Sewer Gas Smoke Test Saves the Day for Restaurant

We were called out to a family pizza restaurant in Orange County Ca by the owner of the restaurant.  They had been suffering from sewer gas issues for years and they were losing business and customers because of it. They had been working with the landlord who had been very helpful and supportive in the effort to solve the problem.  The landlord had multiple plumbers over the years each take a crack at it. Some performing smoke tests, some just recommending certain repairs.  Each one declaring the problem was fixed only to later find out that the problem persisted.  The landlord even hired a "night watchman" to sit in the property overnight for a period of months to verify if indeed the smell was still present.  He did indeed verify just that.

They even had someone come out from some official air quality management agency to take air samples.  Which is funny because typically sewer gas issues are something that comes and goes.  It's not going to be there all the time. There are many variables that will affect whether the smell is present at any one point in time.  So the odds are against you of doing any sort of a one time test and verifying the presence of sewer gas.

I'll give you a for instance. We had an architect who's office complained of sewer gas only at certain times of the year.  Without a doubt, it would go away for months at a time and then all of a sudden it was back with a vengence.  Finally the city was threatening to red tag the building so we were called in and we performed a smoke test.  We located  a cast iron sewer stack behind a toilet hidden in a wall that was split wide open for about 4 feet or more.  Well it was obvious that the hole in the pipe had been like that for years but still the smell would go away for months at a time.  The access point for the sewer gas was always there yet the gas was not always present.  That is quite common and has a lot to do with prevailing wind, doors and windows left open and so on.

Back to Orange County, multiple smoke tests had already been performed and some small leaks found and fixed.  Now the consensus was that it was the adjacent nail salon that was responsible for the leak possibly because there was a shared attic and no solid demising wall.  So we were in essence testing the nail salon looking for a source of sewer gas.  We blew smoke in from the nail salon for an extended period of time without any sign of smoke showing in that business.  Then after approximately a 15 to 20 minute period of time, the pizza restaurant quickly filled with smoke.  Still no smoke showed in the Nail Salon.

As it turned out, there was a shared enclosed void that had an opening above the water heater in the pizza restaurant.  The leak was far away to be sure at the other end of the void and it took time for the void to fill with smoke before it would exit the opening.

There was likely a cut off vent stack hiding at the far end of the void. It was up to the property owner to chase it down at this point.
After years and years of sewer gas issues with I don't know how many contractors and agencies involved, we solved the issue in just a couple of hours.

Superjet Sewer and Drain Cleaning, we're the ones that know what we are doing.
www.Superjetdrains.com

"I'm still shopping around." Searching for the cheapest price on hydro-jetting.

I can't tell you how many times as a vendor I hear, "I'm still shopping around, I'll call you back."  It's frustrating as a quality vendor because I know that in the end their sole consideration is price.  They are assuming that everything else is equal.  They assume that Hydro jetting is the same from one vendor to the next and nothing could be further from the truth.  I try and educate people as to the differences to look for but some people don't want to hear it, they just want the lowest price.

Ok, so when people tell me "this guy will hydro-jet  for $250 or $200"  I tell them, "use him, or better yet, go to craigslist and put a want ad for hydro-jetting and put a price of $150 or $100."  Without a doubt you will find someone but it becomes obvious to them at that point that maybe going the cheapest rout isn't the best idea.

Let me give you a "for instance".  When I was a young man I had a plumbing water leak in my newly purchased home.  I had a home warranty with one of the national home warranty vendors so I let them take care of it instead of doing the work myself.  Well if your not aware of how the home warranty business works, I'll tell you.  They send out a contractor that they have struck a deal with and they pay that contractor a very small per visit fee, maybe only $50 dollars or so and the contractor picks up a small check from the homeowner as a co-pay as it were. So the combination of the two payments still adds up to a very small service call fee for the vendor supplying the work.  

Well what happens is that you end up with a lower quality of service provider that is willing to work that cheaply.

In my case,  when the "plumber" arrived, it was obvious that this man had spent more than a little time in jail.  He was covered with jail house tattoos and he was not someone I wanted around my young wife and children. I would have gladly spent an extra $100 just to keep that man out of my house.  So you see, everything isn't equal.

The best thing to do is research. The internet is an amazing tool, use it to your advantage.  Just a little bit of time online will give you a pretty good idea of who is competent and who is not, of who can be trusted and who can not. Be wary of the one stop shop websites that say they will provide you with a great contractor.  Again, use the internet for reviews of each specific service provider by name.

We have an amazing amount of information online at our website that tells you what to ask to allow you to compare one hydro jetting vendor to the next.  www.superjetdrains.com

And by the way, we hold a DOD, ( department of defense ) background check and clearance for work on military installations.

Mark Gervase, President

Superjet Sewer and Drain Cleaning

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