foundation Archives - JD Precision Plumbing & Air

We had a customer call in our office with the problem of a spare toilet overflowing. She said even when her husband turned the main water off to the entire home the toilet was overflowing out of the bowl and even seeping out of the base of the toilet, between the toilet and the floor.

Anytime something is coming out of the bowl the only explanation is a toilet clog. Our dispatch team knew instantly to send a technician with a toilet auger.

cleared out toilet — Toilet after cable was put through to clear line.

Photo showing the stoppage after a simple toilet paper test.

When he arrived he ran the toilet auger and was able to remove the blockage. We always like to check our work, so he followed that up by flushing some toilet paper down the toilet. Not too much, just about as much as any average flush. When our technician did this test- the toilet backed up again immediately.

Having another backup immediately after clearing the line is an indication that there is a bigger problem than just a simple tissue blockage.

The technician then pulled the toilet from the floor and called in a drain specialist. Our drain specialist arrived on the scene with his sewer camera.

This is a special tool with a camera on the end of a long reel that can go into the sewer line to show us exactly what we're looking at under the home. To learn more about this click this link.

When he put the camera in the line you can see here in the video, he saw water standing in the pipe.

In a typical homes sewer pipe you should not be able to see any water standing, but this was about 4 inches of water standing in at least 25 feet of this families line under their home. We knew from just looking at it the problem was a belly in the line. A belly in the line is most likely caused by a foundational shift. To learn more about the things that cause backups click here.

gap between drit and foundation — In this after photo of the new sewer line you see the black shadow showing the separation between the foundation and the clay under home.

Once we explained to the homeowners what exactly was going on and had the OK we hired a professional excavator team to dig under her home giving us a 39 foot working space. When these excavators had performed their job you could see 6 inches between the base of the foundation and the clay under the home. See photo to the right.

There is no denying at this point that there is definitely a foundation issue. Because of the excavation we had to do in order to access the pipes we were able to alert the homeowner to the larger problem that was the foundation issue so they could address it properly.

To make sure that our repair stands the test of time regardless of what is happening to the foundation in the future we use a special type of hanger to secure the pipe to the foundation itself. This secures the pipe from moving up or down, as opposed to the other option to use a hanger that only prevents a downward motion, our team here at JD precision knows these tend to fail so we avoid using the teardrop hanger. After we laid the new pipe and secured this pipe with the hangers we installed two additional clean outs for any future issues that may arise so that the homeowner will not have to tunnel under the home for any clogs.

If you believe this might be a problem you are experiencing, if you find your toilet overflowing constantly or just occasionally, in your home please don't hesitate to reach out to us. We are always a call or text away, or if you'd rather have us reach out to you please fill out the schedule now form and our office will call you!

I want to walk you through a recent call for a toilet clog that we received here in the JD Precision Plumbing office. A woman called stating that her toilet is continuously backing up which, which can be a big problem.

When we came out we pulled the toilet and put a snake down the drain line. This snake is like a big coil machine and it's pretty strong. It has these devices on the end that can get through whatever it needs to get through in the sewer line.

After the plumber cleared the blockage we wanted to get to the root of the problem for her. Because there is almost always a bigger issue than just a simple toilet clog.

We took the sewer camera, which is very similar in appearance to the snake just not quite as hardcore. When we stuck that down the toilet sewer line we were able to see in this woman's sewer line exactly where there was build up.

You can imagine what was being flushed in the average families toilet, and that is what was there. When our technician saw the image on the screen he saw a crack in her sewer line. Upon further examination hes saw that he could get the camera to actually go through a crack! When he got the camera down there he was able to see the seepage, the toilet paper, and the debris was supposed to be going through to the city sewage system.

In this families case the crack was large enough that the sewage was getting out under the foundation which is a huge problem. If this goes untreated and the family continues to use this toilet for years that's a big problem. So obviously something needs to be done but the question now arises where is the problem occurring?

Here is the crack in the PVC causing the toilet clog!

Here is the photo we took with the camera of under her foundation!

We actually have technology that we call a locator, we leave the camera end at the point of the problem and move the locator over it, sort of the way a metal detector is used, our technician is able to sweep until they find exactly where that end of the camera is, so when they find it they can say okay this is where the problem is exactly.

For this family that was between one child's bedroom and another child's bedroom. The sewer line that connects one toilet to the other. So we have to explain that she has this is a huge problem right in the middle of her home underneath the ground.

We then presented the problem to the homeowner and showed her all of the research we'd done and how we knew exactly where the problem was and how big of a problem it was.

As our technicians was talking to her she was reminded that a foundation company had come out in months past and leveled the home. When they leveled the home one of the PVC connections didn’t hold and most likely got a hairline fracture that worsened over time.

Luckily for this homeowner it was completely covered under warranty by the foundation company. And they are taking care of it completely!

Had this not been the case our solution would have been to tunnel under her home to gain access to the sewer pipe and make the proper repairs needed.

This is just a sample problem that we get a call about multiple times every day. Now, this is a worst case scenario, sometimes it's just a little too much toilet paper got flushed or a toy is lodged inside the sewer line, but from the smallest problems to the biggest problems we have the tools and the resources to get the job done with Precision!

Check out this link for more information on sewer camera inspections.

Tag: foundation

Why Is My Toilet Overflowing?

Why Was The Toilet Clogging Up?