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Plumbers of Knoxville
Plumbers of Knoxville
Plumbing · Tennessee
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Sewer Line Repair

Sewage backing into the house is a health problem as well as a plumbing one, so keep the affected rooms closed off and get the line looked at before anyone uses water again.

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When this becomes an emergency

What a pro does

Sewer work starts with a camera, always. Guessing where a lateral has failed means digging in the wrong place, and the camera plus a locator puts a mark on the ground over the actual defect with a depth attached to it. What the camera finds in this part of Tennessee tends to fall into a few families. Clay tile from before the 1960s cracks and offsets at its joints, and roots from the big hardwoods that shade older Knoxville streets follow the moisture straight in. Cast iron rusts thin along the bottom. Then there's the ground itself, because limestone bedrock through the valley dissolves along seams and the soil above it settles in ways that leave a formerly straight pipe with a dip in it. That last one is why a line can be perfectly clean and still back up. Repair depends on the finding. A single bad joint under open lawn is a modest dig, while a run under a mature driveway may be better handled with a trenchless method that pulls or lines new pipe through the old path.

Frequently asked questions

In most cases the property owner is responsible for the lateral from the house to the connection at the public main, though where that responsibility ends varies by the utility serving your address. It's worth confirming with the utility before work is scheduled, since it determines who pays for what.
Almost always. Roots don't drill through sound pipe. They find a crack, an open clay joint, or a failed seal that's leaking moisture into the soil, so root intrusion is really the visible symptom of a defect that was already there.
A section that's sagged below the intended slope, so waste water stands in it instead of running through. Ground settling over soluble limestone is a common cause around Knoxville. Cabling clears it temporarily, but the dip stays and it fills again.
Sometimes. Trenchless repair rehabilitates the old line from access points at each end, which leaves driveways and mature trees alone. It needs a pipe path that's intact enough to work with, so the camera inspection decides whether it's an option.

Sewer Line Repair?

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