Could i have broken a sewer line while digging my garden?
I live in a duplex and was digging by the side of my house today about 8 inches deep. i noticed by the side of the house was a concrete slab jutting out about four inches from the side of the house. I kept digging in front of it, and for a minute i thought i smelled something nasty. Later on my neighbor was standing in front of my yard and remarked " Something smells like dookie out here". Am i just being paranoid or is it possible i busted a sewer line or something equally as bad? I dug without my landlords consent, so now i'm really worried i've done something terrrible and expensive to fix, not to mention i had my bare hands in poo. possibly. please please help!
Public Comments
- It's possible you could have hit the line. It should really be deeper than that but old houses are not always up to code. The old pipe was made from red clay, juist like the red clay flower pots. It's easily broken
- FLUSH THE TOILET IF WATER APPEARS YES U HAVE
- My husband is the supervisor at the sewage plant .He has been there 28 years. That sewer pipe has got to be down deeper then that. If you only dug about 8 inches deep, that should in no way have hurt anything. I would just call the landlord and tell them you notice something stinking when you were out pulling weeds and cleaning up the yard. He might not even notice you were digging. If you can notice it, go get some sod and put over it.Let it there a few days then call the landlord.
- Just cover it back up with dirt and as long as the liquid is not perculating up to the surface, you won't smell it anymore. I don't think you hit or broke a pipe...I'm guessing its an old septic tank that's malfunctioning and you just happened to uncover the septage....cover it back up and your landlord will not know a thing.
- I am as SURPRISED as the others! However the advice I would recommend you do is some dig more with a shovel in order to measure this sewer line width so that you will know the dimensions it would take a piece of flat wood, thin metal or even hardened plastic to cover over this opening so that dirt does not block the waste water flow.. What you don't want to do is: DO NOT simply FILL this EXPOSED HOLE/OPENING with dirt! Instead dig around it enough to allow yourself to lay over on top a piece of wood, metal or plastic to prevent the dirt from caving in and blocking the flow of waste water. By quickly filling this open hole with dirt, you take a risk of causing a backup or dam and say if the waste water did not flow outwards => away from the house bec the dirt caused a back up, then the waste water flow would naturally be stopped up and eventually come back into the house, thereby causing the owner to possibly discover that you were digging outside. In fact, I hate to say you might even need a strong heavy duty plastic garbage bag to fill with the nasty sewage & mixed dirt that you might have to take out of the blocked up hole in order for the waste water to flow again! bec certainly wouldn't want to just leave this filthy stinky waste in your yard etc. Hope the Above Info Helps!
