A plumber stops at the foundation. We start there.
Illinois law draws the line. The state plumbing act says plumbing does not include the installation, repair or extension of building sewers, and it ends the building drain five feet outside the foundation wall. Past that point is the building sewer: the pipe under your yard, your driveway and sometimes the street, running out to the city main. That is the pipe we dig to.
In Granite City the median house was built in 1958, and in Belleville in 1960, so the lateral under the lawn may well be the one laid when the house went up. Old clay joints, root-packed hubs and sagging runs are what a backhoe gets called out for.
What we do before we dig
JULIE gets the call first. Illinois requires notice at least two days and no more than ten before digging, and Saturdays, Sundays and holidays do not count toward the two. JULIE marks the gas, electric and phone lines. It does not locate private lines: its own guidance says sewer companies may not locate any part of a lateral service. So our camera and locator mark where your sewer runs and how deep it sits.
Then the permit. Every town handles it differently. Belleville wants a call to its treatment plant the day before work and leaves the repair open for its inspector; Fairview Heights issues street-cut permits only to a prequalified or bonded contractor. Jimmy, one of our customers, put it this way:
They did a sewer job for us at our home and couldn't be happier. Fast, friendly and affordable. They took care of handling all the necessary permits and conversions with the city prior to, during and after repair.
What happens to your yard
We dig the section the camera found, not the whole run from the house to the street. Deep cuts get trench box shoring. New pipe goes down on gravel bedding at a steady fall, the camera runs through it before anything is buried, and the trench is backfilled and compacted so the lawn does not settle into a ditch next spring.
