A homeowner in the Bemiss area of north Spokane needed the sewer line between the house and the street replaced. This was not a one day job. It took a three person crew five days, and most of it happened eight and a half feet below the front yard.
The Call
The main line serving the house had failed. Replacing a sewer main is not a repair you talk someone into. Either the line is done or it is not, and this one was done.
We priced it as roughly 60 to 80 feet of new pipe, permitted and inspected, and told the homeowner up front where the cost could move depending on what we hit.
What We Found
We called in utility locates, then opened the trench in the front yard and dug down eight and a half feet. What came out was Orangeburg.
Orangeburg is not metal and it is not plastic. It is wood fiber bound with tar, and it was used for sewer laterals from the 1940s into the 1960s because it was cheap and easy to cut. It was never meant to last this long. Under decades of soil load it deforms, flattens and eventually collapses inward. A lot of houses on the north side of Spokane still have it in the ground.
Once you find Orangeburg, lining or spot repair is off the table. There is nothing structurally sound left to work with.
The Replacement
We cut the old pipe out of the trench and installed new SDR sewer main in its place, running from the house out toward the street. A two way cleanout went in along the run, so the line can be accessed and cleaned from either direction later without anyone digging again.
Grade matters more than anything else on a sewer line. Too flat and solids settle. Too steep and the water outruns them. We set the new pipe on proper grade and bedded it so the ground cannot shift it out of line as it settles.
The City of Spokane permitted the work and inspected the trench before we closed it. Then we backfilled the yard to rough grade.
On Site
Materials and Equipment
- Roughly 60 to 80 feet of new SDR sewer main
- Two way cleanout
- Trench excavated to eight and a half feet, shored and fenced
- Proper bedding and grade throughout the run
- Utility locates before digging
- City of Spokane permit and inspection
- Old Orangeburg pipe removed and disposed of
- Yard backfilled to rough grade
What We Told the Homeowner About the City Side
A sewer replacement only covers the part of the line you own. Past the property line it becomes the city stub, and that section is not ours to replace.
While we were down there we could see the clay pipe in the street. It has a belly in it and multiple root intrusions. That line will back up eventually, so we told the homeowner exactly that and recommended annual maintenance on the city stub to stay ahead of it. We would rather say it out loud than have someone think a new lateral solved a problem it did not.
Warranty
The piping we installed carries a one year warranty.
Serving Bemiss and North Spokane
We replace sewer lines throughout Bemiss, Hillyard, Logan, Shiloh Hills and the rest of the north side. Houses up here are the right age for Orangeburg, and the mature trees that make these streets pleasant are the same trees sending roots into old clay joints. If your main is backing up more than once, a camera inspection will tell you what you actually have before anyone quotes you a trench. From there our sewer line crew can scope the repair, and where the ground and the pipe allow it we also do trenchless sewer replacement instead of open cut. We offer financing on full line replacements, and our Raptor Titanium membership includes priority scheduling and a five year warranty on plumbing installations.
Sewer line backing up?
If your main has backed up more than once, a camera inspection tells you what is actually down there before anyone quotes you a trench. Spokane, Spokane Valley and North Idaho.