and you're listening to talk radio 1190 I'm John Wolf for the ask the experts
radio show and our expert today is Roger Wakefield the founder/owner/operator of
Texas Green Plumbing and we're talking a lot about sewage today but any type of
plumbing problem is is fair game if you'd like to give Roger a call
(214)-787-1190 is the number right here his website by the
way texasgreenplumbing.com now we talked about the expert plumber that's
that is your YouTube channel yes sir and how did you become the expert plumber
it's a really good story I being a member of green plumbers USA I got a
email from the president of their company one day he said Roger look
American Standard is running a contest and they are looking for the next expert
plumber and they ran a plumber know-how contest and you had to create a video
into a submission and then they looked at your certifications anything that you
had your license in and I'm a very educated plumber I have every
endorsement in Texas Medical gas water supply protection specialist
multi-purpose residential fire protection system RMP but then outside
of plumbing I'm also a LEED AP and that is leadership in energy and
environmental design and that's building green buildings me and my video crew got
together and we had just started doing videos and we decided this is something
that we can do so we put together a video for American Standard they wanted
to know a tip they wanted you to talk about why you liked American Standard
and then they just show them your personality and again this goes back to
YouTube guys if you want to see it go look at the YouTube channel at the
expert plumber and it's one that says Roger Wakefield American Standard next
expert plumber go watch that video we had a good time making it we had a lot
of fun but my big tip was everybody in your house should know how to go outside
and turn the water off whether it is at the meter at the valve box at your house
because you may have a water problem or a water emergency anybody in your house
that knows how to shut that water off can do it immediately and that can save
you thousands of dollars and that's why American Standard picked me as their
expert plumber is this a nationwide deal it is I've actually they sent me out to
Orlando to KBIS the kitchen and bath industry show I spoke out there I love
public speaking' I love teaching people about plumbing about the plumbing
industry I'm a great recruiter into the trades because I tell young men young
women all the time the plumbing industry you can get into right now and five
years from now you can be making $75,000 a year as a plumber and you're not gonna
owe anybody for that and it's not just plumbing I'm associated with plumbing
pipe fitting and welding so it's a great industry I wish I'd met you when I was a
younger man I tell you the I was I was speaking before we came on the air with
your assistant and I said that until I moved into the house that I bought I'd
lived in apartments all my life and the one thing that I've enjoyed is not
mowing the lawn it's not edging the law and where I'm absolutely abysmal I try
my flute vision well I bet that completing plumbing jobs because if you
fix something right it's fixed you can you know that and odds are if you fixed
it right it's not gonna cause a problem for a long time the lawn not so much
dishes not so much but if you can it's a real feeling of accomplishment more so
even than fixing something on your car because that will break down eventually
again but most likely but a plumbing job is just it's a feeling of fulfillment so
to be able to do that for a career and make a decent living at it sounds like
sounds like a good deal all around I love it it's really funny I took a test
when I was probably in the fifth or sixth grade and it's a evaluation test
if I'm not you know what should you be when you grow up and I'm reading through
it and mine said engineer and not that I'm not a very bright kid
but I thought okay I do not want to drive trains around for a living and
that's exactly what I thought and it's funny because being in this industry I
have worked with some of the most amazing mechanical chemical hydro
mechanical engineers around I've learned so much from them I just I think it's I
would have been a wonderful engineer because I think I would have just soaked
it up like a sponge I love it on the fulfillment side have you trained people
who've gone on to their own companies and and come back and thank you for the
training you gave them I have I actually used to be an instructor in the Union
here in Dallas Local 100 anybody interested in getting in plumbing pipe
fitting or welding give me a shout and I can introduce you to him there's one of
my students actually when he was going through school he used to tell me Roger
one day when I get out I want you to go to work for me because I'm gonna open up
a service plumbing company and he has open up one he opened up one in
in Plano and he's actually done very well with it and we talked often he's
a good guy so yeah so this is a show about recruits recruitment and vocations
as well as fixing plumbing but to get back to the fixing plumbing what are the
dangers what should you know about what you can look for if your sewer line is
leaking what's the first indication if there's not water running through you're
backing up in your house really if you've got a sewer leak chances are
you're not gonna know it unless you do have water coming up inside your house
and that's normally only gonna happen if you have a blockage I work with a lot of
Realtors that is actually how I grew my business when I started I would get out
meet Realtors ask them for the opportunity to come speak at their
office and train their Realtors about what sewer leaks are what slab leaks are
what causes them so many people have no idea one thing I recommend that every
real turn if you people listening if you know anybody buying a house I always
recommend doing a sewer and water test and what we do John is is we go to the
two-way clean house that we were talking about while ago
stick a test bottle in there were water it cannot go out to the sewer we fill it
up with water it's not called a hydrostatic test because we do not apply
any pressure we literally just fill the line with water
it's a plumbing drain line it's made to carry water anyway so we fill that line
with water and see if that water level goes down if that water level goes down
there is a leak somewhere if there's a leak somewhere it can be causing
foundation problems and like you just talked about if it ever stops up there
or out towards the main and backs up in your house that water could come up
through your floor or anywhere else have you ever done this and gotten or tried
to do this and got resistance from a seller we have there's a certain real
estate brokerage in Dallas that has a note in their contract that did have
enough I'm not sure if they still do so I'm not saying anything bad about
anybody that if you did a hydrostatic test on the house you had to sign a
letter saying if you damaged anything you would pay to fix it and I used to
tell buyers walk away from that because number one it's not a hydrostatic test
number two is it's a leak test and that's all I'm doing is filling a system
that's made to hold water with water and there's no way I could damage it there's
nothing that I can do by putting water and I know that's gonna no I'm not
applying any pressure if you look at the the drain line say it comes out three
feet under the house and I just fill it up with three feet of water you're
looking at what .431 pounds per pressure per foot so you're
talking 1.2 pounds of pressure on the whole system okay again we're
speaking with Roger Wakefield of Texas Green Plumbing texasgreenplumbing.com
you have a question about anything maybe you're not buying a house today 972-
442-4101 is their office number and the number here is 214-787-1190 now if
the if they'll if the blockage is not in the house when you open up the two
systems out next to your house is it necessary that you're gonna have to tear
up the lawn or is there some way to find more
specifically where the leak is with a gigantic stethoscope or something
for a sewer line a stethoscope type system is what we would use for a water
line because that leaking water is gonna make a lot of noise if if you open the
two-way cleanouts and there's water in it so that tells you that you've got a
stoppage between your two-way clean outs in the city tap what's going to happen
there is we're gonna run a sewer machine through it we're gonna clean out
that blockage then we're gonna stick a camera in it run it out towards the main
we're gonna look at what it what we see is it a break is it just a belly if it's
if it's a break and it's in one isolated position we may be able to just dig that
up uncover it and make a spot repair right there if if it's a big belly we
may end up having to replace the section of pipe if it's an older pipe and we see
roots in several locations we may tell you you need an entire new yard service
but that's the thing we're gonna give you options and it's gonna be up to you
as to what you do now when you say yard service what are you referring to your
from the two-way clean outs out to the city now the city tap is out by the curb
somewhere that's your yard service that's your sewer relay that goes from
the two-way clean-out sir you're responsible for that as the homeowner
okay now my neighbor had a couple of times he had roots that had grown into
the sewage pipes if sewage pipes is the correct term there and what can he do to
prevent that they're heavier duty things you can wrap around it or is it just
something that foliage is gonna look for water and you can't really stop that
yeah it's always gonna look for it why what there are there's things that you
can put down the ditch on each side that kind of blocks the roots from getting
over to it to be honest if a plumber puts in a good PVC system and it's solid
and it doesn't break and which most repairs now are made with PVC you're not
gonna have a problem the roots are never gonna get in it and there's only so much
you can do if you're buying a house you can't tear up the yard you
or go to let's say especially for a high-end house run the camera through
for any reason or just like tail it something you can't examine everything
we recommend to all realtors to recommend every buyer they have to do a
sewer water test we check under the house we also do the same thing
basically on the water system we put a gauge on the system in the house we shut
off the water at the meter we see if the pressure drops we have had some
customers that want us to do a gas test also especially with all the explosions
lately I would want to know if I was buying a house is there a gas leak
inside the house yes the the other thing is running a sewer camera like you said
I've had some customers want us to go up on the roof go down through the vents
look at every bit of sewer pipe that we can see and also run a camera from the
two-way clean-out out to the tap the area we're talking about the yard
service and say are there any roots are there any breaks is there anything like
that that we need to worry about before buying the house if I was buying a house
right now I would want a sewer test a water test a gas test and run a camera
just so I know and these are things the home inspector does not check I'm
learning a lot now for the next time I buy a house myself I'm amazed how lucky
I've been so far and it hasn't always been perfect yet we're speaking with
Roger Wakefield of Texas Green Plumbing we'll be back the number here
214-787-1190 John Wolf with ask the experts radio show