Hey guys, I am Roger Wakefield, LEEDAP, the Expert Plumber, coming to you live this
morning talk to you about why you should change out cast iron pipes. I live in the
Dallas area in North Central Texas, so cast iron pipes have been around for a
long time. But let's go back before that before that there were clay pipes.
Okay clay pipe actually ran to carry your sewer line from your house out to the
city, to the city tap. Now clay pipe had a life expectancy of, you know, fifty
seventy-five, thirty five, hundred years somewhere around in there. Okay a long
life to expectancy, really probably let's say 25 to 50 years. That is probably more
accurate. Down in Austin whenever I worked down there we had to change those
out a lot. Whenever you'd come out, you'd start running a sewer machine down, you'd
get mud on your snake, you'd figure out about how many feet you went in and sure
enough you dig it up and there'd be a break there. So you'd have to do a repair
or replacement. Cast iron now, cast iron pipe they started
installing around 1900. We probably quit installing cast iron pipe in residential,
in our area probably about 1980. Maybe a little bit before, a little after but
around there. I remember doing an apartment complex in the 80's and we still had
to put cast-iron underground, once we got above-ground we could transition to PVC.
Now PVC is great because PVC has a life expectancy of about a hundred years and
you know, that there's not a lot you can do to it to damage it. That's why
whenever we do change out cast iron, that's what we change it out to. But
here's the deal, cast iron pipe that has a life expectancy of 50 to 100 years
above-ground, has a life expectancy of 25 to 50 years once you put it below ground.
Guys, cast iron pipe can rust and when you bury pipe underground number one: you
know it's gonna be wet, get wet, at least moist. If
run water through it, you know it's gonna be wet through the inside and that's
what it's designed for. So, you know, that cast iron pipe literally starts
deteriorating from the time that you put it in. Now there are some things that can
affect that and make a real big difference. So, detergents whether it's
just hand soap, whether it is, you know, shampoo,
whether it's laundry soap, whether it's detergents that you're using in your
kitchen. Detergents can actually lead to a quicker deterioration because of what
they do to the inside of the pipe. Now other things, chemical drain cleaners. You
guys, I know you all have heard me talk about this before,
chemical drain cleaners are one of the worst things you can use on your
plumbing system. They literally they start eating away your cast iron pipe as
soon as you start pouring it in. Now most drain cleaners are
sulfuric acid and guys, this acid literally starts eating away at your pipe,
and don't get me wrong, chemical drain cleaner may unclog your
drain every now and then because it's gonna go in there and bust up, you know, grease or
detergents or things like that, but it is also wreaking havoc on your plumbing
system. So, and it may just be a little bit at a time,
but guys, literally we've gone into houses that, you know, the homeowner is like "oh
I don't have any drain problems, I poured Drano down it all the time." Guys,
sulfuric acid is not good for your plumbing system. Now, every once in a
while maybe but guys remember too, that stuff's dangerous. If you put it in a
sink or a toilet or something like that you're trying to unclog it and it does
not unclog it and you do have to call somebody or your husband comes in to do
it or your boyfriend or whoever or your even you're doing it whoever it is doing
it just remember that's an acid in there now.
It's not just class three sewer water, this is an acidic product and you need
to be prepared for it. Meaning wear glasses ,wear a face shield,
wear something you can do to protect your eyes and keep your kids away from
it. I mean, would you let them go out and play in the backyard if you had a bowl
of acid there? Don't let them in the bathroom if you've put it in the sink or
in the toilet. Another thing that people don't really
think about or just general soil conditions, a lot of soils here in North
Central Texas are slightly acidic. Once you start bringing this pipe in an
acidic situation, you're doing the same thing. You are leading to the
deterioration of that pipe from the time that you put it in. The last one is
grease. Grease has been a problem for cast-iron pipes and this is the primary
reason for what plumbers call channel rot. Okay, there's a lot of times we'll
stick a camera in a sewer line and we'll start going down and you can see a gap
in the bottom you can actually see a ledge where the cast-iron pipe has
rotted away and now there's just mud down underneath it. The problem with this
is sewer machines get caught down in it, cameras get caught down in it and at
that point it's like okay, we've either got a tear your sewer line out and get down
to it or something because now you've got a problem.
Grease has set in the bottom of your cast-iron pipe for so long now that it
has literally rotted it out, and we call that channel rot, and now there's a
channel right down the bottom of your pipe that's rotted out. Guys here in North
Central Texas I've grown my business by taking care of Realtors, and one thing
that we do is a sewer-water test. I've done two of those this week for the same
guy, actually both of them the sewer failed, one of them the homeowner had no
idea. He's actually having us come in to replace his sewer under his house. The
other one, I'm pretty sure the homeowner knew and guys he did not want us to
prove it. He kept fighting us, said "look I do not want y'all to do that test here",
once the buyer says "look we're just doing a test to see if it leaks", I guess
he thought okay I've had problems but maybe it'll hold.
Once we stuck a camera in there to start looking at where we're putting our test
ball and things like that we saw the sewer line was cracked it, had
roots in it, had mud in it and the bad thing is this homeowner knew. Whenever we
told this homeowner "hey look we've got problems" he says "look, I don't hear
anything you're saying, I want y'all to pick up your stuff and leave." Guys
there's a lot of people out there that will just screw you over and a homeowner
that knows they have problems like that and they're
trying to sell a house and they won't let you test it and check it walk, away
from that house. There's a reason they don't want you to test it. A sewer water
test here is about three hundred and fifty dollars. For another two hundred
fifty dollars we'll run a camera. Guys, that's six hundred dollars of insurance
right there, can save you thirty to a hundred thousand dollars. Maybe just five
thousand dollars, it doesn't matter if you can spend that money, do a sewer-
water test, because I'm telling you there's homeowners out there that know
they've got a problem. They know they got a leak and they will jack you over just
to sell it to you and then look at the disclosure agreement and say "oh I didn't
even know I had a problem." Guys, be careful what you're walking into.
Do a sewer-water test, it can save you. Whenever we do these sewer-water tests
and determine that the cast iron is rotted, we replace it with PVC. We end up
normally just replacing the section that is broken or causing issues. If it's a
home seller, if it's a homeowner and they know they've got problems, they normally
come in look at the entire situation and said "look, we plan on being here for a
while, we want to fix everything and make it right so we never have this problem
again." Guys, I hope you've learned something from this video. Cast iron, it
served its purpose, it was really good, not really expensive and guys we still
use it in residential buildings. So I'm not saying that there's nothing good
about it, there is because it's done well and it's lasted a long time. But it does
have a life expectancy, if you're buying a house just remember that. Know that
there's a life expectancy, that you may have to deal with and that could be a
problem that you're just buying into. So why replace cast iron pipe? Because the
newer PVC pipe lasts longer and performs better, it actually stays smoother on the
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the public to let them know. I love doing these, I love telling people about
plumbing and plumbing problems and things they can do to take care of it, or
things they need to know to look out for themselves. I hope you enjoy these, I hope
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comments please put them in down here. We'd like to give you information that
you want to know. So if there's anything you want to know, please let us know. My
name is Roger Wakefield with Texas Green Plumbing, saving you money one drop
at a time.