Sewer line warning signs come in many shapes and forms. Maintaining your sewer pipes is crucial, especially considering the unique challenges faced by Pierce County, WA homes. The lifespan of cast-iron pipes ranges from 25 to 35 years, and if your cast iron sewer pipes have reached or exceeded this age, they could fail unexpectedly. […]
Cast iron was used for drainage pipe for decades, before modern plastic piping became available. Over time, cast iron pipe corrodes and builds layer of scale inside the pipe and can cause frustrating sewage backups into homes and building. Quite often, these pipes are under the building and have multiple additional connections from other drains […]
This pipe is called Orangeburg. It is a laminated pipe; essentially, rolled up tar-paper made into a tube! In the photo, you can see the delaminations, as well as the disintegration of the pipe. The pipe is collapsing under the weight of the soil that has sat above it for so much time. In the second photo, […]
Have you seen a grinder pump before? This device will be installed 14 feet deep in someones back yard. The pear shaped part of the unit is the basin that the pump unit sits inside of. The other corrugated tube will be installed on top of the first tube, then the whole thing is buried […]
A frustrated potential customer calls because she’s having trouble getting a permit from the local city, for an ADU (accessory dwelling unit) Sound familiar? In most cities in the Puget Sound region, you can tap into your homes existing sewer connection to the city sewer main for your mother in law or ADU structure built […]
The wisdom is that you have to blog in order to be relevant, so I’ve decided to take some risks here with my blogging. My subject matter will always be true stories, but might be embellished a bit to give humor and a little bit of insight into areas of improvement I might suggest (if […]
Nobody wants to get bad news and sometimes it seems to be easier just to ignore it. Unfortunately, when it comes to drain pipes, that strategy can be very costly. From time to time I have conversations with customers that go something like this: “yes we had roots in the pipe before, but we had […]
Many homes have downspouts that feed into an in ground pipe that carries water away. When these in ground pipes become clogged, the first choice for a homeowner is usually a garden hose. A second choice could be a drain snake that is rotated (by hand or machine). If this doesn’t do the trick, a […]
They serve us for years and years without a peep. No complaints, no drama. They’re not pretty (believe me-I know) and they never ask for anything. They invite us to take them for granted. In fact, they take a lot of c*** from us. But they don’t last forever. One day they start demanding our […]
