Repairing Clay Sewer Pipes in South Florida – Before It’s Too Late

As a property manager in South Florida, we have an obligation not to spend money from the reserves unless we have to. That however has to be weighed against the increased cost of taking action later, when that cost is not only measured in increased dollar terms but in “emotional” and “inconvenience” cost.

Recently a mobile home park in Boca Raton had a sewer pipe backup emergency, the day before Thanksgiving. The property manager had been paying drain cleaning plumbers to clean the sewer pipes on a regular basis. The clay sewer pipes under the units would backup due to root intrusion, or root growth into the pipe. The roots capture debris which stops all flow inside the broken sewer pipes.

The first hint of real pipe repair trouble was when a sewer manhole started to flood into the road. Then the calls started to arrive at the front office, people complaining that their toilets and drains were backed up and their floors are flooded. Everyone was expecting guests the next day for Thanksgiving.

The City of Boca Raton in South Florida was called out to inspect the sewage spill, the health department fined the property owner, and someone contacted the news stations, and soon the site was considered “condemned”, in a way.  Emergency plumbers showed up with a Vactruck to vacuum the waste and clean the pipeline. Emergency rates were charged by the plumbing contractors knowing that there was no time to get competitive bids.

Once the emergency crews left a sewer inspection video was carried out in South Florida.  It revealed that oak tree roots had cracked the clay sewer pipes to such an extent that the clay pipe roof had collapsed, causing the complete failure of the sewer pipes service the entire mobile home park. In addition, the collapse was located underneath the clubhouse, which would have to be excavated and rebuilt in order to do the drain pipe repair. Their total pipe replacement cost was going to be $78,000, so the residents of this Boca Raton mobile home park expected a huge assessment to cover the costs of this pipe repair.

There was however a more modern way to repair sewer pipes, pipe re-lining. An inflatable tube in placed in the area where the missing or broken sewer pipe is. That tube has been wrapped in a fiberglass fabric that has been saturated with resin that hardens in 3 hours. When the tube is inflated, the cloth takes on the shape of the pipe, adhering to the pipe to become the new pipe. This is called a point repair or sectional repair. The total pipe repair cost was $5,500 and was performed by www.CrafsmanPipeLining.com. Their website also offers a very informative pipe lining E-book for free, delivered directly to your email.

Is Pipe Lining for Sewer Back-Ups or Blocked Drains?

Most people don’t know that reoccurring backups or blocked drains are caused by roots growing into drains, or by cast iron drain pipes rusting and catching on waste. Most plumbers recommend repiping or pipe replacement, which is very messy, time consuming and expensive. Pipe replacement by pipe re-lining has a 50-year warranty, fixes leaks and foul odors permanently and takes only 3 hours to install. For more information about drain pipe repair or repipe alternatives, including blocked drains and pipe replacement, visit www.CraftsmanPipeLining.com.

So why do drains block up?

In order to determine the causes of the reoccurring sewage backups we cut out sections of 30-year old cast iron pipe outside buildings that were experiencing problems for closer examination and used our video cameras to gain full access to the upstream and downstream sections of pipe.

Findings:

1. Corrosion deposits: the upstream low-flow sections of pipe under the buildings were in remarkably good shape and we estimate have another 15-20 years of life. But the downstream sections of pipe under the buildings and going from the building into the road that have high flow have been rusting for decades and the iron oxide deposits have accumulated on the pipe floor. These deposits create anaerobic (oxygen deprived) environments on the pipe surface where sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) metabolize sulfate and excrete sulfuric acid. This sulfuric acid corrodes the cast iron floor of the pipe, which later collapses creating reoccurring backups.

2. Missing floor of pipe allowing roots intrusion: a channel was etched through the corrosion deposits and through the floor of the pipe from the use of acidic drain cleaning agents sold at hardware stores. These drain cleaning agents contain sulfuric acid, as expressed on the label, which corrode the floor of the pipe. Tree roots in search of water during the non-rainy months grow into these pipes and cause obstructions and sewage backups.

3. Offset joints between cast iron lateral and clay pipe under roads: All the buildings had cast iron pipes leading into the road where they connected with stronger clay pipes. Some of the connections between the cast iron pipe and the clay pipes were cracked open by decades of ground settlement and root intrusion was prolific, also creating recurring sewage backups.

For more information about drain pipe repair or repipe alternatives, including blocked drains and pipe replacement, visit www.CraftsmanPipeLining.com.