Licensed plumbers, written pricing, serving Yonkers
The sewer lateral that carries waste from your building to the city main runs under your yard, and in Yonkers many of these lines are original clay or early cast iron that is now 50 to 80 years old. Action Construction repairs and replaces failing laterals for Yonkers, NY properties on city sewer, starting every job with a video camera inspection to confirm the exact problem, depth, and location before quoting a written price. As a full general contractor, we also handle the excavation and put your driveway, walkway, and lawn back.
A failing lateral gives warning before it collapses. The common signs are several drains backing up at the same time, gurgling toilets, a sewage odor in the yard or the basement, a patch of lawn that stays greener or wetter than the rest, a spot in the yard that has begun to sink, and a main line that needs cabling every few months. Slow drains throughout the house, rather than at one fixture, point at the lateral rather than at anything inside. An active sewage backup into the building is an emergency plumbing repair, and we clear it first, then diagnose.
Seasonal timing is a clue. Root intrusion backups often worsen in late summer and fall when trees pull hard for water and send fine roots toward the moisture and nutrients in the pipe. Backups that track with heavy rain point at groundwater entering through cracked joints and overwhelming the line.
Before recommending anything, we run a self leveling video camera through the line to see the exact condition, depth, and location of the problem. That is the difference between an accurate diagnosis and a guess, and it tells us whether you are looking at a single bad joint or a line that is failing along its length. A sonde in the camera head lets us mark the fault from the surface, both its horizontal position and how deep it sits, which drives the price and the question of whether the fault is on your side of the property line or the city’s.
Yonkers laterals fail in predictable ways. Clay pipe laid in short sections leaks and admits roots at every bell and spigot joint. Early cast iron corrodes and loses its bottom. Some mid century installations used Orangeburg, a bituminous fiber pipe that deforms into an oval and delaminates. And on the hilly streets, a lateral that runs down a steep grade to the main can develop a belly where a length has settled.
Any work on the lateral in Yonkers is done by a licensed plumber under a permit from the City of Yonkers, with a separate connection permit and a street opening permit where the repair reaches into the right of way, and the excavation gets a utility markout before anyone digs. That permitting and coordination is part of what we manage rather than something handed back to you.
A single failed section near the building can often be spot repaired by open cut, exposing just that length and replacing it with PVC and proper couplings. A line that is cracked, offset, root filled, or bellied along most of its run is a candidate for full replacement. Depending on access, depth, and the condition of the host pipe, we will tell you whether a conventional dig or a trenchless method is the better value. Trenchless lining cures a new pipe inside the old one and needs a host pipe that still holds its shape. Pipe bursting pulls a new pipe through while breaking the old one outward and needs a clear path and access pits at both ends. The camera tells us which, if either, your line can take.
Because we are a general contractor and not a dig only sewer outfit, the price we quote includes putting your property back: driveway, walkway, patio, steps, and lawn, including the Belgian block edging and the concrete aprons common on older Yonkers properties. You are not left with an open trench and a separate bill for restoration. Any dig in the city right of way needs a street opening permit and coordination with the other utilities in the trench, gas and electric in particular, and that permitting and markout is part of what we manage. The city’s hilly terrain and the age of the prewar housing stock make lateral failures a common and expensive surprise for buyers and long time owners, so a camera inspection before you buy an older Yonkers house is worth the small fee. A line that is blocked but structurally sound may only need the clearing described on our drain cleaning page. If the camera also turns up a buried supply line problem nearby, see water leak detection and repair. The full list is on our Yonkers plumbing services hub.
A spot repair is typically a few thousand dollars. A full lateral replacement is higher and depends on length, depth, the permit and restoration in the street, and what has to be rebuilt on the surface. The camera inspection and written estimate come first, so there is no guesswork and no change order once the trench is open.
Standard homeowners policies usually do not cover a sewer lateral that failed from age or root intrusion. Some carriers offer a separate service line endorsement that does. We provide a documented camera report and an itemized invoice, which is what a carrier asks for if you do have that coverage.
Sometimes. Where the existing pipe still holds its shape and there is access at both ends, a trenchless lining or pipe bursting method can replace the line with far less excavation. The camera inspection tells us whether your line is a candidate or whether an open cut is the only sound option.
The camera inspection, with the sonde marked from the surface, shows exactly where the blockage or break sits. If it is on your side of the property line or at the connection to the main, it is the owner’s responsibility. If the fault is in the city main, that is the City of Yonkers, and we document what we find so you can pursue it.
Yes. Many homes here have laterals that are 50 to 80 years old, a standard home inspection does not evaluate the sewer, and a replacement runs well into five figures. A camera inspection during the inspection period is a small fee against a large risk, and the recorded video and written summary can go to your agent or attorney to use in the negotiation.
Licensed & Insured | Residential & Commercial | Serving CT & NY