Orangeburg: The Pipe That Won The War

Who needs a pandemic when you have a collapsed sewer line?

This strange saga is complicated and ran parallel with the global virus pandemic so it's been a month of juggling jobs and financial crisis.

It all started when the gas company decided to replace the 6 feet of branch line to my gas meter. Great. Thanks!

You might wonder why there is a pit full of raw sewage in the pit they dug for the gas line. Well, I will tell you why. When they dug the trench for the gas line they discovered my sewage line directly after my toilet was completely backed up with raw sewage. They knew this because there was a 3 inch hole in the top of the pipe through which they could see the sewage that had been building up for the year I've lived here. 

 The gas company discovered the hole and called the city public works to fix the hole...which they tried to accomplish by putting a hose of water in the pipe and pushing out the blockage. This only caused the pipe to overflow with shit into the hole dug for the gas pipe because 120 feet down the alley the sewer pipe had completely collapsed...and didn't exist for about 10 feet.

Conspicuously absent is the pipe that leads to the sewer line.

A separate project to replace the siding of the house...and uncovered 40 inch on/center studs??? and no insulation and lots of weeds and scorpions.

So, the sewer crew got busy vacuuming the pit of sewage....and accidentally tagged the gas line...RUPTURED THE HIGH PRESSURE GAS LINE...which immediately required a COMPLETE NEIGHBORHOOD EVACUATION.

This was extremely dicey because my gas line was being fed by a temporary tank so my pilot lights could stay on...while a gas leak a few feet from my house basically filled my house with gas...while the pilot lights were on. You see where I'm going with this?

new sewer cleanout 

But Oggy acted fast as the evacuation order was given and he shut off all the pilot lights and shut all the valves off. This was significant because there was only one window open in the house and it was filled with gas, and the stove and water heater pilot lights could easily have ignited the concentrated gas fumes in the kitchen.

additional pipe connected to orangeburg pipe by fernco clamp fittings

After the gas company sorted out the gas leak, they tried to fix the sewage that was now bubbling up from the alley. But they determined the sewage line is private and my responsibility so knocked on my door and walked away from a broken sewage line leaving me with no plumbing drain.

one day the whole place will look this clean

Everything with me turns out to be a crisis so this is no different. One day I have plumbing, the next day my neighborhood is evacuated and my sewage is bubbling up into the alley. But I feel this house will be like my van and throw problems at me only at the rate I can deal with them. All I need to do is enter a crisis mode that I perfected in El Conquistador for 10 years and attack the problem head on. Fortunately, I live in a town that is as lawless as myself because even though I technically needed permits to work in a right-of-way, I ignored all that and simply dug until I found some sound pipe and connected the rubber fernco to it.

the final product buried and protected by cones

The Reason I say Orangeburg pipe 'won the war' is because the iron usually reserved for sensible sewage pipe went to tank and bomb factories in 1942 and left engineers with the task of finding an alternative. I'm sure they had huge warning signs in the manufacturing literature that said Orangeburg pipe had a lifespan of 10 years...and under no circumstances should it be paved over or driven over or even buried by more than 4 inches of dirt. I mean, the connections use no adhesive. the couplings are simply pushed on. Why would that last?

But it lasted probably 70 years until a decision to asphalt the end of the alley doomed the pipe to collapse from weight. Otherwise, it would probably still work good.

Is Orangeburg as deadly as lead paint and asbestos? No. It had a short lifespan and people basically wait for a problem to fix it. I'm not sure why no one mentioned this terrible product to me when I was hunting for a house since this area is littered with ruined sewage systems, but I found out in 1 year that I had a sewage pipe that is doomed. I fixed it for the immediate future but I forsee myself digging a trench 170 ft long to replace all of it along with the water line that is in the same trench. The good news is that I will have new water supply and new gas supply and new sewer drainage at some point.

a horse harness on a mule. the pedestal sink was barely affixed to the wall and my solution left a gap that I filled with subway tile. It almost looks like I planned it out, but believe me when I say that blocking water from hitting the wall is not a big priority for me.