Ok, just finished this sewer gas smoke test, we got a phone call from a large popular chain restaurant in the San Diego area that has been suffering from plumbing sewer gas smell problems for years, literally years. They were referred to us by a property management company that we did an amazing sewer gas leak detection and smoke inspection for a year or so earlier. We had 2 attorneys and 3 or 4 principals following us around at every turn on that one. We nailed it and documented 4 points of infiltration. Everyone went home happy and all the lawsuits went away.
Ok, so we walk in the front door at this restaurant and whoa, no mistaking this one. Most of the time its, " well we smell it sometimes here or over there in the afternoon", not on this one. It was so strong that it was amazing. I can't believe anyone would sit and eat and we were told that it was like this all the time.
As usual, we got the call after numerous plumbers before us had been there and come away empty handed without finding the cause for the sewer smell. We found the little charcoal vent caps on the roof and some plumber had even re-routed vent lines but dumped them into enclosed building spaces. It was a mess.
So, we progress with our test and almost immediately, we determine that XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXX when you put your nose up to the hole, it was amazing, it was almost an instant headache from the sewer gas. It was a problem staying there at the top of a ladder. So we continued to XXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXX. It was incredibly difficult to see. The crawlspace was too tight for human access. We used a sewer camera to get a visual on the area. It told us what we wanted to know. The gas was coming from an attached column, via a crawlspace, that was outside of the restaurant.
Poor manager, here we are telling him, ok you have to bust into that column. It's in there somewhere. To his credit he didn't say it but he just looked at us like "I'm not comfortable with this." He had faith, after permission was obtained from the property management company, we cut two inspection holes into the wood framed stucco column. Don't forget this was outside his restaurant bordering on the walkway that went around the exterior. When we cut into the column, strong sewer gas was clearly evident. The first hole didn't provide a clear view so the second hole was cut on the opposit side and after a bit of searching inside the column, a hole in the concrete slab was located. It may have been a c/o that was improperly placed and broken off or an intended vent pipe snapped off and never fixed. In any event, we nailed it. We properly capped it and informed the property management company so they could follow up. Also I do believe that because the problem originated from the area outside of the restaurant under property management control, they are on the hook for the testing and repairs. This was a difficult one. I was really excited to solve this man's problem.
I called him the next morning to check up on things after the leak was capped. He told me he almost cried. I think he meant it. For the first time ever the smell was gone.
Superjet Sewer and Drain Cleaning, we're the ones that know what were doing.Superjet Hydro Jetting Sewer and Drain
Friday, October 29, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Superjet sewer and drain cleaning Testimonial
Ok, long story but a good one. Big sewer line overflow at a shopping center in Cerritos. The overflow makes it into the storm drains and the city has levied a $ 10,000.00 fine against those responsible. My client, client B, a property management co. gets involved in this mess because they share a portion of that shopping center with other owners.
The overflow actually happens on client A's corner of the property but his plumber, a big operation with quite a few trucks, tells him that the whole complex is tied together and the sewer line runs all the way around in a big horseshoe shape and into the line that overflowed. So it would be a shared responsibility.
Another huge problem is that the plumber for client "A" states that the main outgoing line is cast iron and completely falling apart and needs to be fixed immediately because the entire complex drains through it. The run was about 150 feet and I think the estimate was $17,000 to $20,000 and of course it needed to happen immediately as fast as possible.
Prior to laying out all this cash for fines and repairs, we were called in to diagnose the situation and map out the property by our client "B"
A quick check of a few clean/outs on the upper portion of the property showed that they had not even been opened in years. If they had, it would have been obvious to anyone that the sewer line did not run all in the same direction. The upper portion ran a completely different direction to a different connection on a different street. The direction of the sweep in the clean/out made this obvious. We double checked other runs by running a camera, locating and marking the runs above ground. Clearly 1/2 of the complex had no connection with the other at all.
Additional inspection showed that in the middle portion of the complex there were actually 2 side by side but separate sewer runs. They ran parallel to a point just before they ran together and then into the county sewer line. The lines became common just 50 feet before the sewer main connection.
This meant that the overflow was documented to be on one specfic line tied to one specific client, client "A".
We also inspected client "A"s sewer line and discovered that it was so heavily impacted with grease that it was impossible to make a determination of the pipe condition. We were asked by our client to hydro jet the line. When we hydro-jetted and then camera inspected the line, we discovered that the line was made of clay not cast iron and it was in perfect condtion mechanically. There was absolutely no need whatsoever for any repair.
Client "A" who ended up paying the full fine by himself is now our client. We saved him $17,000 + in repairs and we regularly hydro jet his lines to keep them free and clear of grease.
Client "B" we saved the shared cost of the $10,000 fine. They were happy.
Superjet Sewer and Drain Cleaning, "We're the ones that know what we're doing."
The overflow actually happens on client A's corner of the property but his plumber, a big operation with quite a few trucks, tells him that the whole complex is tied together and the sewer line runs all the way around in a big horseshoe shape and into the line that overflowed. So it would be a shared responsibility.
Another huge problem is that the plumber for client "A" states that the main outgoing line is cast iron and completely falling apart and needs to be fixed immediately because the entire complex drains through it. The run was about 150 feet and I think the estimate was $17,000 to $20,000 and of course it needed to happen immediately as fast as possible.
Prior to laying out all this cash for fines and repairs, we were called in to diagnose the situation and map out the property by our client "B"
A quick check of a few clean/outs on the upper portion of the property showed that they had not even been opened in years. If they had, it would have been obvious to anyone that the sewer line did not run all in the same direction. The upper portion ran a completely different direction to a different connection on a different street. The direction of the sweep in the clean/out made this obvious. We double checked other runs by running a camera, locating and marking the runs above ground. Clearly 1/2 of the complex had no connection with the other at all.
Additional inspection showed that in the middle portion of the complex there were actually 2 side by side but separate sewer runs. They ran parallel to a point just before they ran together and then into the county sewer line. The lines became common just 50 feet before the sewer main connection.
This meant that the overflow was documented to be on one specfic line tied to one specific client, client "A".
We also inspected client "A"s sewer line and discovered that it was so heavily impacted with grease that it was impossible to make a determination of the pipe condition. We were asked by our client to hydro jet the line. When we hydro-jetted and then camera inspected the line, we discovered that the line was made of clay not cast iron and it was in perfect condtion mechanically. There was absolutely no need whatsoever for any repair.
Client "A" who ended up paying the full fine by himself is now our client. We saved him $17,000 + in repairs and we regularly hydro jet his lines to keep them free and clear of grease.
Client "B" we saved the shared cost of the $10,000 fine. They were happy.
Superjet Sewer and Drain Cleaning, "We're the ones that know what we're doing."
A Superjet hydro jetting restaurant sewer line testimonial
Ok, so we've been hydro-jetting this restaurant in Rancho Cucamonga for two or three years at least, every 4 to 6 months or so. They have had zero problems since our service started. Well, last service we got stuck in the line big time. We had to really work at it but we did managed to get our hose back out. Mind you the owner is sitting there watching this whole thing happen. We ran a camera and we could see a large hole in the pipe at a turn area. I showed the owner but maybe he didn't understand what he was looking at. I gave him all the specs and marked everything out on the ground where and how deep the problem was because he said his landlord would take care of the dig and the repair.
So 4 or 6 months later they call us back to schedule another service. I asked him about the repair. He said "There was no repair, the landlords plumber came out and ran a camera. That plumber told them that there is nothing wrong with the pipe."
Things got a little weird fast. I said I can't hydro-jet the line. I know you have broken pipe. He assured me, "no the landlords plumber says it's not broken." I offered to hydro-jet if they guaranteed us a deposit for the hose if we got stuck. I thought that was reasonable based on the fact that I knew what was coming. Well he got pretty upset with us at that and told us he wasn't comfortable using us anymore.
Ok, so what can I do, some idiot tells him there is no problem and I know that If I hydro-jet the line there is an almost certainty that we will get stuck and he will have an instant emergency dig on his hands causing the immediate shutdown of his restaurant. We were fired and we've lost business because of some idiot "plumber".
So this is the fun part, guess what happens.
6 months or so goes by and we get a phone call from the restaurant owner. He wants to schedule another hydro jetting. It seems that the landlords plumber took over the hydro jetting for the restaurant after we were let go and you guessed it, he got stuck in the exact spot we had marked for broken pipe causing an emergency dig to repair the problem. We must have looked like psychics. It was nice to get the account back but it was priceless to hear the story from the owner himself.
"Superjet Sewer and Drain Cleaning, were the ones who know what we're doing."
So 4 or 6 months later they call us back to schedule another service. I asked him about the repair. He said "There was no repair, the landlords plumber came out and ran a camera. That plumber told them that there is nothing wrong with the pipe."
Things got a little weird fast. I said I can't hydro-jet the line. I know you have broken pipe. He assured me, "no the landlords plumber says it's not broken." I offered to hydro-jet if they guaranteed us a deposit for the hose if we got stuck. I thought that was reasonable based on the fact that I knew what was coming. Well he got pretty upset with us at that and told us he wasn't comfortable using us anymore.
Ok, so what can I do, some idiot tells him there is no problem and I know that If I hydro-jet the line there is an almost certainty that we will get stuck and he will have an instant emergency dig on his hands causing the immediate shutdown of his restaurant. We were fired and we've lost business because of some idiot "plumber".
So this is the fun part, guess what happens.
6 months or so goes by and we get a phone call from the restaurant owner. He wants to schedule another hydro jetting. It seems that the landlords plumber took over the hydro jetting for the restaurant after we were let go and you guessed it, he got stuck in the exact spot we had marked for broken pipe causing an emergency dig to repair the problem. We must have looked like psychics. It was nice to get the account back but it was priceless to hear the story from the owner himself.
"Superjet Sewer and Drain Cleaning, were the ones who know what we're doing."
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Plumber tells this guy "your pipes are a mess"
Plumber tells this guy, "your pipes are a mess, all filled up with rust debris from the cast iron pipe. You need to dig up the washer / kitchen line. We can do it for $2,500."
So what do you think we (Superjet) find when we get there? You guessed it. ABS PLASTIC PIPE. It was a grease problem and nothing more. We had it perfectly clean and showed the homeowner the entire run on video from the rear clean/out to city main in less than an hour.
The homeowners email to us regarding our service follows:
Name: David Rogers
Email: davidrogers@xxxxcom
Phone: 619-549-xxxx
Services Required: Other
Comments: You guys did a great, honest job. I had a plumber come out and tell me that my cast iron pipe has rusted shut after he tried to snake it because when he pulled his rusty snake out of it, it had rust on it. He wanted $2500 bucks to dig up my yard to run a new line. You guys came out and said no, its a plastic pipe and jetted the grease out of it in about an hour. Thanks for honest work at 1/5 the price!!!
So what do you think we (Superjet) find when we get there? You guessed it. ABS PLASTIC PIPE. It was a grease problem and nothing more. We had it perfectly clean and showed the homeowner the entire run on video from the rear clean/out to city main in less than an hour.
The homeowners email to us regarding our service follows:
Name: David Rogers
Email: davidrogers@xxxxcom
Phone: 619-549-xxxx
Services Required: Other
Comments: You guys did a great, honest job. I had a plumber come out and tell me that my cast iron pipe has rusted shut after he tried to snake it because when he pulled his rusty snake out of it, it had rust on it. He wanted $2500 bucks to dig up my yard to run a new line. You guys came out and said no, its a plastic pipe and jetted the grease out of it in about an hour. Thanks for honest work at 1/5 the price!!!
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Just another day of drain cleaning and a testimonial
We were recently called by a homeowner that had root intrusion and pipe issues. He was having regular backups and had called a plumber out. That plumber cabled the line and then ran a camera. He found multiple points of root intrusion into the line and immediately went into a hard sell on a new liner for the pipe. It's advantageous to install a liner usually but not always necessary. Sometimes it's more economical to clean the line on a regular basis and leave it at that.
Well, clearly the homeowner picked up on the hard sell and wasn't comfortable or interested. The plumber was more interested in selling a liner than in fixing the mans problem. Well, when it became clear that he wasn't going to sell a liner to the homeowner, the plumber was gone. The homeowner had found us online and seen our video demonstration showing how we could completely clear a line of roots.
When we arrived we immediately ran a camera to diagnose the situation. I was really surprised that the prior plumber hadn't taken the time to mark a few things out when he ran his own camera. He charged for a camera yet did very little to give the homeowner the information that the camera provided. Nothing had been marked or located. We had to start from scratch. We marked all the pipe runs, direction changes and root intrusion spots. We used the sewer camera to precisely place the cutting sewer nozzle right on top of the root masses and completely removed the roots. The prior plumber had in essence just punched a hole through the root masses with his cable machine and left a great deal of roots still in the line.
The way it stands, the homeowner can hydro jet once a year for the next 14 years before he would have spent the amount equal to a liner installation. Every situation is a little different. But you don't always have to spend the big bucks.
The following is the homeowners email to us regarding our service:
Name: Frank Robinson
Email: umpxxxxxxxxx
Phone: 949-495-xxxx
Services Required: Hydrojetting
Comments: I had my home sewer lines Hydro Jetted by this Company on Apr 20,2010 & have nothing but praise for the Company,the service provided & in particular Mark who did the work.The professioal way that the work was conducted & the willingness to educate me @ each step was out standing.I would highly recommend these people for any work you may have & plan on having them do any future work that I might require,Kuddos to Mark & thank you.
Well, clearly the homeowner picked up on the hard sell and wasn't comfortable or interested. The plumber was more interested in selling a liner than in fixing the mans problem. Well, when it became clear that he wasn't going to sell a liner to the homeowner, the plumber was gone. The homeowner had found us online and seen our video demonstration showing how we could completely clear a line of roots.
When we arrived we immediately ran a camera to diagnose the situation. I was really surprised that the prior plumber hadn't taken the time to mark a few things out when he ran his own camera. He charged for a camera yet did very little to give the homeowner the information that the camera provided. Nothing had been marked or located. We had to start from scratch. We marked all the pipe runs, direction changes and root intrusion spots. We used the sewer camera to precisely place the cutting sewer nozzle right on top of the root masses and completely removed the roots. The prior plumber had in essence just punched a hole through the root masses with his cable machine and left a great deal of roots still in the line.
The way it stands, the homeowner can hydro jet once a year for the next 14 years before he would have spent the amount equal to a liner installation. Every situation is a little different. But you don't always have to spend the big bucks.
The following is the homeowners email to us regarding our service:
Name: Frank Robinson
Email: umpxxxxxxxxx
Phone: 949-495-xxxx
Services Required: Hydrojetting
Comments: I had my home sewer lines Hydro Jetted by this Company on Apr 20,2010 & have nothing but praise for the Company,the service provided & in particular Mark who did the work.The professioal way that the work was conducted & the willingness to educate me @ each step was out standing.I would highly recommend these people for any work you may have & plan on having them do any future work that I might require,Kuddos to Mark & thank you.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Run that Sewer Camera If
Quite often I detect that hesitation in a customer when I recommend running a camera. I know that there are those companies out there that really push for that and use that as a way to generate more income at a higher cost to the customer but....It is an incredibly valueable tool that in the hands of a skilled operator can provide invaluable information.
We just finished jetting a job yesterday, an apartment complex where we hydro-jetted a short run of 75 feet that dumped into a mainline outgoing lateral and then ran another 185 feet to the city sewer connection.
The initial 75 was a restricted 3 inch wall c/o that dropped down into the run across to the next c/o. We jetted this with a medium hose and the appropriate sized nozzle. We hydro-jetted it thoroughly. Ran this probably 5 times slowly. The customer had mentioned from the start that they wanted to run a camera to document line condition so it wasn't an issue. When we ran the camera, whoa, surprise surprise, we found a very large belly in the line holding water right after the turn into the main outgoing. The pipe was almost completely full of water and there were a couple of very large grease deposits that truly looked like they hadn't been touched by a jetter even though we ran right past them 5 times. They were monsters and when they broke free, and they most assuredly would at some point, probably on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday night, you were guaranteed a back up.
The pipe being full of water was too much water for the medium hose nozzle to displace. You have to get that water out of the way so you can impact the grease itself. Without running a camera, you could never have guessed that.
The camera allowed us to make changes opting for a bigger hose with a very small nozzle and allowed us to know exactly where to spend our time and to verify visually to the customer that the blockages were completely removed.
If your having recurring problems, ie. having to cable every 4,6 or 8 months, run a camera. If you haven't run a camera in the last 10 years and your having an issue with your main line, run a camera. Think of it like a cancer screening at the doctor. If you can catch a problem before it gets too bad, your way ahead of the game. Two or three hundred on a camera could save you thousands.
We just finished jetting a job yesterday, an apartment complex where we hydro-jetted a short run of 75 feet that dumped into a mainline outgoing lateral and then ran another 185 feet to the city sewer connection.
The initial 75 was a restricted 3 inch wall c/o that dropped down into the run across to the next c/o. We jetted this with a medium hose and the appropriate sized nozzle. We hydro-jetted it thoroughly. Ran this probably 5 times slowly. The customer had mentioned from the start that they wanted to run a camera to document line condition so it wasn't an issue. When we ran the camera, whoa, surprise surprise, we found a very large belly in the line holding water right after the turn into the main outgoing. The pipe was almost completely full of water and there were a couple of very large grease deposits that truly looked like they hadn't been touched by a jetter even though we ran right past them 5 times. They were monsters and when they broke free, and they most assuredly would at some point, probably on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday night, you were guaranteed a back up.
The pipe being full of water was too much water for the medium hose nozzle to displace. You have to get that water out of the way so you can impact the grease itself. Without running a camera, you could never have guessed that.
The camera allowed us to make changes opting for a bigger hose with a very small nozzle and allowed us to know exactly where to spend our time and to verify visually to the customer that the blockages were completely removed.
If your having recurring problems, ie. having to cable every 4,6 or 8 months, run a camera. If you haven't run a camera in the last 10 years and your having an issue with your main line, run a camera. Think of it like a cancer screening at the doctor. If you can catch a problem before it gets too bad, your way ahead of the game. Two or three hundred on a camera could save you thousands.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Hydro Jetting FAQS for sewer and drain cleaning
Hydro jetting is the use of water under high pressure to clean pipes clear of various types of debris. It's an amazing process that got it's start years ago in the oil fields and has found it's way into numerous different industries that need to keep their pipes operating at a high rate of efficiency.
It's extremely effective and in high demand for the simple reason that it is the only process that can actually clean a line of debris. You see when you run a cable in a line to clear a blockage,( ie. rooter a line), you are typically puching a hole in a blockage to allow flow again in the pipe. This can leave debris behind and this debris can act as a starting point for another blockage some time in the future. Now a skilled technician running a cable may be able to get close to the true pipe diameter but only if variables work in his favor. Never the less they will never be able to clean a line like a hydro jetter could. A common situation is a clean/out that is smaller than the mainline. For Example a 4 inch clean out on a 6 inch mainline. Now, if your running a cable your limited by that 4 inch access. If your running a cable, your punching a hole in the blockage because you can't get a full size tool into the line. A hydro jetting nozzle does not work that way. The high velocity streams of water that do the cleaning spread out to impact the pipe wall. On a regular basis we tackle major root intrusion problems, many with multiple intrusion points in a single sewer line and when finished, it was very difficult if not impossible to see with video inspection where the roots were making their way into the pipes because the pipes and joints were that clean. Just yesterday we were called to a school that had a large mainline backed up. Turned out it was an 8 inch. After we poked a hole in the blockage and it drained away a bit, we were able to see a huge root intrusion at the sweep into the line. With careful placement of a Warthog rotating nozzle we were able to polish this completely out and there were roots that were as big around as my thumb. At the other end 150 feet away in a vault was another monster root mass that was spreading out from the opening and holding back the flow. Again careful placement shredded this all out of the way without having to enter the vault and it was a deep one. This rate of success is par for the course and explains why hydro jetting is now an industry standard.
One big misconception is that the pipes might not be able to withstand that pressure. The pipes are not pressurized with water. When the water is in the hose it is under high pressure but when it leaves the nozzle it is no longer under pressure but it is traveling at a high speed. It's this speed of the water hitting the pipe walls that does the actual cleaning of the pipe.
There is a huge difference in the quality of work based on the machine used. Larger trailer towed machines are capable of producing high pressure, 4,000 psi at 18 gallons per minute. That high water flow volume is crucial to flushing the debris out of the line once it has been loosened from the pipe walls. Many many companies, plumbers use small cart type machines that they carry around inside their van. They produce a reasonable pressure but do not produce the high flow volume to flush the debris out of the line. A typical cart type jetter might produce 3,500 psi @ 5gallons per minute. If your working on a smaller line, 3 inches or less, it may be fine but a medium or larger line with any sort of heavy debris, your wasting your money. They'll be there all day on a job that a big machine could do in an hour or two. Be careful, they're probably charging the same rate as the big machine.
Hydro Jetting Grease
There are various reasons to use hydro jetting as opposed to running a cable in a line. The most glaring is grease. If your in a commercial application as in a restaurant, grease is a huge issue. We see it in homes as well but there it happens over a longer period of time. You can't touch that problem with a cable machine. By that I mean, you may cable a line open but it's going to be very difficult and time consuming and it will not last long. Depending on how severe the problem is, it could last a week or a day. Any restaurant manager with more than a few years in the business has figured this one out already and can probably give you an ear full.
One of the heaviest situations I have run into are some of the El Pollo Loco restaurants we service. Think about how many chickens they cook every day with three shifts a day. Now multiply that by a month and now by a year. All that grease drips down from the broiler and into the broiler floor drain. We are able to clear those lines to the extent that some of those customers are jetting once every year or year and a half. That's pretty incredible.
Hydro Jetting Roots
We've already mentioned roots but let me just say that completely cleaning the roots out of a line as opposed to punching a hole with a cable machine will allow longer intervals between services and also help to minimize the amount of damage done by the roots to the pipe itself. We are probably all familiar with that stretch of sidewalk in our neighborhood slowly buckling up over the years. Every year the concrete gets pushed up a bit more and more by the tree roots. Well the same thing is happening under the ground with respect to roots entering sewer and drain lines. If you don't keep these in check, they move the pipe more and more and can and often do cause pipes to crack and collapse. It's going to be expensive to fix and if the pipe is deep, it's going to be very expensive.
Hydro Jetting Debris
The other situation is debris. We had this job a while back where a lady was dumping her cats litter box into her toilet. This had been going on for quite some time till finally, you guessed it, the toilets didn't work anymore. Well you can't cable that type of a blockage. It's completely ineffective. All the cable does is stir the debris. We were able to actually pull a great deal of that material out of the line through the clean/out on the side of the house. Think of a badmitten bird. The little plastic skirted toy that you bat back and forth with a raquet. A hydro jetting nozzle looks similar when the water leaves the nozzle. If you go beyond the debris and slowly pull back, those fingers of high pressure water will pull the debris back with it as they scour the pipe walls. Pretty amazing result. We pulled a huge amount of cat litter out of their lines in just a couple of hours. When we left, everything was working perfectly.
Hydro jetting is more effective at longer distances.
Another neat thing about the hydro jetting process is that it is able to deliver it's full cleaning effectiveness at very great distances. Our machine carries 500 feet of hose. Many of our jobs require that or more. But what is interesting is that the nozzle delivers the same amount of pressure and cleaning quality if we are out 50 feet or 500 feet. This is in direct contrast to a cable machine. The motor on a cable machine produces a fixed amount of torque or power to rip through that clog or roots or whatever it may be. But the more cable that is run out of the machine, the less torque or power is transfered to the cutting head at the blockage. That is because the cable actually starts to absorb some of that energy. The more cable you have out, the more energy or torque is absorbed by the cable. A cable machine is also pretty much at the end of it's limit in the 150 to 200 ft range.
Doing The Impossible
Cast iron drain or sewer pipe that is fairly old tends to blister on the interior. This blistering makes the pipe very rough and it tends to catch debris, grease etc. With time, this can literally change the interior shape of the pipe with large ledges left and right of the flow channel line. These can get almost as hard as a rock. Hydro jetting is unique in that it is a process that is, in many instances, capable of returning that pipe back to a round condition and substantially smoothing out the surface. This may allow a customer to postpone pipe replacement and save them thousands of dollars. That isn't going to happen with a cable machine.
It's extremely effective and in high demand for the simple reason that it is the only process that can actually clean a line of debris. You see when you run a cable in a line to clear a blockage,( ie. rooter a line), you are typically puching a hole in a blockage to allow flow again in the pipe. This can leave debris behind and this debris can act as a starting point for another blockage some time in the future. Now a skilled technician running a cable may be able to get close to the true pipe diameter but only if variables work in his favor. Never the less they will never be able to clean a line like a hydro jetter could. A common situation is a clean/out that is smaller than the mainline. For Example a 4 inch clean out on a 6 inch mainline. Now, if your running a cable your limited by that 4 inch access. If your running a cable, your punching a hole in the blockage because you can't get a full size tool into the line. A hydro jetting nozzle does not work that way. The high velocity streams of water that do the cleaning spread out to impact the pipe wall. On a regular basis we tackle major root intrusion problems, many with multiple intrusion points in a single sewer line and when finished, it was very difficult if not impossible to see with video inspection where the roots were making their way into the pipes because the pipes and joints were that clean. Just yesterday we were called to a school that had a large mainline backed up. Turned out it was an 8 inch. After we poked a hole in the blockage and it drained away a bit, we were able to see a huge root intrusion at the sweep into the line. With careful placement of a Warthog rotating nozzle we were able to polish this completely out and there were roots that were as big around as my thumb. At the other end 150 feet away in a vault was another monster root mass that was spreading out from the opening and holding back the flow. Again careful placement shredded this all out of the way without having to enter the vault and it was a deep one. This rate of success is par for the course and explains why hydro jetting is now an industry standard.
One big misconception is that the pipes might not be able to withstand that pressure. The pipes are not pressurized with water. When the water is in the hose it is under high pressure but when it leaves the nozzle it is no longer under pressure but it is traveling at a high speed. It's this speed of the water hitting the pipe walls that does the actual cleaning of the pipe.
There is a huge difference in the quality of work based on the machine used. Larger trailer towed machines are capable of producing high pressure, 4,000 psi at 18 gallons per minute. That high water flow volume is crucial to flushing the debris out of the line once it has been loosened from the pipe walls. Many many companies, plumbers use small cart type machines that they carry around inside their van. They produce a reasonable pressure but do not produce the high flow volume to flush the debris out of the line. A typical cart type jetter might produce 3,500 psi @ 5gallons per minute. If your working on a smaller line, 3 inches or less, it may be fine but a medium or larger line with any sort of heavy debris, your wasting your money. They'll be there all day on a job that a big machine could do in an hour or two. Be careful, they're probably charging the same rate as the big machine.
Hydro Jetting Grease
There are various reasons to use hydro jetting as opposed to running a cable in a line. The most glaring is grease. If your in a commercial application as in a restaurant, grease is a huge issue. We see it in homes as well but there it happens over a longer period of time. You can't touch that problem with a cable machine. By that I mean, you may cable a line open but it's going to be very difficult and time consuming and it will not last long. Depending on how severe the problem is, it could last a week or a day. Any restaurant manager with more than a few years in the business has figured this one out already and can probably give you an ear full.
One of the heaviest situations I have run into are some of the El Pollo Loco restaurants we service. Think about how many chickens they cook every day with three shifts a day. Now multiply that by a month and now by a year. All that grease drips down from the broiler and into the broiler floor drain. We are able to clear those lines to the extent that some of those customers are jetting once every year or year and a half. That's pretty incredible.
Hydro Jetting Roots
We've already mentioned roots but let me just say that completely cleaning the roots out of a line as opposed to punching a hole with a cable machine will allow longer intervals between services and also help to minimize the amount of damage done by the roots to the pipe itself. We are probably all familiar with that stretch of sidewalk in our neighborhood slowly buckling up over the years. Every year the concrete gets pushed up a bit more and more by the tree roots. Well the same thing is happening under the ground with respect to roots entering sewer and drain lines. If you don't keep these in check, they move the pipe more and more and can and often do cause pipes to crack and collapse. It's going to be expensive to fix and if the pipe is deep, it's going to be very expensive.
Hydro Jetting Debris
The other situation is debris. We had this job a while back where a lady was dumping her cats litter box into her toilet. This had been going on for quite some time till finally, you guessed it, the toilets didn't work anymore. Well you can't cable that type of a blockage. It's completely ineffective. All the cable does is stir the debris. We were able to actually pull a great deal of that material out of the line through the clean/out on the side of the house. Think of a badmitten bird. The little plastic skirted toy that you bat back and forth with a raquet. A hydro jetting nozzle looks similar when the water leaves the nozzle. If you go beyond the debris and slowly pull back, those fingers of high pressure water will pull the debris back with it as they scour the pipe walls. Pretty amazing result. We pulled a huge amount of cat litter out of their lines in just a couple of hours. When we left, everything was working perfectly.
Hydro jetting is more effective at longer distances.
Another neat thing about the hydro jetting process is that it is able to deliver it's full cleaning effectiveness at very great distances. Our machine carries 500 feet of hose. Many of our jobs require that or more. But what is interesting is that the nozzle delivers the same amount of pressure and cleaning quality if we are out 50 feet or 500 feet. This is in direct contrast to a cable machine. The motor on a cable machine produces a fixed amount of torque or power to rip through that clog or roots or whatever it may be. But the more cable that is run out of the machine, the less torque or power is transfered to the cutting head at the blockage. That is because the cable actually starts to absorb some of that energy. The more cable you have out, the more energy or torque is absorbed by the cable. A cable machine is also pretty much at the end of it's limit in the 150 to 200 ft range.
Doing The Impossible
Cast iron drain or sewer pipe that is fairly old tends to blister on the interior. This blistering makes the pipe very rough and it tends to catch debris, grease etc. With time, this can literally change the interior shape of the pipe with large ledges left and right of the flow channel line. These can get almost as hard as a rock. Hydro jetting is unique in that it is a process that is, in many instances, capable of returning that pipe back to a round condition and substantially smoothing out the surface. This may allow a customer to postpone pipe replacement and save them thousands of dollars. That isn't going to happen with a cable machine.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Disposal plumbing problems and don't put that down the drain
Customers don't want to hear it but I always tell them. Don't put anything down the disposal. It's not worth it. A great majority of the calls for clogged drains in a home come from the kitchen line and that is a grease issue. Wipe grease out of your pans out with a paper towel and throw that into the trash. Put all food waste into the trash. Never never never dump hamburger down the disposal. It's loaded with grease. All those fats,oils and grease collect within the pipe over time and cause problems. Sometimes they cause major problems. A heavy grease problem can't be cleared with an ordinary snake or cable. That means you'll have to have it hydro jetted and that won't be cheap. You think the disposal is a convienence but in the long run, if your using it instead of a trash can, it's going to cost you.
I use my disposal for the small scraps that get past me. That's it.
Now let me talk about the toilet as a disposal. I can't tell you how many times I find whole food in a sewer line overflow or backup. It amazes me. I've seen macaroni noodles, watermelon, the list goes on and on. The only way for that to get into the line is via the toilet. The toilet is not a disposal. Never put anything down the toilet but toilet paper and your business.
Don't put tampons, feminine napkins, baby wipes, kitchen wipes,dental floss or food down the toilet. They do not dissolve. They will migrate to the first turn or restriction and start a backup. I know the tampon packages say flushable but they're not going to reimburse you for the plumbing call. I had this one customer that had been dumping her cats litter box down the toilet. You can't rooter that out with a cable machine. It has to be Hydro jetted. It took us a couple of hours but we were literally able to pull a huge amount of that material out through the clean / out and onto the ground. It had to be about 10 to 15 pounds of material.
I use my disposal for the small scraps that get past me. That's it.
Now let me talk about the toilet as a disposal. I can't tell you how many times I find whole food in a sewer line overflow or backup. It amazes me. I've seen macaroni noodles, watermelon, the list goes on and on. The only way for that to get into the line is via the toilet. The toilet is not a disposal. Never put anything down the toilet but toilet paper and your business.
Don't put tampons, feminine napkins, baby wipes, kitchen wipes,dental floss or food down the toilet. They do not dissolve. They will migrate to the first turn or restriction and start a backup. I know the tampon packages say flushable but they're not going to reimburse you for the plumbing call. I had this one customer that had been dumping her cats litter box down the toilet. You can't rooter that out with a cable machine. It has to be Hydro jetted. It took us a couple of hours but we were literally able to pull a huge amount of that material out through the clean / out and onto the ground. It had to be about 10 to 15 pounds of material.
Friday, February 26, 2010
When to Hydro Jet or How to not get swindled on your sewer repair
We just finished a call for a local pair of clients. Two houses shared a common lateral sewer pipe run to the city mainline sewer in the city of Escondido, Ca. We were called to provide a bid on a sewer pipe liner to repair a seriously deteriorated pipe. The whole problem started with a back up as you would expect. The previous plumber had shot and provided a DVD to the homeowners of the problem pipe run. He told them that the pipe was seriously deteriorated and that the bottom was rotted out. I took a look at his video hoping to be able to use it to provide an accurate bid and save me the trouble of running my own camera. Well I was a bit surprised. I looked at the video and it showed that the pipe was full of heavy debris and that the pipe walls were heavily encrusted with scale and grease build up. It was no wonder that they were having backup issues. It was really ugly. The pipe was probably 50% to 60% blocked up with sludgy debris and large grease and pipe scale deposits. All a cable machine could ever hope to do would be to poke a temporary hole in a blockage. Not only that but because of the large amount of debris in the pipe, it was impossible to make any kind of an accurate determination of the condition of the pipe wall itself. It was a joke, the previous plumber is describing rotted out pipe to the customer and there was nothing on the video that backed that up. I can see how a customer doesn't understand that because he isn't used to looking at a pipe video, especially one that has a tremendous amount of debris in the pipe. I'm hoping to post the before and after videos on our website in future. http://www.superjetdrains.com/
I had a long talk with the two customers in front of the computer monitor as we watched the video and told them that my concerns were that the cost of a liner wasn't justified yet. A CCIP liner for the distance involved would be in the neighborhood of $4,000. I recommended a hydro jetting of the line to clean all the debris out and possibly remove a great deal of the pipe scale and blistering. It was an easy sell because the first step in installing a liner would be to hydro jett the line in preparation for the lining. I told them that after a careful cleaning, we would have a much better idea of what is actually going on. Based on what I saw on the video, there was a good chance that we would correct their problem with the jetting alone. It was $700 for the hydro jetting vs. $4,000 minimum for a sewer liner install. Well we hydro jetted carefully and thoroughly. We would hydro jet then camera then hydro jet and then camera again. We did this about 4 times before we were done. It was absolutely amazing the difference in the pipe. We completely cleaned out all the debris and were able to make the pipe walls round again removing the bulk of the heavy buildup of grease and pipe scale. The pipe went from about 40% to 95+%. The final video also revealed that there weren't any holes in the cast iron pipe at all and that there was a low spot or belly in the line which was clearly a repair that had been done in the street most likely by the city. This was all clearly visible on the video since the line had been hydro jetted.
If your plumber isn't able to clearly show you the actual physical problem on the video screen, be careful. It never hurts to get a second opinion and always be leery of anyone that says "you have to do this now!"
I had a long talk with the two customers in front of the computer monitor as we watched the video and told them that my concerns were that the cost of a liner wasn't justified yet. A CCIP liner for the distance involved would be in the neighborhood of $4,000. I recommended a hydro jetting of the line to clean all the debris out and possibly remove a great deal of the pipe scale and blistering. It was an easy sell because the first step in installing a liner would be to hydro jett the line in preparation for the lining. I told them that after a careful cleaning, we would have a much better idea of what is actually going on. Based on what I saw on the video, there was a good chance that we would correct their problem with the jetting alone. It was $700 for the hydro jetting vs. $4,000 minimum for a sewer liner install. Well we hydro jetted carefully and thoroughly. We would hydro jet then camera then hydro jet and then camera again. We did this about 4 times before we were done. It was absolutely amazing the difference in the pipe. We completely cleaned out all the debris and were able to make the pipe walls round again removing the bulk of the heavy buildup of grease and pipe scale. The pipe went from about 40% to 95+%. The final video also revealed that there weren't any holes in the cast iron pipe at all and that there was a low spot or belly in the line which was clearly a repair that had been done in the street most likely by the city. This was all clearly visible on the video since the line had been hydro jetted.
If your plumber isn't able to clearly show you the actual physical problem on the video screen, be careful. It never hurts to get a second opinion and always be leery of anyone that says "you have to do this now!"
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Area and Landscape drain cleaning do's and don'ts
Ok, for those of you that aren't aware of it, there is a huge difference between standard plumbing drains and pipes that you find inside a building and the area or landscape drains that you typically find on the exterior. First of all, when your in the home improvement store, take a look at the plastic pipe that is used for exterior area drains. It is much thinner and more flexible than what you will find designed for code acceptable plumbing installations. Also you need to look at the fittings that are used in the area / landscape drains. You will find that hard ninety degree turn fittings are common. These two charectaristics are the kiss of death and make it very difficult to run a cable machine in an area drain line without punching a hole in the pipe. Its a catch 22, if you run a smaller machine that won't punch a hole, it's not big or powerful enough to do any good with the roots. If you run the monster machine, your going to punch right through the back of the thinner plastic on the ninety degree turn fitting and probably bury the cable into the dirt. We see this all the time. We ( SuperJet Sewer and Drain Cleaning ) are always getting called out to try and fix the mess someone else created. If the cable gets buried in the dirt your most likely not going to able to retrieve it without digging up the problem area and if that's under concrete it's going to be expensive.
Another wonderful thing I have noticed is that many of the exterior drain installers don't even use glue to put the pipe joints together. It's just a tight pressure fit. It's crazy. Small amounts of water leak through these joints and it is a dinner bell for roots. As soon as roots locate a source of water, a massive invasion is sure to follow. If your designing a landscape drainage system on a new house, make sure the plumber uses standard plumbing fixtures and pipe and this is the most important part; make sure they design the layout so that it can be cleaned. By that I mean that A leads to B and B leads to C and so on.
We got called out to a professional building that had an open air interior courtyard that was backed up and flooded from days of rain with no end to the weather. Roto Rooter had been out there for hours before us and wasnt able to diagnose the layout and told the owners that it would probably take a day more with a camera to figure things out. They couldn't determine which way the pipes were running so they could not find the outflow to attack the blockage. No wonder. We hydro jetted and quickly determined that one entire side of the courtyard ran from one side to the other. So when we went to side A and ran the line, the nozzle came up out of the ground at the other end at point B. When we went to B and ran the hose it came back up out of the ground at the other end back at A. What the contractor had done was run one long pipe run with a "T" fitting in the middle of the run for the outflow to drain the run. Absolutely crazy, you can't clean the line. A cable or a hydro jetting nozzle just runs past the outflow point because the pipe run isn't directing the machinery toward the outflow. It took a careful camera inspection and alot of clear flushing water to find the outflow point. The whole place was just more and more of the same. It was absolutely a nightmare and the layout was put into the ground without a chance in hell of anyone ever being able to clean it without extroidinary measures.
This brings me to my next point. We see this all the time as well. Pipe runs where the outflow from the run comes off in a T and no chance of directing line cleaning equipment into the outflow to open blockages. Take a look at a "T" area drain fitting at the home improvement store and you'll have a pretty good idea of what I'm talking about. If your installing a drain system, don't let your contractor do this to you.
The next thing to keep in mind is that the majority of the time the area drains are impacted with roots and dirt. Dirt is heavy and when it's wet it's like concrete. Run a cable into this and more often than not you will get stuck big time. Get ready to dig. A much better alternative is to Hydro Jet the debris out of the line. Hydro Jetting uses high pressure water at very high volumes to shred the vegetation and put all the dirt up into suspension in the water allowing it to be flushed out of the line. SuperJet uses full size jetters that achieve high pressure with high volume of water flow. The high volume is critical to flushing the debris out once it has been loosened. Alot of companies will say they have jetters and they do jetting and on and on. Be sharp and ask questions. You want a full size machine ie. 4,000 psi at 18 gallons per minute. The smaller cart type jetters don't produce the volume of flow needed to flush the heavy debris out of the pipe. And your better off with a company that specializes in drain cleaning with a hydro jetter. If it's all you do day in and day out, you get very good at it.
The other thing to keep in mind is that high pressure water will not harm your plastic pipes.
Its a pretty amazing process. Don't forget to check out our video on our website. We shred a chicken in 43 seconds flat. http://www.superjetdrains.com/ and if your in Southern California, give us a call.
Superjet Hydro Jetting Sewer and Drain Cleaning, were the ones that know what were doing.
Another wonderful thing I have noticed is that many of the exterior drain installers don't even use glue to put the pipe joints together. It's just a tight pressure fit. It's crazy. Small amounts of water leak through these joints and it is a dinner bell for roots. As soon as roots locate a source of water, a massive invasion is sure to follow. If your designing a landscape drainage system on a new house, make sure the plumber uses standard plumbing fixtures and pipe and this is the most important part; make sure they design the layout so that it can be cleaned. By that I mean that A leads to B and B leads to C and so on.
We got called out to a professional building that had an open air interior courtyard that was backed up and flooded from days of rain with no end to the weather. Roto Rooter had been out there for hours before us and wasnt able to diagnose the layout and told the owners that it would probably take a day more with a camera to figure things out. They couldn't determine which way the pipes were running so they could not find the outflow to attack the blockage. No wonder. We hydro jetted and quickly determined that one entire side of the courtyard ran from one side to the other. So when we went to side A and ran the line, the nozzle came up out of the ground at the other end at point B. When we went to B and ran the hose it came back up out of the ground at the other end back at A. What the contractor had done was run one long pipe run with a "T" fitting in the middle of the run for the outflow to drain the run. Absolutely crazy, you can't clean the line. A cable or a hydro jetting nozzle just runs past the outflow point because the pipe run isn't directing the machinery toward the outflow. It took a careful camera inspection and alot of clear flushing water to find the outflow point. The whole place was just more and more of the same. It was absolutely a nightmare and the layout was put into the ground without a chance in hell of anyone ever being able to clean it without extroidinary measures.
This brings me to my next point. We see this all the time as well. Pipe runs where the outflow from the run comes off in a T and no chance of directing line cleaning equipment into the outflow to open blockages. Take a look at a "T" area drain fitting at the home improvement store and you'll have a pretty good idea of what I'm talking about. If your installing a drain system, don't let your contractor do this to you.
The next thing to keep in mind is that the majority of the time the area drains are impacted with roots and dirt. Dirt is heavy and when it's wet it's like concrete. Run a cable into this and more often than not you will get stuck big time. Get ready to dig. A much better alternative is to Hydro Jet the debris out of the line. Hydro Jetting uses high pressure water at very high volumes to shred the vegetation and put all the dirt up into suspension in the water allowing it to be flushed out of the line. SuperJet uses full size jetters that achieve high pressure with high volume of water flow. The high volume is critical to flushing the debris out once it has been loosened. Alot of companies will say they have jetters and they do jetting and on and on. Be sharp and ask questions. You want a full size machine ie. 4,000 psi at 18 gallons per minute. The smaller cart type jetters don't produce the volume of flow needed to flush the heavy debris out of the pipe. And your better off with a company that specializes in drain cleaning with a hydro jetter. If it's all you do day in and day out, you get very good at it.
The other thing to keep in mind is that high pressure water will not harm your plastic pipes.
Its a pretty amazing process. Don't forget to check out our video on our website. We shred a chicken in 43 seconds flat. http://www.superjetdrains.com/ and if your in Southern California, give us a call.
Superjet Hydro Jetting Sewer and Drain Cleaning, were the ones that know what were doing.
Never Never Never sign a lease or buy a building without a sewer inspection.
I can't tell you how many customers I have that are just sick. They hold leases on their restaurants or buildings and they come to find out that they have major sewer or drain line problems that have clearly been there prior to their move in. Unfortunately most commercial leases that I am aware of make the tenant responsible for all the drains and sewer lines within the building up to the mainline tie in outside of the building. I have a sweet lady, we'll call her Edith. She has been in this restaurant space for 6 or 7 years and she has constantly had to fight various drain problems. We have smoke tested her place several times on different occassions because of very strong sewer gas leaks within the building. We found degraded vent pipes in the walls and in the drop ceiling. These sections of degraded pipe allowed sewer gas to enter the building and it was affecting her business in a big way. We find and fix her problems when they pop up but there is a cost. The cost of the test, sometimes the walls have to be opened then repaired and then there is the business lost. That's just the vent pipes.
She also has regular sewer line backup issues because of degraded cast iron lines. Some lines are old and very rough. Sometimes this can be helped a bit with hydro jetting. Hydro Jetting with a large powerful machine can smooth out this rough pipe to some extent but if the pipe is getting thin with age or worse yet has holes in it, there isn't alot you can do short of major repair. The repair costs for what Edith is facing are easily in the ballpark of $6,000 plus. All this falls on her because of the way the lease is written. Take a look at the following link that shows a video of a seriously cracked sewer pipe that runs just under the corner of an apartment building.
http://www.superjetdrains.com/videos.php
We were able to line it with a cured in place pipe liner. If we had to excavate things would have been very expensive.
I would strongly recommend to anyone who is considering buying any sort of a building or leasing a property that they perform a camera inspection of the sewer and accessible drain lines. I would suggest a sewer and drain expert or specialist as opposed to just a run of the mill plumber. The specialist is going to have a much better understanding of what there looking at because it's all they do. If your in Southern California, give us a call. SuperJet Sewer and Drain Cleaing. SuperJetDrains.com It is what we do.
A visual inspection will quickly locate problems like a severe belly or low spot in a line that acts as a collection spot for debris. These are very often the cause of repeated backups. These cant be fixed short of digging it up and repairing it. ( We just did a diagnosis inspection of a beautiful house worth over a million dollars with a wide open floor plan and a long span across the house covered in beautiful stonework. The sewer line runs across the house under this same stonework and is plauged with multiple low spots or bellies in the line that regularly cause backups. The only way to fix this is to dig it up and regrade the pipe run. His only other option is to hire us on a regular basis to do a preventative maintenance with Hydro Jetting the sewer line.)
The other thing that comes to mind is that now many cities are making the homeowner responsible for the entire sewer lateral that runs from their house all the way to the cites mainline tie in point in the street. This is serious stuff. If you have a problem in that run after it hits the street, the cost to repair can be huge. A common number for a repair in the street with all it's additional issues, permits, certifications and costs can go $30,000+ very quickly. Think about that for a minute. How many houses or properties have you bought and did you ever do a sewer inspection?
One last thought, I do this for a living. About 50% of the time when we run a camera to inspect a line for whatever reason, we find a problem.
She also has regular sewer line backup issues because of degraded cast iron lines. Some lines are old and very rough. Sometimes this can be helped a bit with hydro jetting. Hydro Jetting with a large powerful machine can smooth out this rough pipe to some extent but if the pipe is getting thin with age or worse yet has holes in it, there isn't alot you can do short of major repair. The repair costs for what Edith is facing are easily in the ballpark of $6,000 plus. All this falls on her because of the way the lease is written. Take a look at the following link that shows a video of a seriously cracked sewer pipe that runs just under the corner of an apartment building.
http://www.superjetdrains.com/videos.php
We were able to line it with a cured in place pipe liner. If we had to excavate things would have been very expensive.
I would strongly recommend to anyone who is considering buying any sort of a building or leasing a property that they perform a camera inspection of the sewer and accessible drain lines. I would suggest a sewer and drain expert or specialist as opposed to just a run of the mill plumber. The specialist is going to have a much better understanding of what there looking at because it's all they do. If your in Southern California, give us a call. SuperJet Sewer and Drain Cleaing. SuperJetDrains.com It is what we do.
A visual inspection will quickly locate problems like a severe belly or low spot in a line that acts as a collection spot for debris. These are very often the cause of repeated backups. These cant be fixed short of digging it up and repairing it. ( We just did a diagnosis inspection of a beautiful house worth over a million dollars with a wide open floor plan and a long span across the house covered in beautiful stonework. The sewer line runs across the house under this same stonework and is plauged with multiple low spots or bellies in the line that regularly cause backups. The only way to fix this is to dig it up and regrade the pipe run. His only other option is to hire us on a regular basis to do a preventative maintenance with Hydro Jetting the sewer line.)
The other thing that comes to mind is that now many cities are making the homeowner responsible for the entire sewer lateral that runs from their house all the way to the cites mainline tie in point in the street. This is serious stuff. If you have a problem in that run after it hits the street, the cost to repair can be huge. A common number for a repair in the street with all it's additional issues, permits, certifications and costs can go $30,000+ very quickly. Think about that for a minute. How many houses or properties have you bought and did you ever do a sewer inspection?
One last thought, I do this for a living. About 50% of the time when we run a camera to inspect a line for whatever reason, we find a problem.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
