Few things have a greater impact on the health and habitability of your Denver, CO home than your sewer line. This lone pipe routes all of your effluence and wastewater away from the building. Whether connected to an underground septic tank or the municipal sewer system, your sewer line keeps many dangerous pathogens and biological and chemical contaminants away from building residents. Find out what might happen if your sewer line fails and learn how to prevent sewer line problems.
What Is Sewer Line Failure and What Causes It?
Sewer line failure can mean many different things. Whether due to root infiltration, insufficient maintenance, or misalignment, sewer lines can collapse. They can also experience general, age-related failure, get crushed by heavy equipment, or sustain damage due to soil shifting, erosion, compaction, or other factors.
Age and General Pipe Degradation
Like all of the pipes in your plumbing system, your sewer line has a finite lifespan. Even with diligent maintenance, sewer lines can develop heavy buildups of silt, sediment, sand, and general debris. Many sewer pipe materials are also prone to rust and other corrosion.
While most sewer pipe materials can last 50 to 100 years, some sewer lines could fail much sooner. This makes it important to have your sewer line professionally inspected once every 18 to 22 months. With regular inspections, you can identify impending failure before a broken sewer line causes damage to your landscape or home.
Weed and Tree Root Encroachment
Weed and tree root encroachment are common causes of sewer line failure. Although primary tree roots are fairly thick, these roots can send out tiny, lateral roots that are just millimeters in width. After entering sewer pipes via ultra-small openings, lateral roots often grow exponentially. If left unchecked, these invasive growths can fill sewer pipes entirely.
Root infiltration widens the small-sized cracks that trees and weeds use to gain entry. Once inside, fast-spreading roots obstruct the flow of wastewater and solid waste. They also set the stage for messy, whole-house backups. If tree and weed roots become heavy enough, they can even cause sewer pipes to burst or collapse.
Heavy Buildups
If you have hard water in your home, the same mineral buildups that form on your fixtures and in your water supply lines will also form in your sewer line. The heavier that these deposits grow, the more likely sewer failure becomes.
Heavy mineral buildups can lead to sagging, U-shaped pipe sections. Also known as sewer line bellies, these humps obstruct the natural, gravity-induced flow of waste and cause:
- Blockages
- Backups
- Pungent sewer gas odors
- Standing pools of water
You can flush trapped materials out of your sewer pipe with regular sewer line cleaning. Hydro-jetting, hydro-steaming, and rooter service are all effective ways to keep sewer lines open and extend their lifespans.
Soil Shifting and Soil Compaction
In many areas, sewer pipes are covered by just 18 to 20 inches of soil. However, in regions like Denver where winter temperatures often dip below freezing, sewer pipes may be buried 5-feet deep or more. When the soil that covers your sewer line shifts or becomes compressed, the integrity of this pipe suffers. Soil compaction can occur due to earthquakes and other natural, geological events.
Uniformed Digging
Before starting any digging projects in their yards, Denver residents must work with utility-line locating services. Uninformed digging can lead to ruptured gas lines, damaged electrical cables, and failed sewer lines.
Corrosive Drain-Cleaning Chemicals
Store-bought drain cleaners clear clogs by “burning” or “eating” through them. When added to water, caustic drain cleaners undergo thermal reactions that gradually dissolve hair, soap scum, and other soft or semi-soft materials with high temperatures. Corrosive drain cleaning chemicals dissolve organic materials on contact.
Unfortunately, both product types destroy organic materials indiscriminately. They don’t distinguish between built-up grease and wastewater pipes. Although using a store-bought drain cleaner once won’t cause your sewer line to fail, using these products repeatedly could. If you’ve been using chemical drain cleaners to resolve all of your plumbing clogs, you might need both sewer line replacement and repiping service.
The Devastation Caused by Whole-House Backups
Whole-house backups are easily the most common form of sewer line failure. They occur when sewer lines are completely obstructed and waste and wastewater have nowhere to go but back into homes. A whole-house backup will send effluence into your tubs, sinks, showers, toilets, and plumbing-connected appliances.
These events expose residents to illness-causing germs. They can also saturate building materials and set the stage for mold and mildew development. A major whole-house backup can damage your:
- Floors and sub-floors
- Baseboards
- Drywall
- Furnishings
If you have in-floor air vents or low-lying heating and cooling equipment, a whole-house backup can even damage your HVAC system.
The Effects of Cracked, Offset, or Crushed Sewer Lines
Some pipe materials are prone to developing cracks. These include terracotta pipes and Orangeburg pipes. As these materials age, they dry out and break down. However, even metal pipes can develop cracks due to poor maintenance, heavy sediment buildups, and other factors.
Whether your sewer line is covered by just 18 inches of soil or f feet of earth, placing heavy items just above your sewer line can compress the overlying soil and crush this pipe. It can also lead to disconnected or offset sections. When setting up stump grinders, wood chippers, and other heavy equipment, homeowners should always keep these machines at least 6 feet away from their sewer lines.
Soil Integrity and Building Foundations
Sewer line leaks saturate the surrounding landscape and undermine the integrity of soils. This can lead to problems with soil erosion or soil compaction. If sewer line leaks are severe or left unchecked for extended periods, they can even have a significant impact on grading and building foundations.
Sewer Line Leaks and Your Home’s Slab
While most of your sewer line travels underground, away from your home, a good portion of it passes beneath your home’s foundation. If this section of pipe ever cracks or develops offset sections, you’ll have a perpetually wet slab. Also known as a slab leak, this problem can affect the integrity of the building to its rooftop. Over time, you’ll notice problems like:
- Ill-fitting or offset windows and doors
- Settlement cracks across your slab and drywall
- Loose or missing roof tiles
- Damaged flashing
Slab leaks also significantly increase indoor humidity. As the water on a leaky slab evaporates, it adds moisture to the indoor air. Without timely interventions, this moisture can cause rank, moldy odors, mold, mildew, and all-around decreased indoor air quality (IAQ).
Sewer Line Failure and Pest Infestations
Cracked sewer lines create points of entry for rodents and other small-sized critters. This is one of several ways in which sewer rats enter buildings. The strong-smelling effluence that seeps out of leaky sewer pipes is a major attractant for multiple insects and animals that naturally thrive within the region.
Sewer Line Failure and the Efficacy of Your Plumbing System
When your sewer line stops working, waste stops moving. Among the most common signs of sewer line problems are:
- Frequent plumbing clogs
- Multiple slow-moving or blocked drains
- Pungent drain odors
- Malfunctioning plumbing-connected appliances
Sewer line leaks and blockages can also fill your home and yard with foul-smelling sewer gases. If breathed in, these gases can cause nausea, headaches, fatigue, and many other unpleasant symptoms.
We help homeowners in Denver protect their properties with expert sewer line repair and replacement. We also offer top-notch heating, cooling, plumbing, and electrical services. If you think your sewer line has reached the end of its lifespan, contact Summit Heating, A/C, Plumbing & Electrical today to schedule an appointment for inspection.
