Pipes have dropped

[MasterPlumbersKeymaster]

One of our toilets is slow flushing, so we had them come in and do a video of the drain system. The video shows that approximately 30 feet of the pipe have dropped and are under water. There is also algea growing in the pipes. We are still waiting on an estimate from the plumber who did the video, but he’s statements at the time lead us to believe it will be very, very high. We also sent the video to a plumber who has done other work for us and they say they have not seen one where that long a stretch of pipe has dropped and they are not willing to guarantee that even breaking up our floor and shoring the pipe that the bathroom will work once it has been done. We only have a budget of about $2,000 to $3,000 dollars to work on this. Everyone has told us that we can live with this, because our toilet does flush, it just fills to the top and then drains out completely. I’m a little concerned with this though, because we have also been told that one of the new efficient toilets will not work in this situation and that we can not purchase a 4 gallon toilet any longer, which is what we currently have. So what do we do if the toilet breaks?

I would appreciate any thoughts or suggestions on how to get this repaired.

Thanks,
Female in Texas

[Monty BettsParticipant]

Fem,
Do you not have a plumbing inspection department there?
It sounds like the pipe was installed improperly, seems as though the trench the piping was laid in was overdug and not properly compacted before the pipe was laid. Do you have enough grade from the existing toilet to the main sewer to allow the plumbing to operate correctly? If so, the line should be excavated, removed, the trench filled and compacted and the pipe re-laid.

[Author]

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