Small hairline crack at PVC T fitting in pipe to sewer

[Markv7]

Hi All,

Some small kids managed to unscrew my main pvc sewer line cleanout cap, and chuck some rocks down the 15 foot pipe to the PVC T that connects the vertical cleanout pipe to the drain pipe. $1800 later, the roto-rooter guys pushed the rocks out via a hydrojet. Today I threw my little endoscope camera down to double check everything and noticed a small hairline crack in the T fitting. Is this something to worry about? It's 15 feet down, so a dig to replace would be a lot of money. It's a drain, and not under pressure, so I wonder how much leakage is actually happening. There are no trees within 12 feet of it. I've attached pics, where you can see the curved crack in upper right. Any feedback would be appreciated!

 

[Terry]

15 feet down? It's unlikely that it's going to see any roots there. I doubt it will be a problem.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Jadnashua]

Depends on the type of tree...most have shallower roots.

 

[Sylvan]

Wow $1,800 to water Jet a PVC line must have taken him an entire hr to do it and the cost of water has increased a lot of the last few decades

The General post office in Bronx (GPO) has an outside drain line approximately 12 feet down where full of rocks from a construction site where the concrete was being replaced

Rather then water jetting or snaking I figured why not just remove the debris so went a few blocks away and bought Sears 5.5 HP Vacuum for $79 on sale and added a few more 21/2" sections to extent the Vacuum pipe to reach all the way down and removed all of the old cement rocks

For the college of Mount Saint Vincent we used a fire hydrant to clear 6" storm lines with a 11/2 fire hose

"Roto " does it again


https://www.sears.com/craftsman-xsp...K7ZuwFIn7rgbfqNi2xeLnPVM9vECbGI4aAgtZEALw_wcB

 

[Sylvan]

I do not understand why someone knowing there is rocks in a pipe would want to shove it further downstream which may cause future problems as "rocks don't flow" with other natural sewerage so they will sit there allowing paper etc to accumulate

If the rocks were able to fit down a cleanout doesn't it make sense to just pull them up through the same opening?

To increase the vacuum suction as the vacuum tubing is near the bottom of the pipe use a rag to allow for greater suction around the CO opening .

Should have come here first and possibly saved yourself $1,700

Most municipal authorities frown upon FOG and ROCKS and other non biodegradable waste being placed in their systems as well as extremely hot water

 

[Markv7]

To add some clarity, we did use my 6.5hp shop vac and got the smaller rocks, a tennis ball, and a coke can out(those kids were creative). The final rocks wouldn’t come up. I figured Roto was screwing me, but it was 9 pm and 48 hours before I left town. My basement was once flooded and 40k of damage because someone retiling my basement bathroom dropped a piece of the old shower valve down the exposed toilet flange, and it got stuck in the same pipe without me knowing until the flood. That memory was still fresh in my head.

I’m gonna keep an eye on it for now. Any feedback on trenchless pipe repair? If the crack gets worse, the trenchless folks said they could deal with it for $2k which is a lot less than digging 15 feet to replace the T fitting.

 

[Sylvan]

Word of advice beware of any "ROTO" companies in my opinion RUN like hell

Why would any decent plumber want to give a hefty percentage of their income to be a "team player" to some franchise that is several states away?

I knew one franchise executive that was bragging about how he received kickbacks from tool suppliers etc

When I am located we do not allow relining although I knew of several placed it was used and I never heard of any complaints