3
In House Departments
100%
Headache Free Solution
~50 yrs
Age of Failed Sewer Line
1
Call to Start It All
Sewage in the Basement.
A Completely Dead Sewer Line.
The homeowners in Northeast Portland noticed the worst kind of surprise a basement flooded not with water, but with raw sewage. A cast iron lateral sewer line installed in the 1970s had finally reached its breaking point, completely deteriorating from the inside out and backing up directly into the basement bathroom.
By the time Lovett was called, sewage contamination had spread across the basement floor and up into the lower wall cavities. The sewer line ran beneath a full concrete slab spanning multiple rooms meaning this was not a simple cleanout call. It was a full scale excavation job inside an occupied home.
Root Cause
Decades of corrosion caused the cast iron sewer lateral to crack and collapse, allowing sewage to back flow into the basement instead of draining to the city main.
Scope of Damage
Raw sewage contaminated the basement floor, affected lower wall sections, and saturated soil beneath the concrete slab turning a plumbing failure into a massive remediation event.
The Access Challenge
The entire sewer lateral was buried beneath a reinforced concrete slab. Reaching the pipe required controlled demolition across multiple basement rooms without disrupting the floors above.
Occupied Structure
Work had to be executed inside a lived in home. Every phase required hospital grade containment protocols to keep the rest of the house completely clean, breathable, and livable.
Six Departments. One Seamless Operation. Zero Headaches.
Property managers trust LOVETT because we solve the whole problem, not just the symptom, with minimal disruption to tenants and operations.
Containment
Dept 1
Concrete Demo and Excavation
Dept 2
Sewer Line Replacement
Dept 3
Backfill and Concrete Pour
Restoration
How We Delivered Absolute Peace of Mind
Airtight Containment
The Job Starts Before Any Demo
Before a single tool touched concrete, the Lovett dedicated containment team transformed the basement into a fully sealed work environment. We installed floor to ceiling poly sheeting sealed at every single seam and built critical barrier doorways at all egress points. We kept HEPA filtered air scrubbers running continuously to pull any airborne particles straight into the work zone, rather than out into the home.
This is pure protection. With sewage contamination already present in the space, our airtight setup was the absolute difference between a basement project staying in the basement and a total home remediation event. The upper floors of the home remained perfectly clean and dust free during the entire excavation.
Why it matters Advanced containment maintains a secure environment that physically prevents contaminants from migrating to clean areas. We taped every seam and sealed every threshold. We applied the exact same rigorous protocols used in hospital demolition and mold remediation directly to your home.
- Wall to wall poly sheeting installed floor to ceiling and taped at all seams
- Critical barrier zipper doors established at all basement access points
- HEPA air machines running continuously to scrub the environment
- Optimal airflow maintained ensuring zero dust migration to the main floor
- Designated clean in and dirty out protocols established for our crew
Removing Concrete and
Exposing the Failing Line
With the work zone flawlessly secured, our elite excavation crew moved in. We performed highly precise removal through the slab following the exact path of the sewer lateral across multiple basement rooms. We meticulously planned every single step to minimize the concrete footprint we would need to remove and restore later.
Once the concrete sections were carefully extracted, our team loaded out the rubble and hauled it off site. Then the heavy lifting began. Our crew hand dug the trench below the slab to expose the full length of the deteriorated lateral. We used shovels instead of machines because a residential basement leaves no room for a mini excavator. We carefully staged the excavated soil right in the trench, preserving the native material for backfill. This critical detail saves significant time and perfectly preserves proper soil compaction.
Technical note Cast iron sewer pipe installed in the 1970s has an expected service life of 50 to 70 years. By the time it fails, it typically experiences multiple simultaneous issues like internal corrosion buildup, offset joints, root intrusion, and in this specific case, full structural collapse. Spot repairs simply do not work here. A full repipe is the only lasting and confident fix.
New Sewer Lateral
Installed with Absolute Precision
Our licensed plumbers confidently took over the open trench next. We removed the old cast iron lateral in sections and hauled it away entirely. In its place we installed a brand new premium sewer pipe sloped precisely to code requiring a quarter inch drop per foot minimum. This guaranteed perfect gravity fed drainage and entirely eliminated any future backflow risk.
We pressure tested all connections leading to the basement bathroom fixtures and out to the city sewer main at the property line before performing any backfill. We leave zero room for assumptions. Every joint was confirmed totally watertight. Because our plumbing department works directly alongside our containment and excavation crews on the very same job, the coordination is completely seamless. There is zero phone tag between random contractors and nobody ever shows up to a trench that is not ready. Just the right professional crew stepping in at the right time.
- Full removal of the completely deteriorated cast iron lateral
- New premium sewer lateral perfectly sloped for gravity drainage
- All connections completely re made to basement fixtures and the city main
- Strict pressure test performed prior to backfill ensuring zero tolerance for leaks
- All work performed solely by our own licensed plumbers with absolutely no subcontracting
Backfill, Pour, and
Right Back to Normal
Once the work was completely signed off, our crew backfilled the trench in careful lifts using the native soil we confidently preserved from the original excavation. We performed compaction in deliberate stages to prevent any future settlement. This is a vital step that gets skipped far too often on rushed jobs, but we consider it completely essential to ensure the slab above will never crack or sink over time.
With the trench fully filled and the subgrade professionally prepped, we poured new concrete and finished it seamlessly to match the existing slab. When we completely wrapped up the project, the basement floor was totally solid, the brand new sewer line was flowing perfectly clean, and all containment was expertly struck. You would have absolutely no idea we were ever even there except that the plumbing actually works flawlessly now.
- Native soil backfilled in compacted lifts with absolutely no shortcuts
- Flawless subgrade preparation handled for the concrete pour
- New concrete perfectly matched and finished to the existing slab
- Full containment strike leaving absolutely no mess behind
Before and After
We completely transitioned this property from having raw sewage flooding the basement floor to having a perfectly clean slab and a flawlessly functioning sewer line. We executed this entire project without a single outside contractor and without causing any disruption to the rest of the home.
I did not know what to expect having sewage in my basement and my floors ripped up. But the Lovett crew confidently walked me through every single step. They were extremely clean, highly efficient, and honestly I could not even tell they had been tearing up concrete down there. Everything works perfectly now and my headaches are completely gone.
Homeowner
Northeast Portland Residential Sewer Repipe
One Call. Six Departments. Zero Headaches.
Most restoration companies will simply hand you off. The remediator finishes, you call a plumber, the plumber finishes, you call a concrete contractor. That always leads to massive scheduling gaps, finger pointing, and markups at every single step.
Lovett absolutely does it differently. We deployed six distinct in house departments handling containment, demolition, excavation, plumbing, concrete restoration, and project management. You get one point of contact. You get one powerhouse crew that communicates seamlessly to give you the ultimate peace of mind.