I have a 1950s house and just recently started having sewer backing up into the crawlspace through a middle drain. Everything from the toilet was coming out of that drain. (which is in the middle of the crawlspace) which continues out through the wall and to the street.
Now to give you an idea as to what is happening, the crawlspace is a cement floor, from the floor to the flooring joists/ sub-floor, there is about 4 feet of height. It's not exactly spacious, but most anyone can sit up straight and do work down there.
All of the drain fittings and pipes above the concrete are cast iron, which run into to the cement,which connect to the main line, which is about a 30 foot run out through the foundation wall and to the street.
In the last 2 months we've had about 4 companies come here and try to snake it out, but no one had any luck. There was no cleanout access in the house or outside, so all of their attempts were through the toilet, none of them could go very far, hence no luck. The last person we called just recently suggest that we have a cleanout installed outside, we did that, they came, located the main line outside, dug up the yard and installed a cleanout.
Now with all that said, when they dug, they discovered that the majority of the outside main line was green pvc,which is great, it must have been done in the last 10 years by the previous owner, but that was hooked up to the existing (old) main line with a fernco and worst of all, the pipe in the house (under the crawlspace) was Orangeberg - fiber pipe, it was packed full of roots. They actually came here today to snake it out, but I told them that it's really fragile. I watched their camera and confirmed myself that it is damaged, it has the classic humps and lumps inside, so not good.
Anyway, here is my question, would it be possible to rip out all the cast iron and abandon the old system (which is fairly centralized in one location) replace it with pvc, then float the entire system above concrete (like from the joists) then have it all go through one main line, across the crawlspace joists, then go down to where the existing main line is below the concrete (which would have to be cut out) and of course, that section of orangeberg would be removed and replaced with pvc, which would go through the wall and connect to the cleanout outside (which would have to be dug up again to make the connection) So basically put pvc through the wall, glue in a 45 and attach it to the rest of the system, everything would drain down. I am just wondering if anyone has done this before or know if it's possible, kinda similar to a full basment system, but with half the height.
Thanks in advance.
Now to give you an idea as to what is happening, the crawlspace is a cement floor, from the floor to the flooring joists/ sub-floor, there is about 4 feet of height. It's not exactly spacious, but most anyone can sit up straight and do work down there.
All of the drain fittings and pipes above the concrete are cast iron, which run into to the cement,which connect to the main line, which is about a 30 foot run out through the foundation wall and to the street.
In the last 2 months we've had about 4 companies come here and try to snake it out, but no one had any luck. There was no cleanout access in the house or outside, so all of their attempts were through the toilet, none of them could go very far, hence no luck. The last person we called just recently suggest that we have a cleanout installed outside, we did that, they came, located the main line outside, dug up the yard and installed a cleanout.
Now with all that said, when they dug, they discovered that the majority of the outside main line was green pvc,which is great, it must have been done in the last 10 years by the previous owner, but that was hooked up to the existing (old) main line with a fernco and worst of all, the pipe in the house (under the crawlspace) was Orangeberg - fiber pipe, it was packed full of roots. They actually came here today to snake it out, but I told them that it's really fragile. I watched their camera and confirmed myself that it is damaged, it has the classic humps and lumps inside, so not good.
Anyway, here is my question, would it be possible to rip out all the cast iron and abandon the old system (which is fairly centralized in one location) replace it with pvc, then float the entire system above concrete (like from the joists) then have it all go through one main line, across the crawlspace joists, then go down to where the existing main line is below the concrete (which would have to be cut out) and of course, that section of orangeberg would be removed and replaced with pvc, which would go through the wall and connect to the cleanout outside (which would have to be dug up again to make the connection) So basically put pvc through the wall, glue in a 45 and attach it to the rest of the system, everything would drain down. I am just wondering if anyone has done this before or know if it's possible, kinda similar to a full basment system, but with half the height.
Thanks in advance.
