Grand Theft Plumbing problems Sewer and Drain Style

     Ok, another great story with a happy ending. A good customer called us to inspect a line that they were having repeat problems on.  It was a commercial property with quite a few tennants including a mix of food and administrative businesses and my customer, a property management company, suspected that the restaurants were causing the problems with their contribution of grease to the line.  We were going to video document who or what was causing the problem so that appropriate measures could be taken.
     We had the inspection scheduled for later in the week and then we got a frantic phone call from the property manager that the line was backed up again, it had just been cleared by a rooter company a week or so earlier, and he was very concerened that the overflow in the parking lot might end up in a large fine with the city. From my experience, Cerritos, Ca  commonly levies fines in the neighborhood of $10,000 for any sewage outflow that makes it into a storm drain.
     I was concerned that I couldn't get to him fast enough, we were about an hour and a half out.   With the threat of a $10,000 fine looming I told him to just have his rooter guy pop the line back open to stop the overflow.   I'll hydro jet the line and inspect as soon as I can get there.
     Well guess what, the rooter guy, a big franchise operation,  "couldn't get the line open with a mainline cable."  It happens now and then.  "He insisted that they needed to hydro jet the line themselves in order to open the line." So the property manager agreed.  Normally we do the hydro jetting and diagnosis for him for a reason.  We are very good at what we do.  Check out this link for stories from the same customer.Same customer another great story from Superjetdrains
     Needless to say I wasn't too excited about the phone call telling me that the rooter guy got the hydro jetting work but it happens, and my primary concern was for my customer to avoid a monster fine.  I lost the job but my customer was taken care of. 
     I'll say he was taken care of, they charged him $1,200.00 to hydro jet the line.  That is three times what we charge.  Alot of these companies pull that scam.  They know they have you over a barrel at that point and they just throw out a number crazy as it is. It's pure profit for everybody, everyone is making their percentange.
     Guess what happened next....your going to love this.  So a week goes by and I talked to my client and told him that I can probably still do the video inspection on the line to determine who is contributing to the grease.  I told him that chances are good that the rooter company probably did a quick jetting job and that there is still probably some grease in the line to show who is causing the problem.  So he sends us out to document it on video.
     We get there and there are only three clean/outs that could have been used to clear the line covering a distance of maybe 180 feet total.  We started the video at the upper end c/o  and we had a hell of a time just getting a picture.  Every time we put the camera in the hole it was absolutely covered in grease and we had to pull it out, wipe it off and go again.  We did this about 4 or 5 times before we were able to see anything.  After we were actually able to see the pipe wall itself  it was clearly evident that this stretch of pipe, about 80 feet, had'nt been touched by a hydro jetter.  The pipe walls were coated with a very thick layer of white grease almost like cake frosting and it was absolutely plain that a hydro jetting nozzle had not passed through this pipe.  It would have left large and unmistakeable score marks in the grease.  Just like walking in the snow.  If someone has passed by, your going to know it.  What was also odd was that the entire pipe run for the complex could have been serviced, all the way to the mainline vault, from this one clean/out.  There was no reason to use another c/o.  If you hit this one, you would get the blockage and clean the entire line at the same time.
     I gave them the benefit of the doubt and inspected the remaining two clean/outs.  Both of the remaining clean/outs showed the pipe walls covered with thick grease and again absolutely no sign of having been serviced by a hydro jetter.  Absolutely no doubt about it.  Not only that but at the turn just before the third c/o there was a huge chunk of grease coming off the pipe wall and about to drop.  I called my client and informed him that this was critical and needed to be serviced ASAP.  It could back up at any moment.  He contacted the rooter company to make good on what they were supposed to have done. 
     In the time that they took to get back to him, you guessed it, the line backed up again. This time Superjet hydro jetted the line completely and thoroughly and provided a wonderful before and after video.  It was just like night and day.

Last I heard my client was raking the other guys over the coals.  I hope so.  It looks like grand theft to me. Grand Theft California penal code

Superjet Sewer and Drain Cleaning, were the ones that know what we're doing.
Superjet Hydro Jetting Sewer and Drain

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."

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."

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.