Adventures in Home Buying

Sewer Trouble After The Estate Sale

• Jim Troth

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A calm estate purchase turned chaotic when the sewer backed up just three weeks after move-in. We pull back the floorboards on what really went wrong: a rotted cast-iron section hiding directly under a foundation wall, invisible to a standard home inspection and ready to fail the moment a family’s daily water use ramped up. With the clock ticking and a toddler in the house, we break down how to think through the choices—dangerous excavation, structural disruption, permitting headaches—or a fast, trenchless reline that restores flow without tearing the home apart.

You’ll hear how the plumber’s camera found the missing bottom of the pipe and why vacancy and “little old lady” occupancy can mask serious defects that only show up under full load. We explain the relining process step by step, from gaining access through the basement slab to installing a five-foot cured-in-place liner that bridged the failure beneath the foundation and into the crawl. We talk real numbers and realities: the difference between a roughly $2,500 reline and an excavation that can quickly stack up to five figures once shoring, wall removal, and restoration are factored in. The result was a stable line, same-day usability, and a huge sigh of relief.

Home - Environmental Consultants Of Ohio

Beyond sewer lines, we spotlight another blind spot: chimneys. Creosote-fueled heat can crack flue tiles and create hidden fire paths, and many homeowners never notice the event. We share what to ask from your inspector, when to request add-on scopes, and how to read red flags like vacant listings, mature trees near laterals, and older clay or cast-iron systems. If you’re buying, renovating, or just catching up on maintenance, this is your playbook for avoiding big bills, messy repairs, and unsafe systems.

If this story helped you think differently about inspections, subscribe, share the episode with a friend who’s house hunting, and leave a quick review with your top pre-closing must-do. Your support helps more homeowners avoid preventable disasters.

Adventures in Home Buying, the ultimate podcast for anyone navigating the exciting, sometimes daunting world of purchasing a home! Whether you're a first-time buyer, a seasoned investor, or dreaming of your forever home, our engaging stories and expert insights will guide you through every step of the homebuying journey. From decoding mortgages and mastering bidding wars to uncovering hidden costs and spotting sustainable home features, we deliver practical tips and real-world advice to empower you with confidence.

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SPEAKER_01:

Hey everybody. Alright. Laura.

SPEAKER_02:

Jim.

SPEAKER_01:

We had something emergency the other day. Yes. This is a house that we did not inspect this house.

SPEAKER_02:

I don't know that it was inspected. It sounded like it was an estate thing.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it was actually I don't think it was inspected at all. So here's what happened. Our daughter owns a sewer relining company. A sewer relining company where the sewer line has an issue. This is like the four or six inch lines that they can get relined. And so you avoid digging up the yard, destroying the deck to get to the pipe. No excavations is needed for this. So what happened is these people now own this house because it was an estate thing. So I'm assuming a parent died. That was kind of what I thought. Okay, so then they they moved into the house. Well, three weeks after moving into the house, they had sewer line issues. Which sucks. That sucks. That's very unfortunate, but it they did not have an inspector, it sounds like. So you should all if and you could have still had an inspected.

SPEAKER_02:

Even if it's an estate sale. We have inspected estate sales, like we've had attorneys refer us.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. Well, if you do a home inspection, the sewer line is beyond the scope of the home inspection. Right. So if you do the home inspection, you you may think you're covering all your bases. You have not. You need to find a home inspection company that will also have the ability to do the sewer scope and the chimney scope, especially. There's a fireplace you're going to use, so you want safety for your house. You don't want to burn your house down, but the sewer the sewer line, you don't want you your sewer line needs to be usable for to use to use a house.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, there are some red flags for us. Like if somebody calls me and they're like, What do you recommend? Okay, was the house lived in prior to this or has it been vacant? Because if it's been a little old lady living there or it's been vacant versus a family of four or six, and there's no issues, then that's going to be a little bit different. If I've got somebody that's a little old lady or it's vacant, I have no clue how that sewer line is working because it hasn't been pushed.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, because a sewer line that only has one person living at the house is not being maxed to what to its potential what it can be used for. Because you like a family of four, let's say almost everybody showers every single day. There's laundry to do, there's cooking, there's cleaning, um dishwasher, dishwasher, yes. You get you run a lot more water, which is maybe which I bet was what happened because the state state sale, I'm assuming older parent, which it would have been an older parent, and uh and now they have a family uh of four or so. I don't know, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

So anyway, so always get inspected, but if it happens, it's not it's not an oh my gosh, this this word completely screwed because you could be though. But you guys were able to go in and help this person in spite of the fact they couldn't dig. So explain a little bit about that because you were out there.

SPEAKER_01:

So they had some kind of issue back up with the house wasn't flowing right. So a plumbing company went out there, checked it out, they found where there's an issue that they could get to some blocking or something, so they had to bust through the concrete in the basement to get access to this.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Once they gained access, because it was blocked from one direction, so they get they gained the access. Well, the sewer pipe went through the foundation wall in the basement underneath a crawl space that then went outside to the you know to the exterior to the to the CD sewer.

SPEAKER_00:

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SPEAKER_01:

The pipe that was immediately underneath that foundation wall between the basement and the crawl space, cast iron, there's no bottom to it anymore.

SPEAKER_02:

That's not good.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, completely rusted through. It's old cast iron. It's about that time. The house you said was like 1930. It's 90 years old. It's it that's about as useful life expectancy, especially if it was had a little bit of a low spot and water's constantly sitting there, it's gonna have some issues. But because there is and it was weird connections, other other areas of the pipe. Anyway, this pipe that the bottom was rotted out was right underneath that foundation wall and a little bit into the crawl space. I've never That doesn't sound like good planning. No, I've Well, 90 years ago, like oh the pipe will last forever. But the bad thing is this pipe was right underneath that foundation wall and into the crawl space area. Man, in order to excavate that, you either gotta remove the foundation wall to get underneath there because and then say six feet, five, six feet in there, in this case, digging horizontally to get to that pipe and remove it. First of all, that's not safe. You imagine that that thing can collapse on you underneath there working.

SPEAKER_02:

Right, that would be horrible.

SPEAKER_01:

Excavating from within the crawl space where you got like maybe two foot of room from the soil and the floor joists? No, that's not bad. That is I mean, it could be done, but you're talking about breaking labor, and it's gonna take like two days just to dig down into it. It's it's insane.

SPEAKER_02:

So this was really the only viable option to re-line it.

SPEAKER_01:

The warming company contacted us because they knew that we do that. Megan had we have we we know the people, and I and I I do it myself. I I have the training, so I can do it on Reline. So we helped Megan. We went out there, yes, I'm Megan's assistant. Megan is my boss in this, she loves that. Yes, she does. So we go out there, take a look at this, and yep, we can we can do that. And it was uh it was fortunate we could do that because I know we saved the person. We probably saved them about I'm gonna just guess$7,000 to dig out that to remove that foundation.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, dude, it would have been more than that.

SPEAKER_01:

Probably, but to remove that foundation wall appropriately to say to make it safe and stable to remove that pipe, it would have been insane. But we were able to take a five-foot section of liner and reline that pipe completely covering the bottom part that was missing, right? Completely like fill that in. So it's all nice solid thing for them. So yay. It's not always I mean, it was bad news, and and I can I can tell they was probably straight. They're very nice. I all know the the lady and uh a little boy. I think it was a year and a half, two years. Yeah, he was running around a little trying a little bit. She was holding a lot. But uh yeah, we basically said we're able to save their being able to use their house and save them like eight thousand dollars easily right off the top. Yeah. Now I don't know how much of the cost for the plumbing and everything else is. I don't know. But our for our thing, for man, same day rushing out there fixing this, I think we charge like$2,500.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And that saved them like eight. Easily.

SPEAKER_02:

I'm guessing, yeah, easily because it you you're when you're talking foundation, you're you're talking that's that's gonna jack that price up, literally, and figuratively.

SPEAKER_01:

So we save them eight thousand and hey, I don't I don't know. Do you need to get permits to dig through a foundation? I I I really don't know. You'd have to do something with it. We probably save them a week and eight thousand dollars. Easily. So I guess the thing on this, even though if you're getting a house and it is uh estate sale, head home, foreclosed, anything, you would get it inspected. Yeah, always get it inspected, always get that sewer line looked at. If you if you're ever gonna use a fireplace or wood wood-burning fireplace, get it scoped. You don't want to move into a house, set you know, put a nice fire, and then you lose your house. Right.

SPEAKER_02:

What is it, 30,000 fires each year caused by chimneys? Something like 25,000. I got the stats somewhere.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I was thinking it was closer to 30, so probably not far. Yes, yes. And that's large because they don't clean them every year. But when there's a chimney fire, and some people have had chimney fires, they don't even know it. Right. Because they're not outside seeing the flame shoot out through the top of their chimney. But the the heat from the creosote burning damages the flue tiles, create gaps and breakages, which then becomes a fire hazard for the whole house. More likely to catch a whole house on fire. So that was the venture for one new homeowner. Moving the house three weeks later, there's issues, and then frustration, they don't know what to do, but we were able to come in and help them uh get the problem solved.

SPEAKER_02:

And save them a lot of money in the interim.

SPEAKER_01:

We cut we permanent partnered up with the uh plumbing company. The plum the plumber, the plumber really helped the client out a ton by contacting um environmental consultants of Ohio, which is the company that that could do the sewery lining here in Central Ohio. But yeah, um Environmental Consultants of Ohio was uh it was fortunate the plumber um gun through plumbing, contacted them in order to help help them help them out, help help them, help them complete the task of getting these people's house functional. Right. Plus, it saved them a lot of money and time for the the homeowner.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, now you've got Christmas and Thanksgiving coming up, and it's a good time to see people make it.

SPEAKER_01:

You got Christmas coming up, and all of a sudden you got a ten thousand dollar bill, that would be right, especially with the two-year-old. Yeah, but two-year-old won't remember if nothing happens. Well, but the personal.

SPEAKER_02:

If he's the only one there, that's not bad. But if he's not, if he's the youngest, that's not possible.

SPEAKER_01:

So, all right, everybody. Thank you. Bye-bye. Always get it inspected.

SPEAKER_02:

Bye.

Contributor

Jim Troth

Host
Contributor

Laura Troth

Host