Building Hydro Jetted Back From the Dead with Warthog nozzles

We were called out to a growing emergency at a school in a district that we regularly provide service to.
There was a contractor there working on site that was in the process of "mud jacking" the foundation.  It's a process where they forcefully pump a fluid concrete like material under the foundation to raise a portion of the building that is sagging or settling.

In the middle of this process, some of the toilets in the administration side of the building stopped working.  Well things quickly snowballed after that point. We hydro jetted one inside toilet line to a stop point and then started locating with a camera to map things out.  Initially maintenance and I were not sure that this was all related yet but we were suspicious.  After a little more legwork and plotting the runs which included some overhead runs in the sub basement area, we determined that somehow the concrete mud had found it's way into the sewer line and the pressure behind the pumping of the material was so great that the concrete had made it's way into about 200 feet of 2", 3" and 4" pipe going both upstream to the 2nd floor and downstream about 100 feet to the mainline tie in.

It quickly turned into a military type of operation with all available maintenance personnel directed over to our site to do whatever could be done to expedite a fix.

We all had a serious conversation with the contractor who was doing the mud jacking about the feasibility of hydro jetting this material out  of the pipe.  It had already hardened solid and was becoming harder as more time passed.
We all knew that if it couldn't be hydro jetted out of the lines, the only alternative would be to dig up the pipes and break open the walls.  Your talking about 200 feet of pipe running all over this building.

We ran a quick test on a section of pipe and determined that with a rotary nozzle it would be slow going but we could chew up and move the material.  The maintenance crew excavated a spot outside that I had marked with camera to crack open the mainline so we could attack it from two different directions and pull the material back to a pit to drop it out of the line.

We immediately started on what turned out to be three long days running into night of messy and hard work but we pulled it off.  We pulled off an absolute miracle.  We cleared all of the lines and mind you the lines were packed solid, absolutely solid and hardened with that concrete.

We brought that building back from the dead and saved that contractor's insurance agency well over a hundred grand.  You know that contractor never did send me a thank you note.

The only way I was able to clear those lines was by using the best rotating nozzles that money could buy.  We used Stoneage Warthog nozzles.

So when a jetting contractor tells you " We use warthog rotary nozzles", you will have an appreciation of the capability that brings to the job.

"Superjet Sewer and Drain Cleaning, were the ones that know what were doing."

Superjet Sewer and Drain Cleaning LLC
www.superjetdrains.com

This photograph shows a horizontal run in the elevator access way with a maintenance technician's hand on it. Notice the riser going up that is absolutely solid with material.  At this stage we have already hydro jetted the horizontal clear of debris.

Septic Tank Backup

We just serviced a client that wanted a second opinion. They had water pooling over the septic tank. They called in a septic tank specialist who drained the tank and immediately diagnosed the problem as a failed leach field. Cost to replace the leach field would be $ 6,000.00

Mind you he never inspected the pipe run leaving the tank to the leach field. He never offered to run a camera to inspect. After all it could be a root intrusion on the outflow side.

The other two notables were the history. This had never happened before and the homeowners had been in the house just over a year. A month and a half prior we had a great deal of rain. One run of weather gave us almost 4 or five days of non stop rain and no problems with the septic. Typically, you would expect the saturated ground to give you drainage problems with the septic if it was going to happen.

What the homeowner did tell me was that they had just finished washing a tremendous amount of laundry all at one time. She ran approx 8 loads of laundry through the course of a day. I immediately suspected that they just overtaxed the system. You cant put that much water all at once into a system that was designed fifteen years ago. Don't forget that the wash water is in addition to all the other water running in the house for the day, dishes, showers etc for a family of 4.
Camera inspection of the tank revealed that the outflow baffle T was intact so I felt there was less of of chance of debris going out the outflow to the leach field lines. The T prevented us from negotiating the camera through the pipe run.

I suggested a wait and see attitude. The rains are over for the most part, the ground is drying out. The homeowner is going to take a much more conservative and planned approach to wash water usage and see if the problem goes away.

If the problem persists, then we can excavate on the edge of the tank for access to the outflow, run a camera in that portion of the line and search for a blockage.

4/30/12  Just a follow up note.  I called the homeowner back and no more problems reported.

Superjet, were the ones that know what were doing

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

Leak detecting and Locating plastic pipe

I had a friend call me the other day. He had a leak on a water line under his driveway. he wasnt on city water, he had a well that supplied all his water. Anyway, it was plastic pipe and it didn't have a tracer wire so we couldn't put an electronic signal onto the pipe.
We needed to trace the pipe run in order to be able to follow it above ground with the leak detector and listen for the sounds of the leak, otherwise it is just a huge hunt and peck operation with limited prospects for success especially on a large property.
Well, I had a neat little gizmo, expensive little gizmo that puts an a pulse sound frequency onto the water line. With that device, we were able to map out the basic run of the lines near the leak area. It's not as exact as an electronic signal but it definitely gets you very close. We can hear the sound pulse traveling through the pipe under the ground and use that to map the pipe run. The loundest sound level puts you on top of the pipe.
Within a half hour or so we had the run mapped and went on to search the run for the sounds of the leak. We had an area that I felt was close, very close to the leak but it just wasn't conclusive. We were on top of asphalt and didn't want to punch any unecessary holes. I could hear the telltale sounds but they were intermittent and very faint. It was a small leak. That also matched what we were seeing on the surface. A sprinkler box would fill with water but very slowly once the water was turned on.
We use a bit of compressed gas in the line and were able to pinpoint the leak precisely. I told my buddy, it's right here. It was a few feet away from where he thought the pipe run would be. Anyway, we spent the next 45 minutes sawing asphalt and digging. After a bit of work, we found pipe and a minute after that we could see our leak. It was indeed a small leak but trouble just the same. We were right on top of it with our locate.
SuperJet Sewer and Drain Cleaning. We're the ones that know what were doing. Serving Southern California.
http://www.superjetdrains.com/

Major Restaurant Sewer Gas Issue

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

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."