When the line leaving the house is the one that failed
This is what old cast iron looks like once a wall comes open. In a lot of Gladewater’s oil boom houses the same pipe keeps going out under the yard, so a camera goes through the line first and any digging lands where the damage is.
How to tell the trouble is past the house
A clogged sink keeps its problem to itself. When the sewer line fails, the signs spread out, because every drain in the house empties into that one pipe on its way to the main. Trouble there shows up in more than one room at a time.
What points outside
- The tub gurgles when a toilet flushes, or the other way around
- Two or more drains slow down on the same day
- A sewage smell in the yard, strongest near one spot
- A patch of grass that stays soggy through dry weather
Any one of those alone could be minor. Two together are worth a call to (903) 570-3051, and sewage coming up inside the house is worth calling about right now.
On the phone we will ask which fixtures, how often, and roughly when the house was built. Those answers narrow the problem down before anyone drives the 11 miles over from Kilgore.
What decades underground do to cast iron
Cast iron was the standard drain pipe when Gladewater’s oil boom houses went up in the 1930s and 1940s, and it was made to last. It mostly has. The inside is what wears out first.
Rust forms on the interior wall and thickens into scale, narrowing the pipe and giving paper something to hang on. The bottom of the pipe, where water runs every day, thins fastest. Eventually it cracks along its length or rots through, and wastewater starts soaking the soil beneath it.
The hubs are the other weak point. Old cast iron was joined by setting the plain end of one pipe into the bell-shaped hub of the next and packing the gap. Those joints were never meant to flex.
Why the clay makes it worse
The ground here swells with rain and shrinks hard in a dry summer, and each cycle nudges buried pipe a little. A hub that held tight for decades can open by a fraction. A fraction is enough for a root to work its way in, or for a length of pipe to drop out of line with the one beside it.
What the camera footage decides
Once the camera has been through, we go over the footage with you. It usually comes down to one of two answers.
A section repair holds
One cracked length, one open hub, or one place where roots got in, with sound pipe on both sides, is a section repair. We dig at that point, cut out the bad pipe, set new pipe at the right slope, and tie it into good pipe at each end. The rest of the line stays where it is.
The whole line has to go
Scale and thin spots end to end, or cracks at joint after joint, mean fixing the worst point only moves the next failure a few feet down the yard. Replacing the run is the job that lasts there, and our sewer line replacement page walks through how that goes.
What goes into that call
- How much of the line the camera shows as sound
- Whether the damage sits in one place or runs the length of it
- How deep the pipe lies and what is built over it
- What the new pipe would tie into at each end
You get a real price before work starts. If the ground opens on something the camera could not show, we stop and talk it through with you first. We will not sell you a new line when a repair would hold, and we will not patch one that is headed for another failure next year.
Where the dig lands changes what it looks like
People worry about the yard more than the pipe, which is fair. How the work looks depends mostly on what sits over the damaged section.
Open yard
The simplest case. The opening follows the damaged length, the soil sits beside it, and it goes back in once the new pipe passes its test. Expect bare dirt for a while and some settling after a hard rain.
Under a walk or drive
Concrete over the pipe has to be cut to reach it. Before starting, we show you how much comes up. Now and then the camera puts the break just past the edge, and the slab stays whole.
Near the foundation
Where the line leaves the house it runs close to the slab, and digging there goes slower, often by hand. It is also where old iron often meets newer pipe, so we check that joint while it is exposed.
The person on the other end of the phone
Gladewater is about 11 miles from Kilgore and inside the range where we take homeowner work, so a house with a failing sewer line gets the same equipment and the same camera a commercial building would. Businesses and facilities in town are on our list too.
When you call, Stephen Crutchfield usually answers. He is the licensed Master Plumber behind Odyssey, and he goes over what the camera found with you before any digging is planned. The company is veteran-owned and family-run, and the person telling you a repair will hold is the same one who answers for it if it does not.
Before you decide anything, look through photos from jobs we have finished, read the rest of our Gladewater work, or tell us what your drains are doing.
If it turns out to be something else
Drain Cleaning
One stopped fixture cleared, and a straight answer if it points further out.
Emergency Plumbing
Sewage backing up or a line that burst, whatever the hour.
Leak Detection
Tracking a wet spot to the pipe that is actually causing it.
Water Heater Repair
Cold showers, noisy tanks, and relief valves that will not stop dripping.
Hydro Jetting
Pressure water that scours grease and root debris off the pipe wall.
How We Handle Sewer Repair
The same look-first method wherever we work in East Texas.
Cast iron, cameras, and torn up yards
Is old cast iron always a problem?
Not always. Plenty of old cast iron still drains fine. The camera shows whether the inside has scaled over, thinned along the bottom, or cracked. If the pipe looks sound, we tell you to leave it alone and keep an eye on it if the drains start acting up.
Can you repair just the broken part?
Often, yes. When the damage sits in one spot and the pipe on either side is solid, we cut out that section and tie new pipe into good pipe at each end. When the camera shows damage spread along the run, a section repair will not hold, and we say so.
Why would a buried sewer line move?
The clay here swells when it gets wet and shrinks when it dries out. That cycle repeats every year and pushes on rigid pipe a little each time. Over decades, a joint can open or a length of pipe can settle lower than the pipe around it.
What does a soggy spot in the yard mean?
Sometimes a cracked or separated sewer line is soaking the soil above it, especially when the spot stays wet in dry weather or carries a smell. It can also be a water supply leak. A camera in the sewer line tells us whether that pipe is the one to blame.
Will you put the yard back when you are done?
The soil goes back in and gets packed down once the new pipe passes its test. The area stays bare for a while and usually settles some after the first heavy rain. Before we start, we show you where the opening goes and about how large it will be.
Is there a travel charge to Gladewater?
Most of our service area carries no separate travel charge, and Gladewater, about 11 miles from Kilgore, sits well inside it. If a job ever did carry one, you would hear that before it went on the schedule, never for the first time on the invoice.
Drains gurgling all over the house?
Call and tell Stephen which fixtures are acting up and roughly when the house was built. A few answers like that narrow down where to start looking.
Call (903) 570-3051Still sorting out the symptoms?
Tell us what you have noticed inside and out, including any wet spot in the yard, and we will chart the job before we arrive.
Odyssey Plumbing Co is regulated by the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners (TSBPE), 7915 Cameron Rd., Austin, TX 78754, (512) 936-5200, tsbpe.texas.gov. Stephen Crutchfield, Responsible Master Plumber License M-45845.