How we Determine that the Sewer Line Needs Replacement
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• Guide to how to diagnose a blocked main building drain
• How to determine that a sewer line needs replacement
• Step by step main drain line replacement, house to septic tank (or sewer)

Guide to Determining that Sewer Line Replacement is Needed

Discovering a broken but buried drain pipe

Using a wrecking bar and shovel we flipped over the section of sidewalk to expose, no surprise, a wet area below the sidewalk, showing that not only was our sewer line blocked, worse, it was broken. This was not a big surprise. We were working on a 1920's home which still, as far as we knew, had its original clay piping between house and septic tank. The second photo is a close up showing the sewage leak where the drain line was not only blocked, but broken below the sidewalk.

This photo shows a mud and root-clogged section of clay pipe removed later during excavation of the drain line. What caused the clay piping to break after all these years? It could have become damaged by tree roots, but we suspected and still do, that something different occurred here. The home had recently undergone an extensive renovation between tenants. The contractors had driven a heavy pickup truck into and up the rear yard in the process of removing debris. It was possible that driving over the concrete walk had pressed it down just enough to crack the clay piping.

How much drain pipe to replace during sewer line repairs

Here's a photo of the total distance from the house rear foundation to the septic tank (down hill to the left of the garage in the photo.) Regardless of the cause of the broken drain pipe, that section would have to be replaced. Now we had a decision: do we just dig up the broken section by hand and replace it, hoping for the best?

While we might have gotten away with digging by hand to replace just the broken few feet of drain line, it was quite possible that the drain would then be discovered to be blocked again further along, by more damage in the same area or closer to the septic tank. Given the cost of bringing an excavator to the site at all, and wanting to make a complete, reliable repair rather than risk having to simply repeat the whole process all over again in another year, we decided to replace the entire line between house and septic tank.

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GUIDE TO SEWER LINE REPLACEMENT
  Diagnosing a Blocked Drain
  When to Call a Plumber
  How to Locate the Main Building Drain
  How to Use a Power Snake on Building Drains
  How to Find Distance to Drain Blockage
  Determining Need for Replacement
  Replacing the Sewer Line, Step by Step
  Making Other Septic Repairs
  Installing the new sewer line
  Bedding the sewer line in Sand
  Final Backfill of the Sewer Line Trench
  Final seeding and soil restoration
  Sewer or Septic Line Installation at Steep Sites

Technical Reviewers

Particular thanks are due to experts and also consumers who read these articles and suggest corrections, changes, and additions to the material.

• Daniel Friedman - principal author
• Thanks to Thomas Gleason, excavators, Poughkeepsie, NY 845-454-3730, for the excavating work at the project photo documented here in September 2006
• Thanks to Cleveland Plumbing, the prime plumbing contractor, Staatsburgh, NY 845-485-7700 for the plumbing work and drain clog diagnosis work documented here in September 2006
• Technical reviewers are invited to comment or ask questions - contact us

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