Video: Solutions to Sewer Line Backup

LARKSPUR — Host, Sarah Rutan: Preventing sewer line backup in your home is important. So today we’re in Larkspur with Diamond Certified Expert Contributor Myles O’Dwyer of Pipe Spy Marin to learn one way that you can prevent this.

Diamond Certified Expert Contributor, Myles O’Dwyer: Homeowners that are experiencing sewer line problems frequently find out about it when that sewer line has backed up inside the house. That could be in their shower pan, it could be in their bathtub or heaven forbid, that it has already escaped one of those two devices and traveled all over their floor.

So, there are opportunities to prevent that from happening. One of them is what we refer to as the Contra Costa valve, which I am holding here in my hand. These are placed on the pipe outside of the house and they are installed at a level that is lower than the lowest fixture in the house. So what happens when the pipe backs up, this little ball that you can see here in the pipe, see move it around right there, which normally sits in top of the bottom of this device and keeps the sewer gases inside the pipe so you don’t have to smell them moves up with the pressure of the water and out of the way and allows the water to escape outside and on to the ground outside the house where it can be much more easily taken care of.

There is an alternative to the Contra Costa valve, which I just showed you. The Contra Costa valve is quite noticeable and if you are in a situation like your patio where you’re not as interested in having everyone see it, we recommend the installation of what is called a Popper. It has the same effect, it pops up when the water pressure pushes on the bottom but we can install it in a manner that is even with the surrounding ground such as it is not visible to the eye in the same manner as the Contra Costa valve.

Host, Sarah Rutan: To learn more from local, top-rated companies visit our Diamond Certified Expert Reports at experts.diamondcertified.org