It’s always a bad day when you find out you have problems with your sewer pipes. Not just because you now have to pay for sewer line repairs, but also because the ways in which people usually discover these issues are not at all pleasant.
There are a number of things that can cause damage to your pipes, but unfortunately, the problems aren’t entirely apparent in many cases. For example, it’s difficult to know what condition your sewer lines are in considering they are buried deep underground. However, age can act as a decent rule of thumb. If your sewers are 40 years old, odds are they should be replaced.
Trees make up another hidden, leading factor in pipe damage. Their root systems are able to grow 12 to 36 inches below the soil surface, and can extend horizontally as much as two to three times the canopy’s diameter. These roots are also strong enough to crack [pipes][1] or move sewers out of place.
So how do you know if you need to schedule for some sewer repair? Here are a few indicators to be on the watch for:
Water damage: If you begin to spot water damage on walls or floors, your sewers have likely sprung a leak. Similarly, if you find patches of grass in your yard that begin to turn brown, sewage could be seeping through the ground and killing the grass.
Water pressure: This will likely be the easiest issue to notice considering that everyone uses water for any number of reasons all throughout the day. If you find your faucets or shower do not have nearly as much pressure as usual, you are probably losing much of that water into the ground.
Bad smell For those unlucky few who don’t have present water damage, they might deal with a putrid smell coming from their home or yard. This would be the sewage spewing from your lines. Hopefully the smell won’t be so strong that your neighbors catch a whiff, but unless you want to be hiding your nose in your shirt all day long, you should schedule sewer pipe bursting repairs quickly.
As you can imagine, low water pressure and a putrid smell can seriously compromise your every day tasks. There are around 104,852 plumbing and sewage companies that deal with these issues on a daily basis, and their sewer line repair costs are well worth being able to focus on your regular routine. [1]: /product-category/bursting-heads/