The sewer pipe lies at the heart of a home's plumbing system. This central pipe funnels wastewater safely out of your home and into your municipal water system. Many older sewer pipes were made out of cast iron. As these cast iron pipes age, they develop cracks and corroded rust spots that can drastically impact your home's water systems.

Sewer pipes may suffer damage from numerous other causes as well. Invasive tree roots can exert enough pressure to crack sewer pipes. Ground heaving or earthquakes may also crack or damage the structure of a sewer pipe. A heavy truck driven or parked in the wrong spot could also crack a sewer pipe.

Unfortunately, many homeowners fail to recognize the tell-tale signs that something may be wrong with their sewer pipe. This oversight causes the problem to reach critical proportions, requiring expensive, and often messy, repairs. If you would like to improve your plumbing troubleshooting skills, read on. This article will discuss three frequent signs of a damaged sewer pipe.

1. Soggy Lawn

When something happens to one of the supply lines leading into your home, the problem tends to be quite obvious. Supply line damage will almost always manifest as a noticeable problem with the water flow inside of your home. But diagnosing a damaged sewer pipe can be tricky because these pipes lead away from your home.

A damaged sewer line allows wastewater to escape into the ground around your home. Most sewer lines travel across the front lawn, meeting up with municipal waste pipes located underneath the street. As more and more wastewater spills out of the damaged pipe, it causes the soil in your front lawn to develop wet, soggy, or sunken patches.

If you have noticed that your lawn has mysteriously become waterlogged, it's important that you seek professional help as soon as possible. Otherwise, the problem will continue to grow worse every time you flush the toilet.

2. Foul Water in Basement

The water escaping from a cracked sewer line can end up in other places besides your yard. If the damaged portion of pipe is close enough to your house, wastewater may even make its way into your basement. A cracked foundation will easily allow this water to penetrate your home.

Even homeowners with structurally sound foundations may experience water accumulation, thanks to hydrostatic pressure. Hydrostatic pressure occurs when enough water builds up on the outside of your foundation that its pressure pushes it right through the pores of a concrete wall. If a cracked sewer line is at fault, you will likely also notice that the water in your basement has an unspeakably foul odor.

3. Rodent Infestation

A sudden influx of rats in your home is absolutely the most alarming sign of a damaged sewer line. Rats can easily burrow down through the soil of your lawn to reach a breached sewer pipe. From there, they follow the pipe toward your house, often getting underneath the foundation and coming up into your basement through relatively tiny cracks - or even swimming all the way up into your toilet.

The threat posed by such rodents is fairly self-explanatory. While baiting the rats with poison may help to manage the problem, it won't eliminate the source. If your home has never had a history of rodent infestation but you've suddenly noticed such vermin in your home, you should have your sewer line inspected.

A trained professional can easily survey for damage using long, flexible cameras threaded down into your pipes. For more information about having your home's sewer line inspected, contact the plumbing professionals at Moody Plumbing, Inc.