Sewer repair and sewer pipe repair in San Diego

The most common sewer repairs in San Diego

A main-line clog. Every drain in the house slow at once, the lowest one (a shower or tub) filling when the washing machine drains, a toilet gurgling when another one flushes. That's the main line, not a fixture. A main-line clog in a 1950s San Diego house is usually roots or cast iron scale, and either one comes back if it's only cabled. Drain cleaning for fixture and main-line clogs explains snaking vs hydro jetting.

Roots. Ficus, eucalyptus, pepper trees, jacaranda, liquidambar, and the neighbor's tree as often as yours. Roots get in at clay joints and cast iron cracks and grow to fill the pipe. A contractor cuts them with a root-cutting head, then jets the line clean so the camera can see the joint they came through.

Scaled cast iron. Sixty years of rust scale on the floor of the pipe, catching paper. Hydro jetting cast iron with a descaling nozzle brings the pipe back to something close to its original bore, and the camera afterwards shows whether the wall is still sound or whether the bottom has rusted through.

One broken section. An offset clay joint, a cracked hub, a short belly where the clay soil settled. If the rest of the line is sound, the contractor digs that spot and replaces three to ten feet with ABS or SDR-35 PVC, properly bedded. That's a spot repair, and it's where sewer pipe repair (San Diego clay laterals especially) is honestly repair rather than replacement. For sewer lateral repair, San Diego cases usually come down to this: one bad joint, fixed and cameraed, or a run with too many to chase.

Sewer backup. Sewage in a tub, out the yard cleanout, or on the garage floor. Treat it as urgent: stop running water and see what to do first. Then find out whether the city main is surcharged (rare here, but it happens on the lowest streets after a January storm) or whether it's your lateral.

What a repair visit looks like

1. The line is cleared by cable or hydro jet so the house drains.
2. A camera runs from the cleanout to the main; ask to watch. If the house has no cleanout, which is common on pre-1970 homes here, a toilet is pulled or the line is entered from the roof vent, and adding a cleanout is usually priced separately.
3. Any break is located from the surface so you know whether it's under lawn, driveway, slab or the street.
4. You get a written price for the repair, with a trenchless or replacement price alongside it if the line is bad enough that a spot repair is throwing good money after bad.

Hydro jetting is typically $350–$800, and the camera adds $250–$500, usually at the low end on the same visit. Spot repairs run $1,500–$4,000 depending on depth and what's on top of the pipe. Full pricing is on the cost page.

Repair, or something bigger

A spot repair makes sense when the camera shows one problem in an otherwise decent pipe. It stops making sense when the camera shows a third broken joint on the same run, cast iron with channel rot along its length, or a line that's been cabled every spring for five years. Then the honest options are a trenchless liner or pipe burst, or open-trench replacement where the pipe runs under nothing but dirt. Ask for both prices so you can see the gap. Often on a 60-foot lateral the gap between a second spot repair and a liner is smaller than people expect.

If the break is under the house rather than in the yard, see under-slab sewer repair.

What clearing alone doesn't tell you

A cable clears the clog and tells you nothing. A camera afterwards is usually $250–$500 and tells you everything. Don't accept a repair quote without one. Signs of a broken sewer line covers what to look for before anyone comes out; what a camera inspection shows covers what you're paying for.

Areas this guide covers

The older city neighborhoods first: North Park, South Park, Normal Heights, Kensington, Talmadge, University Heights, Hillcrest, Mission Hills, Ocean Beach, Clairemont, Linda Vista, Allied Gardens, Del Cerro and the College Area. Pacific Beach has postwar cottages on cast iron and sandy soil. La Jolla has long laterals under hardscape and old landscaping. Point Loma's older streets are covered in sewer problems in San Diego's older neighborhoods. Rancho Bernardo is newer, mostly ABS. In Coronado, ask the city where your lateral ends before anyone quotes. For sewer repair in Poway, long laterals on big lots are the usual story. East to La Mesa, El Cajon, Santee and Lemon Grove; south to National City and Chula Vista; north to Carlsbad, Encinitas and Oceanside. If you searched for sewer line repair near me, San Diego requests go to an independent local sewer contractor partner; tell them if sewage is on the floor.

Questions to ask before anyone comes out

• Will the line be cameraed after it's cleared, and can I keep the file?
• If there's a break, will it be located from the surface with the depth marked?
• If more than one fix would work, will each one be priced in writing?
• Is the spot repair new pipe on proper bedding, and what couplings join it to the old pipe?
• Who pulls the permit if the repair needs one?

Short, plain answers to those five tell you most of what you need to know about the visit before it starts.

Mistakes that make the bill bigger

Pouring chemicals into a backed-up main. Drain cleaner does nothing to roots or rust scale. It sits in the line and makes the first hour of the visit unpleasant for whoever opens the cleanout.

Cabling the same line every year. Each visit is $200–$450. After four or five of them, the bills add up to a spot repair that would have ended the problem.

Fixing the yard and ignoring the slab. On a 1950s house the cast iron under the floor is as old as the clay outside. Camera both while the equipment is already there.

Skipping the cleanout. If the house has none, adding a two-way cleanout during a repair dig ($400–$1,200) is cheaper than coming back for it later.

Hiring on a phone price. A number given before anyone has seen the pipe is a guess. Wait for the footage and the written price.