What Do You Do When Your Home's Sewer Line Collapses?

There is a very nasty and expensive threat lurking in the soil beneath your home. It’s not zombies, but you may prefer a visit from the living undead to the ghoulish experience of an Orangeburg sewer failure. If you live in an older home built before the 1980s, like the majority of homes in Huntington and Belle Haven, it’s quite likely that your sewer line has by far exceeded its expected useful life and now it is not simply a matter of if it will fail, but when, leading to disastrous and expensive repairs.

The worst case scenario is a sudden and total collapse of the sewer line, accompanied by sewage backing up into your home, which requires emergency clean-up services and immediate reparation of the line. This unfortunate incident happened to us when we purchased a new home last year in the Huntington area. Less than 24 hours after moving in, we discovered our downstairs bathroom gushing dark, smelly “water” from the toilet and shower drain coinciding with the first time we ran the washing machine. We had not yet even unpacked our boxes in our new home but had to move back out for three days while the situation was remedied to a costly sum. As we all know with plumbing situations, urgency certainly ups the financial ante! Area estimates range between $5,000 and $45,000 depending on the level of damage you sustain and the complexity of your particular sewer layout.

Orangeburg Pipe

Ultimately, it was discovered that we had a major breakdown of Orangeburg piping, which is a product used for sewer lines on many homes from the mid 1940’s through the 1970’s. It originated as a fiber conduit pipe that became commonly known as Orangeburg, after the synonymous New York based company that supplied much of the East Coast in that period. Its spread was necessitated by the shortage of iron and harder materials of World War II’s manufacturing needs but continued after the war because it was inexpensive.  

According to Arizona infrastructure expert and historian Jon Schladweiler, fiber conduit pipe is made from wood pulp that is centrifugally spin and formed into the shape of a pipe, dried, and then sealed with a hot, liquefied coal-tar pitch. Schladweiler joked over the phone that it is essentially a “coal tar impregnated toilet paper tube.”

Ironically, Orangeburg pipe was not primarily intended to carry water or sewage but was first purposed as a conduit of dry materials such as telephone, telegraph, and electrical wires. Schladweiler mentions that in fact, the Empire State Building has about 1,800 miles of Orangeburg pipe still successfully housing its wires!

When it comes to bearing wet materials though, Orangeburg is more susceptible to breaking down, especially in today’s day and age of high capacity washing machines and harsh detergents that can cause the tar pitch to deteriorate. Tree roots can also push on the pipe over time, causing it to lose its roundness, which unmoors it from its connection to the main line.  

Belle Haven homeowner Erika Dronen shared this heartbreakingly familiar story, "We started having problems with our sewer line about a week after purchasing our home.  Black water started coming up from the drain in our basement floor. We were told we had Orangeburg piping and the tree roots in our yard were crushing it. If only there had been an inspection of the sewer line or some sort of disclosure statement during the home buying process, we would have at least been made aware of the problem. At this point, we have spent over $20,000 in sewer line repairs and the replacement of carpet and furniture.” 

Insuring Yourself against Risk: Read the Fine Print

Unfortunately, there is very little insurance help for homeowners on this issue because the responsibility of individual sewer lines falls through the fine print cracks of homeowners’ policies and warranties. Some insurance corporations provide coverage, usually requiring an additional, specific “rider policy” but it is really up to you, the homeowner, to read the fine print and ask your individual insurance agent the right questions.

Dominion Electric Company offers a policy that covers some sewer repair situations for a nominal monthly fee, but it also has a liability cap for coverage and may not cover all circumstances, but even having a small amount of protection is better than nothing! Again, verify the fine print of any policies and analyze your specific risks before disaster strikes.

Proactive Measures for Homeowners

Homeowners who have Orangeburg sewers do have some proactive options. According to Schladweiler, sending a camera down into your sewer is the most effective way to assess your risk and also, sometimes “snaking” the line can prolong it collapse. 

Calvin Williams, General Manager of Roto Rooter Northern Virginia, agrees and says, “homeowners should not ignore the early warning signs of slower drains, especially in lower levels of the home.” Williams also says that this early warning sign — the slow drain — can appear sometimes a year or six months prior to the final collapse.

Ideally, if you find out you have Orangeburg pipe or any other brand of fiber conduit pipe, Schladweiler recommends replacing it as soon as possible. If your budget does not allow for that today, the most important advice he stressed is to send a camera into the sewer line every year or two in order to monitor its integrity. When the pipe begins to show signs of deterioration or loss of its round shape, homeowners have the chance to prepare for the inevitable and set aside money in their budgets as well as get estimates from several contractors.

These proactive measures will certainly help you hedge against the risk of the surprise of having a sudden collapse of the line along with the clean-up cost of disgusting sewer back-up in your living quarters. It’s going to cost you a lot of money whether you’re prepared or not, but if you take proactive steps, you might possibly spend less money overall.

Lastly, if you are in the market to buy an older home, you can save yourself a lot of time and stress by including the sewer camera inspection as part of your home inspection process. Even though it costs around $250, it is a mere fraction of the cost you would incur if you had to foot the bill for a total sewer replacement.

The really crazy thing about Orangeburg piping is that it has lasted ridiculously longer than anybody thought it would for being a cardboard tube coated in tar. Schladweiler concluded that while it has certainly outlasted reasonable expectations, we have reached the point in its history that we should assume that all Orangeburg pipes used for sewage will likely break down sooner rather than later.

Homeowners are apt to be caught off guard since this is an “out of sight, out of mind” issue that few people think of until it’s too late. If you live in a home that was built between the 1940s and 1970s, you should definitely look into the proactive measures recommended here and protect yourself from spending more money than you have to on repairs and clean-up! After all, in these cozy older homes, wouldn’t you rather spend your money updating your kitchen instead of flushing it down the drain?

Dronen provided this wonderful advice in parting, “Since this is such a significant problem in our area, I think the condition of a home's sewer line should have to be disclosed in all home sales.  After all, we sign disclosures for lead paint and radon, why not the sewer line? Since no sewer line disclosure is currently recommended, I would caution homebuyers in this area to have an inspection of the sewer line, even if it’s not paid for by the seller, as you may be getting into a situation that would force you to spend an additional $20k after the purchase of your home."

Sources:

Schladweiler, J. http://www.sewerhistory.org/articles/compon/orangeburg/orangeburg.htm. Accessed October 10, 2012.

Dominion Electric Sewer Line Repair Terms and Conditions. https://www.dom.com/products/home-repair-programs/sewer-line-repair/sewe.... Accessed October 10, 2012.