BiggerPockets

Im sure tons of you have replaced your sewer line yourself.. hopefully.. lol
bout to tackle this project myself and hopefully save several thousand dollars.. just wondering if anyone had any advise they'd like to share..
property was build in approx. 1930's and I doubt any repiping has been done, line has collapsed and needs completely replacing according to the several plumbers ive recieved bid on.

Just looking for advise.. doesnt seem too hard to me, plan is to rent a mini excavator, dig up yard (120 feet back yard house to alley) then lay new sched 40 PVC down..
couple questions..
can i just lay the new pipe over the old clay pipe or do i need to remove the clay pipe?

I see the digging being the worst part.. dont see laying the pipe and tieing it in being a big deal.. plan to put several clean outs, on both ends.. any advise anyone!? I'd greatly appriciate it!
-Scott
p.s. plan on doing 3" pipe.. small house has 1 bathroom..

Hi Scott, Go for it. Stay away from the alley. I doubt there is a city in the USA that will let an unlicensed plumber touch it. Take out the old pipe and put the new 3" pipe in it's place. When you get to the alley, pound the 3" pipe into the 4" clay pipe to get as close to or into the main line. Cut the front at a 45 degree angle and bevel the edges. Mark the pipe every 12 inches so you know how far in you are. Use a wood block to protect the pipe. Seal the connection as you normaly would with a rubber 4" clay to 3" pipe reducer coupling.

I've not done this but I have paid to have it done. I've also used backhoes and skid loaders. There's some technique, so plan on a bit of a learning curve if you've not done it.

When I paid to have it done, they dug out the old line. Frankly, its hard not to dig it out, since it breaks up as soon as you hit it with the hoe.

These guys dug down maybe six inches below the old line and put down a gravel bed. "Squeege" its called around here, similar to pea gravel. The leveled this out, the laid the line on it, then embedded the line in the gravel, too.

I can't really imagine this as a one man, DIY job. This was a whole crew, maybe six guys. One was clearly the supervisor, and he's the only one who drove the hoe. The others did everything else. Mine was about 90' and it was an all day job. Working alone I'd allocate several days to this. You'll need to rent the hoe the entire time.

Not sure what you mean by "mini". My line was maybe six feet at the deepest. They used a small hoe, but it was quite a bit larger than some of the mini ones I've seen around. Be sure you know how deep you need to go and get a hoe that will go at least 1' further.

As others have said. ABSOLUTELY do not get in that trench without shoring. You should be able to rent the shoring device. The ones they used were two plates with hydraulic cylinders between them. They used a hand pump to work the cylinders. They had a couple and they moved these around as needed.

I suggest you look at some alternatives - such as relining services. Little to no excavation required, but relining is not DIY either IMO.

Some related topics:

http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/30/topics/41955-water-and-sewer-under-pads-

http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/84/topics/12435-raw-sewage-treatment

Hi, I had a 2 rock bungalows built in the 30s. Both lines were replaced. I had to have a plumber by ordinance for this. But, I supervised, LOL! Take the clay pipe out and use roofing felt on the bottom, then a gravel base, trench it deeper and build it up to the slope we used rocks to brace it. cover with gravel along the sides. Don't put rocks on top of the line as you back fill, if you ever drive over it you can push a rock into your line, car can cause that a foot and half below grade and a large dump truck can push 3 feet down (a rule of thumb around here, but that depends on soil type, rock, etc), but consider that since you are near an alley. Sounded like , Sounds like Christian had some good tips to tie in. When you call the gravel pit for delivery, they can tell you what size to use in your area. It's really a chitty job, but one man and a boy (or a supervisor) can do it just fine. If you get very deep take care with the sides as mentioned, but in CA. you could fall into a fault line and die too! Good Luck, Bill

Christian- thanks for the quick and awesome reply, had something like that in mind, but just didnt know if it'd actually work! :) well were gonna find out! thanks again!

Steve- Lining was not an option, as the pipe had collapsed in several different spots trench wasnt a big concern to me anyways, back yard is not landscaped otherwise I would be looking into trenchless or relining!

Don- 3" is allowed, I was going to go with 4" but everyone says 3" will be just fine if not better.. so 3 it is!

Im probablly at about three and a half feet, still got prob 30 geet to go.. id say four and a half total is my guess.. id say it doesnt meet the drop requirement.. which is like 1/2 inch for every foot or something i heard.. it doesnt seem to slope much at all!
The top foot was just mud, theres actually still snow on the ground, and the soil is very wet and easy to dig, even when i dug by hand..bout 2 feet down theres like clay or some harder dirt that is a pain to get through.. plus even the mud was freezing come around 8 tonight.. by 9:30 when i left i was walking on top of the mud tracks the bobcat made, without getting muddy! lol
plan is to go out in the morning around 8 and start, but still suppost to be like 22 degrees and with wind chill will feel like 14 so might not.. but bobcat goes back tomorrow!

Wow.. that was a nighmare.. ended up not good at all.. calling plumbers in morning as i just got home and its 11:20.. hit the water line, busted of course, then then i hopped down into the hole i put my hand on the gas line and into my hand it came,.. bad idea i guess but it must of been very loose to begin with.. Sewer is NOT a DIY in my opnion, doesnt seem hard, especially when digging with a backhoe or excavator, but that alone is exhausting, im beat and didnt acomplish much today, hole is probablly mostly dug.. guess we will see what plumber says tomorrow.. eh..

Ooops! I think we all forgot to tell you to call before you dig! Sorry, Bill

having your lines marked is probablly the number one and most common thing to do, pretty well known, but the reason I didnt is when I called the dig alert people (its 1800digalert in arizona, something different in texas forgot what i called) they said they wouldnt mark it for around 5 days due to the ground having snow on it, and 5 days wasnt an option at that point, couldnt of been prevented real well anyways as they were on top of the sewer. $4000 later were gonna be legal.. problem is new law effective oct 09 in texas states something among the lines of if you upgrade the water lines, everything effected by the water lines has to be brought up to code something like that, so water heater needs couple new vents, pan, gas line doesnt have a riser on the outside of the house it comes up underneath, all costly additions to the orignal plumbers estimate, and were not done yet. worst part is the excavating I spent days on and good money isnt gonna be good enough as now were replacing all 3 and they have to be further apart then they orignally were.. bummer.. what a waste.. exciting adventure.. learned never try that again, plumbers charge a premium and theres reasons why.