Sewer line repair and replacement in Las Vegas

The sewer lateral is the pipe carrying everything from your house out to the city main. It is the one line in the system with no redundancy at all, so when it fails, the whole house stops.

It is also the most expensive line to guess wrong about, which is why any competent sewer job starts with a camera rather than a shovel.

Signs the main line is failing

• Several fixtures backing up at once, especially the lowest ones
• Gurgling from a toilet when a sink or washer drains
• Sewage odour indoors or in the yard
• A patch of lawn that is greener, softer or sinking
• Recurring main line clogs at the same interval
• Slow drainage across the whole house that cabling only briefly fixes

What is usually wrong

In valley homes the common findings are root intrusion at joints, offset or separated joints from soil movement, a belly where the line has sagged and holds water, scale and corrosion in older cast iron, and outright collapse in the oldest materials.

Age tells you a lot about which. Pipe material and installation era narrow it down fast.

• Galvanized steel supply pipe has a useful life of roughly 20 to 30 years and corrodes from the inside out, so flow drops long before anything visible happens. (InterNACHI life expectancy chart)

Repair options, cheapest first

Not every sewer problem needs the yard opened up. Depending on what the camera finds, options run from clearing and jetting, to a spot repair on a single failed section, to trenchless lining or pipe bursting, to a full open-cut replacement.

Anyone who quotes a full replacement without putting a camera in the line first is guessing with your money. Ask to see the footage.

Permits are part of the job

Sewer work is permitted work, and which office issues the permit depends on whether your street is in the county or inside a city.

• Plumbing permits for unincorporated Clark County, which covers Paradise, Spring Valley, Sunrise Manor, Enterprise, Winchester, Whitney and Summerlin South, are issued by the Clark County Department of Building and Fire Prevention. (Clark County Department of Building and Fire Prevention)
• Homes inside the City of Las Vegas, the City of North Las Vegas or the City of Henderson permit through their own building departments, not through the county. Which office you deal with depends on the street, not the mailing address. (City of Las Vegas, Department of Building and Safety)

All makes and models

Plumbers in our network work on all makes and models for this service. We do not claim an authorised dealer relationship with any manufacturer, and we will tell you if a part for a discontinued unit cannot be sourced.