Seattle/Tacoma Drain Cleaning
Pipeguys.com
Toll Free: 877- NUPIPE1
(877- 687-4731)
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HIDDEN LIABILITIES
Please! Take the time to read this section thoroughly and carefully as it could save you thousands of dollars, much anxiety and keep you from litigation!!!
DO NOT:REMODEL, LANDSCAPE, BUY OR SELL A HOME OR BUSINESS MORE THAN 30 YEARS OLD WITHOUT KNOWING THE LOCATION AND CONDITION OF THE UNDERGROUND PIPES SERVICING THE STRUCTURES. TO DO SO COULD LITERALLY COST YOU THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS.
1. Who is the owner of the water line that connects my home or business to the city?
2. What are my responsibilities in case of pipe replacement?
3. What about the sewer pipes?
4. What happens to the soil collected during the digging process?
5. What if my pipe goes through my neighbor's yard?
6. What happens to my expensive private infrastructure or plantings on top of the pipe?
7. Our case story
1. Who is the owner of the water line that connects my home or business to the city?
The water line that connects your home or business to the city provided pipe is owned by you from the water meter to the building. In most cases you have no responsibility for the in ground pipe past the meter. If the pipe travels under any public infrastructure, you are responsible for
that infrastructure in case it has to be restored to replace your pipe. In some cases, the water meter may be down the street-or on the other side of the street, and it may travel across your neighbor’s property.
2. What are my responsibilities in case of pipe replacement?
You are responsible for protecting and restoring all of the in ground and above ground infrastructure that may be affected if your pipe needs to be replaced. Generally these pipes aren’t very deep(3 or 4 feet), but if they travel under publicly owned asphalt or concrete, the dirt removed to replace them usually cannot be reused and has to be replaced with a specified compactable backfill product so the backfill will not sink later.
3. What about the sewer pipes?
The same conditions apply to the sewer pipe that connects your home or business to city service lines. The problem becomes multiplied with sewer pipes though, as they are most always gravity and not pressure pipes. This means that they can be very deep and generally always travel under the pavement where they connect to the publicly owned pipe.
In most cases, in the right of way, the soil covering the pipe cannot be reused. It must be hauled away and replaced with a specified fill material, before pavement restoration can be completed. In many jurisdictions, compaction testing must be done as backfilling is taking place. This compaction testing is done by an engineering company representative with highly sophisticated equipment using nuclear isotopes to generate certain waves into the material that can be quantified. This testing must be done on every one or two feet of material that is filling the excavation and test results must be provided on each lift to the governing body inspecting the work.
Your pipe may travel under your neighbor’s yard and one or more of your neighbors may be connected to the same pipe. If this is the case, your neighbors are now involved in the situation. We have seen several situations where one neighbor is flushing and the affluent is coming up in another neighbor’s home-as they are connected and the pipe is plugged and failing. Again, this not the problem of the city or county in which you live. This is up to you and your neighbors to work out.
6. What happens to my expensive private infrastructure or plantings on top of the pipe?
There can be expensive private infrastructure or plantings on top of the pipe in question-but remember-it might be a shared pipe. Most of the time, there are no easement documents on file, creating a huge potential for litigation. Our methods allow us to restore the pipe and reinstate each connection with little or no digging!
7. Our case story
A) We are aware of situations where litigation occurred when buyers sued sellers of property because of sewage backups in the home after the sale. In each situation, the seller lost the litigation, even after claiming they were unaware of the problem. One of the sellers was an attorney.
B) One seller of a million dollar historical property signed that the property was connected to the city sewer (it’s in the middle of the city)
only to discover it wasn’t, after the buyer experienced a sewage backup.
After the carpets and flooring were removed, it was discovered the water had soaked into the sheetrock. Black mold will have to be abated and the walls and floor coverings restored. The nearest sewer line is over 450 feet away and will cost many thousands of dollars to connect to. This disaster for both parties could have been avoided had the line been video inspected before sale. The problem turned out to be a failed septic system. The home had never been connected to the sewer. Another customers home had a wonderful addition built on to it some years ago, only to discover recently that the failing sewer is six feet under the addition, with several pipes all connecting to one pipe. The cost of this repair would have been significantly less had the pipes been discovered and repaired before the remodel was done.
C) In another case, We had to cut into our customers newly completed inlaid brick patio and rose garden because the Tacoma sewer pipe failed shortly after the patio and basement remodel work was completed. Fortunately, our cut was small, and we didn’t have to completely destroy the new patio or the garage (the pipe went under the detached garage) because we used a trenchless technology for the replacement.
A pipe inspection can save you thousands of dollars and keep you out of court. If you don’t know the condition of the underground pipes you own or are about to own-this is a must.
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