SewerOwner

Sewer Problem Decision Engine

Most sewer advice starts by assuming you already know which problem you have. A homeowner with a slow sink and a homeowner with a collapsed lateral get sent to the same page, and it is written for whichever one is worth more.

This asks ten multiple-choice questions and returns the question to resolve first — not what is wrong with your pipe, which nobody can tell you from a questionnaire. Every answer is a fixed option, nothing you select leaves your device, and there is no box to type in.

What this page cannot establish

  • this cannot diagnose a defect, because it has not seen your line and no set of questions substitutes for that
  • it cannot establish who is responsible for any length of pipe — that is set locally and only the authority for your address can state its position
  • it cannot select a repair method, rank contractors, or say what any work should cost
  • it cannot tell you whether an insurance policy or a municipal programme responds to your situation
  • a finding you record here stays a reported finding throughout, because nothing here can verify one

What this can and cannot do

  • This does not diagnose anything. It has not seen your line and cannot, so nothing it says is a finding about your pipe.
  • It does not choose a repair method, and it does not rank or recommend contractors.
  • It cannot establish who is responsible for any length of pipe. That is set locally, varies street by street, and only the authority for your address can state its own position.
  • It cannot tell you whether insurance responds, and nothing here is legal advice.
  • It publishes no prices, because a price for work nobody has scoped is a guess with a number attached.

Where your answers go

  • Your answers are kept in this browser, on this device, and nowhere else.
  • Nothing is sent to SewerOwner, to a contractor, or to any server when you answer a question.
  • Only the choices listed on this page are stored — there is nothing here that can hold your name, address, or anything you might type.
  • Another browser, another device, and a private window each keep their own separate copy, and none of them can see the others.
  • Clearing them below removes them from this device immediately, and leaves anything saved by the other tools on this site untouched.
Where does the symptom appear?

Choose everything that applies. Where a symptom shows up is the single most useful thing you can tell anyone, because it is what separates a fixture problem from a shared-drain problem.

What are you seeing?

Choose everything that applies.

How long has this been going on?

A range is enough. Nothing here asks for a date, and nothing stores one.

Is there a pattern to when it happens?

What sets a symptom off narrows the question more than how bad it looks.

What work has already been done on this line?

Choose everything that applies, as far as you know.

Has anyone reported a finding?

Record what you were told, not what you concluded. Everything here is treated as a reported statement throughout — this engine has not seen your pipe and cannot confirm any of it.

Do you know what the line is made of?

Most homeowners do not, and that is a normal answer here.

What is your situation with the property?
Is any of this happening right now?

Choose everything that applies. These change what comes first, so they are asked separately from the symptom itself.

Has anyone told you who is responsible for this length of pipe?

Recorded as a statement somebody made, with who made it. Nothing on this site can establish responsibility, and this answer does not change that.

The order this works in

Every result argues for the same sequence. Repair methods come last, because comparing them before the earlier steps compares answers to a question nobody has asked yet.

  1. 1.Establish whether the symptom is isolated to one fixture or affects the building.
  2. 2.Record when it happens, how often, and what sets it off.
  3. 3.Establish whether any previous cleaning produced relief that lasted.
  4. 4.Review whatever inspection evidence exists, in full rather than in summary.
  5. 5.Compare what the evidence shows against what any proposal says it covers.
  6. 6.Confirm responsibility and permits with the authority for your address.
  7. 7.Only then compare repair methods against each other.

How it decides

The rules run in a fixed order and stop at the first one that matches, so the same answers always produce the same result. Everything that can put a person in contact with wastewater sits above everything that cannot, which is why no combination of later answers can make an active exposure less urgent.

  1. Anything describing wastewater where people are, or water reaching electrical equipment, is read first and outranks everything else.
  2. Symptoms affecting the lowest drain or several rooms are read as describing the path those fixtures share.
  3. A symptom at the ground surface is treated as a question about the ground as well as the pipe, because a camera inside a pipe cannot answer it.
  4. Recurrence after a cleaning moves the question from what is in the line to why it keeps arriving.
  5. A finding somebody reported is carried as a reported finding, never as a confirmed one.
  6. Everything else falls back to the first useful step: establishing whether the symptom is isolated or building-wide.

What it will not do

These are properties of the code rather than of the wording. The result type has no field for a score, a confidence, a repair method, or a responsible party, so producing one would take a change to the type — which is reviewable — rather than a change to a threshold, which is not.

  • It never states that your pipe is broken, collapsed, bellied, offset, separated, or blocked by roots.
  • It never produces a percentage, a score, a grade, or a risk rating.
  • It never names a repair method as the thing to do, and never presents one method as generally better than another.
  • It never says who is responsible for a length of pipe, and never infers it from where a symptom appeared.
  • It never ranks, rates, or recommends a contractor, and it does not publish prices.

What it stores, and where

  • Your answers are kept in this browser and nowhere else. Nothing is transmitted when you answer a question.
  • There is no text input anywhere in the tool, so there is nothing that could hold a name, an address, or a description.
  • Following the link to the help form carries four things: which tool you came from, the broad concern, the suggested pace, and the broad project stage. Your individual answers do not travel with it.
  • Clearing your answers removes them from this device immediately and leaves the other tools on this site untouched.

What would change the answer

  • what you have observed yourself, which is the only input this uses
  • anything anyone has reported to you, kept separate from what you saw
  • whether a previous cleaning produced relief that lasted

What to do next

A person reads it. The engine narrows the question; a person can tell you whether the answer you were given fits it.

Ask SewerOwner to look at what you have been told

If your situation is different

Related, and why

  • Symptoms

    Each observation at length, once the engine has narrowed which one matters.

  • Camera limits

    The limits the engine applies to any camera evidence you record.

  • Limits of cleaning

    Why a cleaning that worked is not an answer about the cause.

  • Who owns the lateral

    The question the engine refuses to answer, and who can.

  • What drives scope

    Why the same length of pipe produces very different quotes.

  • Privacy

    What is stored on your device, and what is measured.

  • Get help

    What the result carries into the help form, and what it never carries.