Skip to main content
Lebanon Plumbers, home

Drain & Sewer

Sewer Line Repair and Replacement

The lateral from your house to the main is the property owner's responsibility in most Lebanon County municipalities. We inspect it before quoting it.

(717) 000-0000Request this service

What is included

What this service covers

What we actually do on this job, and what you can expect us to deal with while we are there.

  • Camera inspection to find the break, sag, offset or root intrusion
  • Spot repairs where a single section has failed
  • Full lateral replacement by open excavation
  • Trenchless pipe bursting and cured in place lining where suitable
  • Clearing and re-lining root damaged clay and cast iron
  • Locating and installing an accessible cleanout
  • Municipal permits and pre-backfill inspections

Signs to look for

You may need this if you are seeing any of these

  • Backups affecting more than one fixture at the same time
  • Gurgling from a floor drain or tub when a toilet is flushed
  • Sewage odour outdoors, particularly after rain
  • An unusually green, lush or sunken strip across the yard
  • Blockages that return within weeks of being cleared
  • Slow drainage throughout the whole house rather than one fixture

Why it happens

What usually causes it

01

Roots through an open joint

Older clay laterals come in short sections with a joint between each one, and joints move as the ground settles. Once one opens, roots find the moisture and grow in. Cutting them restores flow and leaves the opening, so they return.

02

Cast iron corroding from the inside

Common close to the building on older Lebanon city properties. The wall roughens as it rusts, catching paper and grease, and eventually scales badly enough to close the bore.

03

A sag holding water

Long laterals on the suburban lots around Palmyra and Annville settle over decades. A section that drops even slightly holds water permanently, solids settle in it, and blockages recur in exactly the same place.

04

Crushing and offsets

Ground movement, vehicle loading over a shallow run, or a joint pulling apart leaves a step inside the pipe that catches everything passing. This is the failure mode that cabling cannot help with at all.

Our approach

How we handle this job

Specific to this work rather than a generic checklist bolted onto every page.

  1. 01

    Camera the line first

    We put a camera down before quoting anything. It shows the material, the condition, the depth and the exact distance to the defect, and that distance decides whether this is a small repair near the foundation or a run out to the street.

  2. 02

    Locate and mark

    The camera head is tracked from the surface so the defect is marked on the ground. That is what keeps excavation to one targeted hole rather than a trench looking for the problem.

  3. 03

    Choose the method honestly

    Spot repair, lining, pipe bursting or open excavation each suit different conditions. We will tell you which the footage supports, including when the cheapest option is the right one.

  4. 04

    Permits, dig, inspect, restore

    Where the municipality requires a permit and a pre-backfill inspection we handle both. PA One Call marks buried utilities before anyone digs, which is a legal requirement rather than an optional step.

Diagnosis before price, every time

The single most useful thing we do on a sewer line is refuse to quote it blind.

A camera run down the lateral shows the material, the condition, the depth and, critically, the exact distance to the problem. That distance is the whole job. Eight feet from the foundation is a morning’s work in one targeted hole. Sixty feet out under the sidewalk is a different project with permits, traffic control and a much larger number attached.

Nobody can tell those apart by looking at a backup in your basement, which is why a confident replacement quote without footage should make you suspicious rather than reassured.

Perforated drain pipe and gravel laid in an open trench beside a house foundation

What tends to fail, and where in the county

The housing stock predicts this fairly well.

In the older parts of Lebanon city, laterals are frequently cast iron near the building and clay further out, running under narrow streets alongside everything else that is buried there. Cast iron rusts rough and closes up. Clay comes in short jointed sections, and once a joint opens, roots find it. Excavation is harder here too, because the trench often crosses a sidewalk or reaches into the cartway.

In the postwar and later development around Palmyra, Annville and the townships, the houses sit further back from the road, so laterals are long. Long runs settle, and a section that drops slightly holds water permanently. Solids collect in that low spot and the blockages recur in precisely the same place.

A sealed sewage ejector pump basin being fitted in a basement floor

Choosing between repair, lining and replacement

Once there is footage, the options narrow quickly and honestly.

A spot repair suits one failure in an otherwise sound pipe. Lining installs a new wall inside the existing pipe and works well against root intrusion and cracking on a continuous run, but it cannot fix a collapse or a sag. Pipe bursting pulls new pipe through the old path and handles worse condition without a full trench, though it needs pits at both ends and clearance from other utilities. Open excavation remains the answer for a collapsed or badly sagged line that needs regrading.

We will tell you which the camera supports, including when it supports the cheapest one.

Questions

Sewer line repair questions

Specific to this job. Every service page here has its own, none repeated.

General FAQ

Common questions

How do I tell a blocked drain from a failed sewer line?
A single slow fixture is usually a local blockage. The signals pointing at the lateral itself are backups affecting more than one fixture at once, gurgling from a floor drain or tub when a toilet is flushed, sewage odour outdoors, an unusually green or sunken strip across the yard, and blockages that keep returning within weeks. A camera inspection settles it, because it shows the pipe rather than inferring from symptoms.
Is the sewer lateral mine or the municipality's?
In most Lebanon County municipalities the property owner is responsible for the lateral from the building to the connection at the main, including the buried portion under the yard and often under the sidewalk or street. Rules vary between the City of Lebanon Authority and individual borough and township authorities, so confirm with whoever bills your sewer. If several houses on your street are affected at once, that points at the public main rather than at your lateral, and that call goes to the authority first.
Can a sewer line be replaced without digging up the whole yard?
Sometimes. Pipe bursting pulls a new pipe through the path of the old one from a pit at each end, and lining cures a new pipe wall inside the existing one. Both need the run to be reasonably straight and intact enough to work with, and both need access pits. A collapsed line, a badly offset joint, or a sag holding water generally has to be dug and regraded, because lining a sag just gives you a lined sag.
Why do you insist on a camera inspection before quoting?
Because the difference between replacing eight feet of pipe near the foundation and sixty feet out to the street is enormous, and there is no way to tell which you need by looking at a backup in the basement. A replacement quote given without footage is a guess, and guesses on this job get revised upward once the digging starts. Be wary of anyone who skips this step.
How long does a lateral replacement take?
A targeted spot repair is often a day. A full replacement by open excavation is typically one to three days depending on length, depth, what is in the way and what the ground is like. Trenchless methods can be quicker on site but need more setup. Permits and inspection scheduling can add time before the work starts, which is worth knowing when you are planning around it.
What happens to my yard, driveway or sidewalk?
Open excavation leaves a trench that gets backfilled and compacted. We restore the surface to a reasonable standard, but matching mature lawn or decorative hardscape exactly is not something any plumber should promise. Where a driveway or a sidewalk is over the run, trenchless is worth pricing specifically because avoiding that restoration often covers the difference in method cost.
Will tree roots come back after the repair?
Not through sound, properly jointed new pipe. Roots do not break into intact pipe, they exploit openings that already exist. That is the whole argument for fixing the defect rather than cabling the roots out once a year: cutting them treats the symptom and leaves the door open, replacing or lining the section closes it.
Do I need a permit, and who pulls it?
Most municipalities here require a permit for lateral work and many require an inspection before the trench is closed. We handle both as part of the job. It is worth asking that question of any contractor you get a quote from, because an unresolved permit on buried work can cause real problems when you come to sell the property.

Related services

Where we cover for this

All service areas

Ready when you are

Need sewer line repair in Lebanon County?

Tell us what is going wrong. We come out, look at it properly, and give you the price before anything starts.

  • Licensed and insured
  • Residential and commercial
  • Price agreed before work starts

Talk to a plumber

Tell us what is going wrong and we will arrange a visit.

(717) 000-0000

Rather not call? Request service online

Emergency callouts during business hours

Call now