A brand new Sewer Liner

 

There is only one thing a plumber needs
to know; shit runs down hill.

05-2022
D. Vautier
www.dvautier.com

Several months ago I got a sewer backup which was way out on the lateral.  I went down with a snake and hit a hard stop at about 30 feet.  I called the city and to my surprise they came out within about 30 minutes and partially cleared the blockage.  Bellevue seems to take sewer backups very seriously. The city crew advised me that they would be back to see me because more research was needed.  They came out the next day and located the approximate spot of the blockage.  I think this was done to show me that it was on the inside lateral and therefore was totally on my property, nine feet deep and right under my beautiful oak tree.  The way sewers are designed in these hills, it is possible to get backup from a downstream house which could make the city liable.

Most of the houses in the east lake hills area are over 60 years old and the sewers installed at that time were 4 inch cement and many may have developed cracks.  Trees feast on the rich delicious and nutritious sewer water and will avidly send out roots over long distances that eventually develop into big fat root balls.  Several of my neighbors near me have actually had to dig out and replace sections of collapsed sewer which can be quite expensive.  Sewers go way down deep.

Fortunately for me my pipe was still intact and I was able to get a company to run a CIPP liner. CIPP (cured in place pipe) is a wonderful way to replace your sewer without digging up and destroying grass and trees.  It’s an epoxy liner that gets forced down the pipe by compressed air, like blowing on an inverted rubber glove.  The pipe is then cured by hot water or steam.

In Bellevue, as in many cities, most of the laterals run on the owners’ property.  My lateral doesn’t connect to the inside lateral under the street until it joins the next house’s outside lateral.  I suppose this is good city planning because it puts more burden on the homeowner to maintain more of the available sewer line.

By the way if you buy or sell, by all means have the sewer inspected. I can’t understand why home assessment does not do all this.  Anyone considering buying a house needs to look at the plumbing as a major cost that is not always addressed by appraisers.  Shame on those guys.

Below one of the workers measures out the liner material. The liner is then put into a big pressure tank then connected to the sewer line.