Hi there!

In a previous post, I discovered that one of the two main 4" cast iron drain lines from my house (goes to septic) had standing water in it:

https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/plumbing/cracked-cast-iron-pipe-107834.html

Even though I've never had trouble with this drain, it seems like a good idea to take care of the problem now, while I've got it all excavated and stuff.

So, I went and rented a large drain-snake machine from Home Depot (previous advice that the HD rental equipment is newer, cleaner and in better condition are right on!).

It's a 100' 5/8" machine, and I put at least 75' of that into the drain, enough so that I'm pretty sure I was hitting the T at the septic tank. Since there was plenty of standing water in the drain (I ran a whole bathub full down the drain before I started, to reduce the yuk factor a little) I couldn't tell if it made it all the way to the septic. In any case, I had only five more turns of cable in the reel, and it felt like what I had fed down there was winding up on the inside of the pipe.

It was a real bear to get it out at first.

The standing water is still there, and there didn't appear to be a lot of stuff on the spring-tip... no roots or anything, just a little hair. See the pics below.

SO.. the questions:

1) does this seem like my problem is a backflow or rise in the pipe from settling? It's service-weight hubbed cast iron, installed in 1969.

2) could a drain camera tell if this is the case? Is it worth the $500 or so to have that done?

3) I am assuming the only way to fix, if this is the problem, is to excavate and replace the whole way along... If there's no trouble with the drain, should I forget it until trouble appears?


As always, thanks for your help!

~aaron



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Sounds to me like your house or the pipe has settled and there isn't much pitch to it, assuming you got all the "goody" out.

May want to send the root cutting head down, just to make sure it is all clean. Just the auger will "punch a hole" through any obstructions.

If, after you put the root cutter through, the water is still standing, I think you are correct, excavate and replace.

Thanks for the input... I hadn't run the root cutter through, since the water was still standing there... I figured if a hole had been punched, at least the current standing-water would run through it.

I've cleaned the machine up, but maybe there's enough time for another go at it, I'll try!

I don't think the issue will have been the house itself settling, as there's two feet of good 45deg pitch from the exit through the house foundation, to the sweep-90 where it goes to a mostly flat line. It's certainly possible that parts of the pipe itself have settled though.

I'm just wondering if a camera can detect this... if the camera goes through, and goes through the standing water, and then back to clear pipe without seeing any obstructions, I would guess that means a pitch/settling problem?

AND... since there's been no problem with this at all so far, is it worth doing the excavation now?

Hmm

Thanks for the input... I hadn't run the root cutter through, since the water was still standing there... I figured if a hole had been punched, at least the current standing-water would run through it.

I've cleaned the machine up, but maybe there's enough time for another go at it, I'll try!

I don't think the issue will have been the house itself settling, as there's two feet of good 45deg pitch from the exit through the house foundation, to the sweep-90 where it goes to a mostly flat line. It's certainly possible that parts of the pipe itself have settled though.

I'm just wondering if a camera can detect this... if the camera goes through, and goes through the standing water, and then back to clear pipe without seeing any obstructions, I would guess that means a pitch/settling problem?

AND... since there's been no problem with this at all so far, is it worth doing the excavation now?

Hmm

Camera will tell the tale.