Posts Tagged ‘Hunterdon County’

Woodbury Plumber’s Tip: Why Replace Your Sewer Line

Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

You probably don’t want to think about having to replace your Woodbury home’s sewer line, and hopefully, you won’t ever have to. Most sewer lines last many years without having to be replaced, so it’s possible you won’t have problems with your line for the entire time you are in your home.

It is not uncommon for sewer lines to need replacement at some point, however. Some common reasons for replacing a sewer line include:

  • The line has broken, cracked or collapsed. This can be the result of an intruding tree root, extremely cold temperatures resulting in freezing, wear and tear or simply the pressure of soil over time.
  • The pipe has deteriorated or corroded. Even the highest quality materials eventually break down, whether from within or without. As the pipes rust and degrade, they can spring leaks, rupture or collapse.
  • A section of the pipe has collapsed. Because of soil conditions surrounding a certain section of the pipe, that one section may collapse, creating a bottle neck that becomes a full-fledged obstruction.
  • Leaking joints. The fittings connecting sections of the pipe can become loose, worn or corroded, which means the seal is degraded and the line starts leaking.
  • The sewer line was made of substandard materials to begin with and has broken down over time.

If and when you encounter any of these situations, you will likely discover that the best solution is to replace at least a section of the line, if not the whole thing. Often, if there is damage to multiple sections of pipe or if the whole line is very old, it is best to replace the whole thing at once.

One alternative to replacing the line outright is having it relined, using trenchless technology. This is less labor intensive and doesn’t require digging up your whole yard. It is not necessarily the solution for everyone, so ask a Woodbury professional if it might be appropriate for your particular sewer line replacement needs.

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History of Plumbing: Some Information From Clinton

Monday, October 3rd, 2011

We all know that water runs downhill in Clinton. That’s because of gravity. And that simple theory was the key milestone in the history of plumbing. As far back as the days of the Roman Empire, people were using gravity to move water from its source to where it was used. There were no systems of piping back then and no way to pressurize a means of transporting water from one location to another.

The beauty of the gravity movement was how the Roman engineers achieved it – through the use of aqueducts. These aqueducts carried water from higher elevations in mountains to the cities below. Some of them were outdoor architectural marvels but most of the water was carried through underground tunnels. The gravity that carried the water was achieved by a slight pitch in the tunnel or aqueduct. It is estimated that as much as 300 million gallons of water found its way into Rome every day.

The fall of the Roman Empire brought the demise of this elaborate system but other plumbing marvels followed in the decades and centuries to come.

The means of transporting water changed from aqueducts and tunnels to something that was very abundant in the early stages of developing countries like the United States – namely wood. Hollowed out logs were the forefathers of modern iron pipes. These wooden pipe systems were found in the northeastern U.S. in the 1800s. Unfortunately, wood exposed to water soon deteriorated and rotted – and also left a bad taste to the water.

Iron and steel water pipes began to show up in the late 1800s in the U.S. These pipes were characterized by their heavy weight. The next generation of piping was made from copper. This material was introduced in the early 1900s and became commonly used by the middle of the century. Eventually, plastic was used to replace copper and steel. It is less expensive and just as durable.

Of course, any type of indoor plumbing was deemed a luxury for the “common” homeowner in the 1800’s and 1900’s. Indoor plumbing was not a standard and as late as the 1940s and 50s, many homes still utilized the good old fashioned outhouses as toilet facilities. That happened, in part, because towns did not have central water pumping and treatment facilities – and there were no city sewer lines to tap into. And the cost of indoor plumbing was out of some household budgets.

Today, what we take for granted in our array of indoor fixtures and appliances would have been deemed a luxury fitting to kings and queens by our ancestors. It’s no wonder we coined the phrase, “I have to go sit on the throne.”

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