Older Cast Iron Sewage Pipes and De-scaling/Resin Coating

[2.7ecoboostFordBronco]

I purchased my first house 5 months ago. Built in 1999. There is a first floor garage with an epoxy floor and a drain with a p-trap. So far 3x I’ve come downstairs to a 7-10 ft diameter puddle of sewage in the midddle of the floor. There is one guest bathroom upstream of this drain and that bathroom being used is the source of the clogs. The house has 3 other bathrooms.

I had a plumber borescope the cast iron pipes that are about 18” below the slab BEFORE snaking this time to see where the clog was happening. The clog was easily cleared by just the borescope punching through it without snaking, so according to them it was just TP/body oils getting hung up on “scaling”.

The plumber wasn’t really able to offer an easy solution but referred me to a company that does pipe coatings. Prices from that company were $6000 to descale/clean the pipes and an extra $20,000 to coat the inside the pipe with epoxy/resin and then an extra $6k per layer of extra coating, minimum 2 but up to 4 coatings recommended. So they were quoting me between $6,000 to minimum clean it up to $35,000 4 for resin coatings of 50 ft of pipe.

I attempted to get other quotes for this but no one seems interested in bidding for my relatively small amount of work. I attached a picture from the borescope.

I would be interested to hear recommendations in case anyone else has been faced with this sort of problem.

 

[Chris142]

How much to dig up the pipe and replace it with plastic? $35k seems like a lot. I bet digging it up would be less

 

[2.7ecoboostFordBronco]

How much to dig up the pipe and replace it with plastic? $35k seems like a lot. I bet digging it up would be less

I’m not sure, but the resin coatings company said I would probably be looking at $60k to remove and replace the old pipes. While I’m not saying they did, I realize that they have an incentive to over estimate that quote though.

 

[Chris142]

I’m not sure, but the resin coatings company said I would probably be looking at $60k to remove and replace the old pipes. While I’m not saying they did, I realize that they have an incentive to over estimate that quote though.

Get a 2 ND opinion

 

[Rand]

Do you use any of those flushable wipes that arent really flushable?
teach guest to tear tP into sheets 2-3 long max?
get handy with a snake?
6000$ is absurd let alone 30k-60k+

 

[Nukeman7]

This option is a lot cheaper than $6000...not to mention $35,000! Four units in stock at Anchorage today.

 

[Gradient]

Switch to Scott 1000 toilet paper and see if it still clogs.

 

[2.7ecoboostFordBronco]

Do you use any of those flushable wipes that arent really flushable?
teach guest to tear tP into sheets 2-3 long max?
get handy with a snake?
6000$ is absurd let alone 30k-60k+

We don’t buy those and no one in the household says they’ve ever flushed anything but this TP and #1/#2 down the toilet. I think it’s a Costco brand TP but this is the last roll so I don’t have the packaging any longer.

 

[chexxers]

prolly like my terracotta with poor joints that seep + attract weeds etc!! plastic is cheep + its a DIY if not too deep + your up to it $$$

 

[bugeye]

Thank the government for the new low water flow toilets. We have new and 50+ year old toilets. The underfloor cast iron piping has never clogged with using the old toilet. But the newer toilet on the same riser pipe has clogged twice in the past three years. Suggest multiple flushes with solids only then flush the paper. Then finally another flush or two for a pipe clean-out. Best of luck. While I have a 25 foot snake, it is too short to reach the past clogs.

 

[hemitom]

That cast pipe looks like all cast drains I have seen meaning normal .
I'm willing to bet there might have been a partial blockage that was never cleared or not enough slope to properly drain.

 

[duck__dodgers]

2nd the Scott 1000 mention.

Scott 1000, or Kirkland Signature 2-ply. nothing else

supposedly those two are the best for dissolving in pipes, given their "formulations" / additive pack, lol.

Learned all about TP during a Covid clog. Correlation is not causation... but after years of 0 clogs, my clog happened after using a 12-pack of TP from Thailand.

 

[BigCahuna]

About two years ago we had a basement flooding fiasco where we needed to make a decision fast. The only reason we could figure was the underground pipe in the basement was 85 years old, and that's all the life it had left in it. We had a plumber come in and put a camera in the sewer pipe while I stood there. The cast iron pipe was rusted and scaled.A little bit of everything was hung up on the scale in the pipe. He recommended we replaced the pipe. I had to agree with him as water was coming up thru the floor in several places.So I asked the million dollar question, after a few calls to his office we got the bad news. $12,500, to break up the cement, and remove as much of the cast iron pipe as possible. And replace it with 4 inch PVC. I said do it. It only took their crew about 8 hours to do the pipe work, and a couple extra to cement over the new pipe. One thing I never thought of until my friend mentioned it was, did you see if your homeowners ins would cover at least some of the cost?. Low and behold my wife called them and they said because we have an extra rider on our policy, they would cover $10k of the cost. So for our out of pocket cost of $1500, we had approx 80 ft of new PVC pipe run in the basement, and tied into 2 risers that go to the first and second floors. And for once, I didn't have to do it.,,

 

[vwmaniaman]

When our home flooded due to a broken ice maker line while we were on a 10 day vacation. Water volume was over 4000 gallons. Anyway the rebuild ers called a plumber. He wanted to dig up and replace the iron drain.pipe. I ran him off since we had already been out of our home for two months. I had a previous home with iron pipe that was still good at 80 years old. Anyway we have had no problem with our iron drain pipes. We are on city sewer and we only have one newer commode with the dreaded 1.6 galllon flush every one knows to flush it twice.

 

[JHZR2]

Our 100 year old home needed to replace the pipe a few years back. I did it with my wife, with no-hub couplings and pvc.

$6k, or $30k is absurd. Inflation or not.

 

[tnt_motorsports]

FWIW, @2.7ecoboostFordBronco I don't think the pipe is your issue. I think it is the TP, or amount of TP used. I would suggest implementing a double flush system to help provide more water to move the waste and suggest to all users they use less TP, or flush more frequent.

 

[hemitom]

We don’t buy those and no one in the household says they’ve ever flushed anything but this TP and #1/#2 down the toilet. I think it’s a Costco brand TP but this is the last roll so I don’t have the packaging any longer.

View attachment 281997

Take a five gallon pale of water and pour down the offending toilet as fast as it will take it if the pipe is draining properly you should hear and see a significant suction pull as it empties if its draining well.

 

[duck__dodgers]

Good point raised above.... guest room + low-flow toilet = not enough usage/force to flush paper and waste fat (ya it's a thing) down to the city pipes.

especially if your guests think that they're being helpful by flushing only once.

use that toilet for#1 more often, flush 2x, change TP, randomly flush when clean. then see if you really need lining

 

[zzyzzx]

Switch to Scott 1000 toilet paper and see if it still clogs.

Get a toilet bidet attachment and stop (or greatly reduce) TP usage. Your butt will thank you. Bidet's are life changing!

 

[2.7ecoboostFordBronco]

On the low-flow & flushing discussions: the clog is happening about 60 ft away from the problem toilet. It’s happening about 3 feet upstream of a 45 degree joint where the guest bathroom and garage drain join the main line for the rest of the house. Plumber said slope and flow was good once clog was removed. I don’t know if any of that bolsters the need for a stronger flushing toilet or not.