“Do I need to replace my waste piping?”
“When do I need to replace a waste line?”
“Do roots really break my piping?”
“What is an offset?”
All these are pretty much asking the same question. Generally the story goes that a plumber came over to your home because there was a backup and after they cleared the line they sent a video camera down to make sure everything was ok. Oops! As if having backed up plumbing east bad enough now the plumber telling you that your waste line needs to be replaced? Can it really be??
Well there are many factors and questions that go into whether or not a waste line needs to be replaced.
One of the major questions you should ask is “how old is my waste line and how much do I want to out into it?”
Also the question of what is causing the break needs consideration. Think of repair vs. replace as a sliding scale of investment for your line. If, for instance, your waste line to your home is 10 years old, there is a slight offset in the line and no other problems, maybe a spot repair is more cost effective than pipe bursting. Now on the other hand say your home was build in the 1950′s, there are several offsets including root intrusion, then we are probably further down on the replacement aspect of the scale. In the end it’s down to how much investment you want to put in vs. what the problem is. Obviously for one time permanent fixes we suggest pipe bursting replace – its a no hassle one time fix all solution that can be done on the lower side of $4k-$7k. On the other hand we have many customers that we suggest, and are very happy to have a spot repair on a good line and will last for 30 more years.
In the end the most important aspect is get the data (age of line and cost of repairs) and a plumber who you trust to do your plumbing and who’s relationship you trust in the long term. If you pick a plumber with up front straight forward pricing like ours, the decision usually becomes and easy, worry free one. Feel free to email is with any questions or call us.
-Aaron Eddy
925-462-1090
