Old city lines
What is under a house built between the 1920s and the 1950s
Four pipes, and four different failures. The camera tells us which you have.
- 1920s to 1950s
Clay tile
Short lengths of fired clay with a joint at every length. Strong in itself, and the joints are what fail: seals dry, soil shifts, roots enter.
Common failures: root fringes, offset joints, a cracked length
- Before the 1960s
Cast iron
Heavy pipe often used inside the house and under the slab or basement floor. It lasts, and it rusts from the inside, scaling until the bore narrows.
Common failures: scale, a cracked lower section, a failed joint at the wall
- 1940s to 1970s
Orangeburg
Tar-soaked wood fiber, rolled into pipe. It softens with age and heat, goes oval, and can collapse without warning.
Common failures: ovaling, a collapsed length, a belly
- Any era
Bellies and offsets
Not a material but a shape: a sag where water stays, or two pipes that no longer meet. They come from soft ground and settling, and they catch whatever the line carries.
Common failures: repeat clogs at the same spot
Whose pipe
The line is probably yours up to the main
In most of the Richmond area the owner keeps the line from the house to the connection at the main, and the utility keeps the main under the street. The rules differ in the city, in Henrico and in Chesterfield, so ask your utility, and ask us what the camera shows at the connection.
If the trouble is in the main, the camera shows that too, and a note with the footage is what the utility asks to see.
In the house
And what is inside the walls
In the walls and under the floor
Drain stacks and the horizontal run beneath the basement slab are often cast iron in houses of this age. We scope them from the same cleanout, and we tell you if the problem is outside or in.
After the work
When a section is replaced, the new pipe is joined to the old with a fitting made for that change of material, and the joint is on the camera note.
Not sure which pipe you have?
The camera shows the material, the joints and the condition in one visit, with the distances written down.