Cast iron drain pipe replacement/lining

[stav]

We have a slab house built in 1954. The cast iron drain pipe failed once and we had to break up the floor to fix a junction. It seems to be facing again but much further into the house. There is about 40 ft of pipe from the front clean out port to the rear one so it's not excessively long. A recipe is going to cut through the living room and two baths. I was looking st alternatives and found a lining process. It looks a bit promising but as usual, reviews are quite mixed. Is anyone here familiar with this process, had it done or actually does this process?

[blackhat]

Lining is a hit or miss fix. If there is no displacement of the pipe and little soil movement to worry about, lining is an option for pipe that has rust holes. I would first call in a crew to clean all the lines and run a camera down them to determine the extent of the problem.

[EightFingers]

I saw that on This Old House. They used a bladder and epoxy injection system.
It looked expensive.

[Robert Adams]

I saw that on This Old House. They used a bladder and epoxy injection system.
It looked expensive.

       It really isn't that expensive to do it's just a bladder a fiberglass sock and resin but the fact that it's rarely done and a specialty service is why the prices are high for it. Gotta pay for the equipment etc and all that cost is coming from a small number of customers. 

      I would doubt there are too many instances where that would be the best solution. Pipes move over time and then  that liner reduces your pipe size... I remember a friends house that had a wet spot outside the house. The run from the house to the sewer was about 60' and the pipe had moved and contracted over time and pulled back about a 1/4" and broke the coupling just outside the foundation. I thought it may have sagged and pulled but later a camera inspection showed it was a nice slope the whole way which is rare in our sandy soil as the pipes move allot in it. PVC will eventually float up out of our sandy soil.

[stav]

I was hoping this was a viable solution. We are planning to sell the house and to replace the whole line is going to require tearing up a good bit of the living room floor and a hole bathroom.

[blackhat]

It can be a viable solution within a narrow set of parameters.

[chrisntam]

Talk to as many plumbers as you can and if possible, have them come to your house and provide you an estimate.  I have found that American Leak Detection is a pretty good company, it is likely they have a franchise in your area, they generally shoot straight with you.  Sometimes, some of the "Rooter" companies are ok too, those are Roto-Rooter, Rescue-Rooter, etc.  They are franchises (as is ALD), and getting a good one is hit and miss.  I've found some of the Rooter companies to be stupidly expensive, others are reasonable.

Camera-ing the line will tell you a lot about what is going on.  Generally, the smart thing is to fix what is broke and don't try to make it new again, unless you are in the house you plan to stay in for the balance of your years.

Plumbers generally will charge to fire up the camera.  I suggest you draw a detailed (and to scale) floor plan of the house, have them draw on the diagram where the drain lines run and what/where the issue(s) are and how they propose to repair them.  You can look at the camera monitor while they are running the camera.  From that diagram, other plumbers may be able to estimate their cost to repair, assuming the person camera-ing the line is competent and properly diagnoses the problem.  In order to compare the plumber's pricing, be sure they are bidding on the same "repair" process as the others.  If a plumber suggests an alternative, have a competing plumber bid that process too.

As you know, when the house was built, the plumbing is highly likely to be run in a straight line between water sources (bathrooms, laundry room, kitchen).  Dependent on your home, you likely have a "main" line and branch lines that tie into the main line.  

Sometimes it may be less expensive to abandon the broken under slab lines and re-route them around the house (outside), but that is dependent on if there is enough fall from the farthest fixture to where your line ties to the city line.  If the fixtures are near the perimeter of the home, this option may be feasible, if the plumbing is located away from the perimeter, it gets expensive.

Let us know how it turns out.

[stav]

Thanks for the advice.  Unfortunately, the line is kind of in the middle of the place and runs front to back.

[stav]

Follow up.

We had a guy out yesterday who snaked the roof vent. He wasn’t willing to run a camera snake or to agree that the pipe was rusted out. After he snaked the vents, he said the pipe started breathing again and we were good to go. Never heard of a pipe breathing before, but then I don’t get a lot of time with plumbers either. So far so good.

He also said our kitchen needed a double p trap in the piping from the sinks to the drain. Gotta look into that. The logic is lost on me.

[TDKPE]

He also said our kitchen needed a double p trap in the piping from the sinks to the drain. Gotta look into that. The logic is lost on me.

I thought I heard somewhere that the plumbing codes require one trap per basin, rather than one trap for both basins, but I'm not clear on the logic in that other than knowing which trap has the clog when one basin backs up.  A disposal does, of course, need to be upstream of a trap.


And I wouldn't worry about it, if it were me.  Jillions of two-basin sinks have just one trap.