locate sewer line
My name is Mike and I am having a problem locating my sewer line. I am trying to add a new bedroom and bath and move my laundry room. I had a plumber come out at a cost of $150 to locate the sewer. He sent a transmitter down the toilet drain, but about 30' down said he was unable to get around a corner. He then tried to trace the tone with his receiver and told me where he thought it was. I wasn't sure about his response and ask him to pull it back and show me it moving. As he tried, he pulled the line out and found that he had lost his transmitter in my sewer. Now I have a transmitter in the sewer and am still unable to locate my sewer line. I am in Missouri where the soil is very rocky and hard to dig. Can anyone suggest a method I can locate this sewer line? No crawl space to look under the house? No, it was built on a slab. Most of the time a sewer will exit a building shortest distance to where the city sewer is located, most of the time straight out from the mainline vent off the roof. Use a probe and see if you can find it that way. Look at roof vent and straight out from there towards city sewer. Maybe have the line camera'ed. If I use line of sight from the mainline vent (black pipe on roof) to the city sewer, then it goes straight out from the front of the house. The problem here is that I already dug out 5 to 6 feet down all the way across the front of the house (more than 60 feet north to south). This house was also constructed prior to being on the city sewer system. My understanding from the previous owner is that there was a septic tank then and it was about 35 feet in front of the house in the same direction as the city sewer. Is it likely the line would be more than 6 feet below the footings? Looking at the roof line and the mainline vent, what is the shortest route to the outside foundation? Side of the house or to the front? Where was the tank located? Here is an idea. on a sunny day, take a mirror, bend the sunlight down the mainline vent, providing its a straight shot to the ground, look down the vent, you should see what direction the bottom bend heads, then straight out from there should be the mainline. I climmed up on the roof and watched down the mainline with a strong light. I was able to see water start to rise in the mainline pipe as it was running, but not when the water was off. The pipe curves to the West and is farther, 94 from the west wall than the toilets, sinks, or showers. The farthest of these is about 84 from the west wall (back of the house). The city sewer is about 600 yards straight in front of the house (east) with a pumping station about half that far. The old septic tank (as I was told) was about 10 yards in front (east) of the house. Everything points to sewage line going out the back, but where it ends is in the front. On top of this there is a concrete slab about 10' x 20' in back where the mainline pipe would indicate it comes out. Next to that (east side of house and south of the slab) is a raised deck about 20 x 15. The slab or the deck would have to be removed to dig in the back. I'd be happy to email you a diagram if it would help. It also appears that the mainline drops about 18 below the slab that the house is on before it starts to curve. Could that indicate the level of the pipe as it exits the foundation? P.S. Thanks for all your help. I really appreciate it.
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