Forced Upgrades Can Cost Thousands!
Each month, hundreds of homeowners are receiving letters from the City of Santa Barbara requiring them to submit a video inspection of their sewer line. The video goes to the City Sewer Lateral Inspection Program coordinator—Dale Escobar. After watching it, the City usually finds defects in the sewer line. A new letter is sent giving 90-days’ notice to repair, or replace, the sewer line. Usually, this means an all-new line from the house to the Y—the connection point between your line and the city’s.
If you received one of these letters you know how devastating this can be to your month’s budget. A $5,000 to $10,000 expense that you had no idea was going to happen catches you by surprise. When it is raining, we all think about our roofs, but who thinks about their sewer line? Obviously, Dale at the city does.
There are plenty of reasons for having a good, working sewer system. Tree roots pressuring private sewer lines clog up the city’s sewer pipes, and sewage leaking into the ground causes increased bacteria at the beaches. It is the surprise of the situation, and the unexpected costs, that causes people to be upset. Starting in 2007 there were city programs aiding the cost of replacing a sewer line. That money ran out. In 2013 it started again but ran out again.
Santa Barbara has 24,000 privately-owned sewer laterals that connect with the city sewer system. There are big ones for industrial, retail, office buildings, apartments, and condominiums. The city requires 60 of these bigger lines be videoed per month.
The city does use national standards to determine if a line needs replacing. However, these standards are not necessarily the same as a plumber uses when they look at your line. Small cracks, or root intrusions, may get a yawn from the plumber. However, if the city sees 3 or 4, or more, cracks, or root intrusions on a line they will call for replacement of the whole line. You have the option to fix each problem individually, but by the time you do that, you might as well replace the whole line. The cost is the same.
The city also runs cameras through the city lines. They can see up each homeowner’s line for two to six feet from the Y. If they see roots, cracks, or problems within your pipe they will send a letter requiring you to video your whole line.
If you get a permit to add on more than 400 square feet, or two or more bathrooms, you will be required to video your existing sewer line and submit it to the city. If the city discovers Orange burg pipe, an older technology, they will automatically require replacement.
The standard remedy is to dig up and replace the entire sewer line. The more modern approach is to do “pipe bursting,” where a new plastic liner is inserted inside the existing pipe.
The newest technology, Cured In Place Pipe lining (CIPP), is less expensive than either of these two methods. No plumber in Santa Barbara offers CIPP quite yet, so you have to call in someone from Los Angeles. This costs at least $1,000 to $2,000 less than the existing pipe bursting liner system. If you are considering selling your home I am here to help.
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