Main Sewer Line: What Would You Do?

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Greetings Everyone,

I wanted to post about a recent challenge I had with a main sewer line – 100 year old house, PVC pipes inside -> terra cotta outside. The tenants notified me that an overflow occurred at the outside vent when they ran the washing machine. I opened the cleanout and the house was backed up, so I had a plumber snake it. He was able to get the line partially flowing again, but his snake pulled out some pieces of rock or concrete downstream from the house. I imagined the worst.

The plumber recommended jetting the line. I did some research and decided I wanted to run a camera through to see what was down there and determine the right solution to the problem. I met with a different plumber with a camera. When we opened the cleanout it was ¾ full, but it still flowed out when we ran the faucets or flushed toilets. He ran the camera all the way through and there weren’t any obstructions. He said there was a belly in the line just outside the house wherethe pipe had settled, and that’s why there was standing sewage. He recommended digging it out and replacing the line, and I agree that would be a permanent solution.

However:

• Right now everything is flowing.
• There weren’t any obstructions in the line, so the rocks the first plumber removed may have caused the clog. If that’s the case, now that the rocks are gone I’m thinking there shouldn’t be additional clogs. I realize that the belly is a potential problem area for clogs to settle, especially from grease.
• Temperatures were in the 20’s when this occurred, and the belly in the line is outside – maybe the standing water froze and caused the problem.

I’m leaning towards leaving this be for now. I’ll keep an eye on it, and if additional problems occur I can replace the whole line.

What would you do?