Pipe older than a century
The houses on Westmoreland, Portland, Kingsbury and Pershing date to around the turn of the last century. Any original cast iron still in them is far past its service life.
Cleaning that pipe is a matter of descaling and flushing it, then putting a camera through to see what is left. In these buildings lining usually beats digging, because the stacks and drains run behind plaster and under floors nobody wants opened.
Apartment buildings and restaurants
Grease is the main problem in shared lines. An apartment building sends every kitchen into one stack, and a restaurant on Euclid sends grease down the drain all day. Lines like that need hydro jetting on a schedule. A cable only opens them until the next backup.
The company that answers this number cleans and lines apartment and commercial buildings while they stay occupied.
When it backs up in the rain
Most of the city is on combined sewers, where storm water and sewage share a pipe. In a hard rain the public sewer can fill and come back through basement floor drains. If your backups follow the weather, cabling won't fix it. Report it to MSD's 24-hour line at 314-768-6260 so a crew can check the public sewer. MSD says that in heavy rain, when many buildings call at once, a crew can take from a few hours to a few days to arrive.
MSD also says its own backup programs don't cover a backup that starts in a private lateral. If your basement floods with the weather, ask about a backwater valve for the lateral.
What the city's lateral program covers
The City of St. Louis charges a $28 fee on the real estate tax bill of residential properties with six or fewer units. The program it funds is narrower than most people expect.
- It repairs breaks in the lateral under the public right-of-way, such as the street, the alley or the sidewalk.
- It doesn't cover breaks under your own property.
- It doesn't pay for clearing clogs or tree roots anywhere in the line.
- The city asks for a licensed plumber's report and video of the problem, and the property taxes have to be paid up.
Buildings with more than six units are outside the program entirely.
Compare sewer lateral programs across 29 St. Louis-area cities