were covered.  They will NOT usually cover a re-pipe however, but that is in my area, yours might be different.

In this article, I would like to approach emergency plumbing from a different angle. Today I would like to discuss some of the most common plumbing emergencies, and what you can do to sort of stem the flow . . . → Read More:]]> In my last article I touched on what constitutes emergency plumbing.

In this article, I would like to approach emergency plumbing from a different angle. Today I would like to discuss some of the most common plumbing emergencies, and what you can do to sort of stem the flow (so to speak) until the plumber can get there.

Sewer main backup

This is by far the most common plumbing emergency the average homeowner experiences. It usually starts with a toilet that just doesn’t seem to want to flush correctly, followed by a sort of burbling, and finally the toilet overflowing onto the bathroom floor. The biggest problem with a mainline backup is that it can often be mistaken for a regular toilet blockage. The symptoms look almost identical at first, especially to the untrained eye. The easiest way to tell if it is your Main line that is backed up, is that often a tub or shower will also refuse to drain.

Often, when a sewer main is backed up, not using any water in the house for a while will allow the line of partially drain. Sometimes the line will drain down far enough where it appears as though everything is working correctly again. Usually a few flushes of the toilet will demonstrate otherwise. Keep in mind that any water that goes down a drain in your home will backup into the lowest fixture in your house. That means that if you have a toilet downstairs and your sewer line is backed up, flushing the upstairs toilet may very well flood your downstairs restroom. The best thing that you can do here is to stop using all water and call a plumber immediately.

Water pipe burst

Gate Valve

Having a water line burst inside, or even outside, of your home can be one of the scariest plumbing emergencies that a homeowner can experience. Water supply piping is all over your house, is pressurized, and is mostly hidden from view. Unlike a sewer main backup that starts draining slower and slower before it finally backs up completely, a water pipe bursting often gives no warning whatsoever. One day everything is peaches and cream and the next day you’ve got a flood on your hands.

When faced with this particular type of plumbing emergency, you need to immediately focus on the one thing: shutting off the water. There are usually a number of ways to get this accomplished. If you have a Main shutoff valve at the front of your house, this will be the easiest way to shut your water off. If you have an older gate valve, it will have a circular handle on it. You want to turn this handle clockwise to turn the water off. Remember the old adage, “righty tighty – lefty loosy”. If you have the newer style ball valve, the handle will look like a lever. Turn the lever one quarter turn, which will shut off your water.

Ball Valve

The second option would be to turn the water off at the meter. The water meter is where the local utility company goes to read how much water you’ve used every month. Often times turning off the water at the meter can be extremely difficult without the proper tools. For this reason, if you do not have a shutoff valve at the front of your house, I recommend that you go to your local hardware store and buy a meter key. It is always better to spend a few dollars on a tool you may never use, than not have the key when you need it and suffer thousands of dollars of water damage.

Two things that you should make sure you do any time you turn the water off your home:

1. Turn off the gas to your water heater
2. Open up all the hose faucets outside of your home

Turning off the gas to your water heater, either with the gas caulk or setting the control unit to pilot, will keep the water heater from firing on a partially empty tank. Opening up all the hose bibs outside of the home will allow residual water from inside of the water pipes to drain outside instead of inside.

Gas leak

As far as emergency plumbing situations go, having a gas leak inside of your home is by far the most dangerous. Not only is natural gas very combustible, so that little more than a tiny spark can create a huge explosion, but breathing the gas can kill you. Natural gas itself is odorless. Odorant is added to make it smell like rotten eggs so that we’ll know when we have a gas leak.

Most homeowners, when they smelled gas, have a natural tendency to want to call their utility provider (here in California, it’s Pacific Gas & Electric Co.). Believe it or not, that’s not usually the best idea. Most utility companies will not fix a gas leak if it is in your piping. Usually, they will just let you know if you have a leak, and sometimes the general location aware that leak might be. Then they will shut down your gas, and will often insert a device so that it may not be turned back on. The reason this is not always the best option, is because most plumbers need to be able to turn on the gas to find out where the leak is coming from.

If you smell a gas leak in your home, or around your home, there is one thing that needs to be done immediately: shut off the gas! High on the list of objects in your home that you need to know how to locate and operate is the gas meter. Each gas meter will have a shutoff valve that usually shuts the gas off with a quarter turn. Most home improvement stores carry emergency gas shutoff tools. Personally, I have always used a large crescent wrench.

I know this doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface when it comes to all the possible combinations of plumbing emergencies. In this article, I basically wanted to cover the top three. As always, the comments area is open, as well as a form. I welcome your questions and suggestions on other topics that you’d like for me to cover. Until then, I hope that this article has allowed you to at least be prepared for these three emergency plumbing scenarios.

Here in California we have a law that states that any time someone comes to your home to sell you . . . → Read More:]]> The question of what constitutes emergency plumbing is an interesting one.  It is also important for a number of reasons.  Let’s start with the most broad definition, and its application.

Here in California we have a law that states that any time someone comes to your home to sell you a good or service that is valued at over $300, you have the right to cancel that transaction within 3 working days after signing the contract.  That means that if someone comes to your home and you buy a vacuum cleaner from them (for more than $300), you can notify the seller in writing that you wish to cancel the sale up to 3 full working days after you bought it.  The seller, by law, must accept the vacuum back and issue a full refund of the purchase price (without penalty).  The same is true for a plumber that performs more than $300 in service.

Unfortunately for the plumber, if you should cancel that transaction, you cannot “return” the service.  In this case the company must still provide you with a full refund.  In some cases, such as water heater replacements, the company can opt to uninstall the new unit, but only if they reinstall your old unit.  Most companies will not do that, so you will usually wind up with a free service, and the company eats the costs.

Since most plumbing companies do not survive by doing free work, they will ask you to sign a “Waiver of Right to Cancel”.  Here is the catch: you can only waive your right to cancel the transaction if the repair is needed to remedy an emergency situation.  On the cancellation waiver will be verbiage that states that you have an emergency situation that requires immediate attention.  In this case, the term “emergency plumbing” takes on a very loose definition.  For the sake of signing the waiver, something as simple as “need to use toilet” will suffice.

Now, some people will become wary when presented by this waiver, as they may fear that it leaves them with no recourse should they be dissatisfied with the work.  Be assured that this is not the case.  They are still bound by their licensing authority to provide the service that they are contracted to provide in a workmanlike and professional manor.  Others may be concerned that by stating their need as an emergency, they are bound to continue to consider the problem as an emergency.

The fact is that in the case of declaring a plumbing problem an emergency for the sake of the cancellation waiver, “emergency” only means that you do not want to wait 4 days to have the problem addressed.  That is all.  Once that is decided, we look at the more commonly accepted definition of emergency plumbing repairs.

The reason that I want you to change gears here is because there are plumbers out there that will misuse “emergency”.  Just because a company may authorize a 10% discount to get started today, does not mean that your plumbing job that is not really an emergency suddenly becomes one!  When deciding whether or not a job should be considered an emergency plumbing repair, there are a few questions that need to be asked.  Ask yourself these questions, and if you do not know the answer, ask the plumber:

1. Is the __________ completely unusable until the repair is made?
2. Can I live with the __________ in its current state until I have had time to think/save/compare/etc.?
3. Does the _______ in its current state risk the health of myself or others?
4. Does the current state of _________ risk damage to things that are of worth to me?
5. If not addressed immediately, are the answers to #3 or #4 likely to become “yes”, and if so, how soon?
6. Do the benefits of getting the work done right away, far outweigh the benefits of comparing estimates, getting a second opinion, further researching, etc.?

The answers to those questions will let you know very quickly whether or not you have a true emergency plumbing situation.  The good news is that if you have followed the advice in my other articles, you will already have a plumber that you trust that will help you decide whether or not the problem you are facing is an immediate need, or something that can hold off for a bit.  One thing that my customers grew accustom to hearing was, “this is not an emergency or anything, so it doesn’t need to be done today, but the next time you call me out, it will likely be to fix this.  If you have the time and the budget to have me take care of it today, it will save you the service call fee for having to call me back out later to fix it.”  A true professional will always be honest with you and create a win/win for both of you for every situation.  That, in and of itself, will help to eliminate future plumbing emergencies.