I have a rental property that I bought that had foundation issues. The foundation in the home has been releveled; however, now I have a plumbing issue. A plumber came with his camera and discovered that many of the pipes under the home were broken and the toilets are backing up. It is a 3-2-2 and I am told that it would cost me $11500 to repair the plumbing system. He removed a toilet to run his camera through the plumbing system. His company is his private company. There is also a foundation issue in a room that we converted into living space over a patio. The patio door will not shut tightly as the patio foundation has shifted. The original foundation issue was in the home, not the covered patio area. Question: Any suggestions for handling the plumbing issue and do I fix the patio foundation first? Money is very tight right now. One of the toilets is unusable. I have tenants in the home and they have been very patient. HELP

This one has me stumped. No easy answers. You are in a bad situation. I suggest having the tenants move out until you resolve this.

I understand that re-leveling houses is very common in certain areas of Texas due to expansive soils. Given that, I assume there is a best local practice about how to handle plumbing issues that occur from the re-leveling.

It is likely possible to do spot repairs instead of a full underground repipe. Step 1) locate the pipes, step 2) locate the breaks, step 3) dig, step 4) fix. This may buy you some time until you can work up a long-term solution.

This may not be allowed by local code, but could you tap an existing line where you have service coming up from under the slab and feed it thru the wall to the toilet? I'd rather spend $500 to rip out and patch some drywall and feed some PEX thru vs. jack hammering a slab, if that's an option.

I think the problem here is the drains, that is the only ones they run a camera through, but if it is a supply line I would agree with Sid. I agree with Tx mike and RR, you MUST have funds in reserve if you are a landlord! I suggest $7,000.00 minimum cash. When you have a rental, nickels and dimes are really hundreds and thousands!

I think you will have to explain the situation to the tenants and offer to; 1)let them out of the lease if they want to move. 2)offer to pay for hotel until it is fixed and done. 3)offer to refund rent during the time toilet doesn't work and the floor is torn up. All 3 of these will make you jump through any hoops to get it done fast! Yes you will burn through $12k FAST! probably more...

Fix the door at the same time, get-r-done good luck

Yeah, if it's drain lines you're hosed...water under pressure (supply) can go up or down, but as we all know via the old cliche..."stuff" only rolls downhill. Prepare to eat the expense, or like Gary says let them out of the lease and just sell the property.

Suzanne, I empathize with no/very limited cash reserves. One big expense after another with inadequate time between to recover and create a solid cash reserve. No cash reserves doesn't always mean poor management. Sometimes the maintenance gods are just frowning.

What type of foundation does your house have? Slab on grade or finished basement which requires cutting out the concrete floor, this seems reasonable. If you have a crawl space under the house you are getting ripped off. An unfinished basement with a slab floor it's probably a little high. That's my opinion form 1,000 miles away and never having seen which means my opinion is worth nothing.

Get at least 5 (yes FIVE) contractors to look at it and give you bids. Make sure they prove to you they have a license and insurance. Go for companies that do only a little bit of advertising. The ones on the front and back of the phone book are not the most cost effective.

Do not delay, plumbing is required for habitability you must do that first.

I am a California Licensed Plumbing Contractor and 35 year landlord/developer/owner or rental properties. Suzanne your description of your properties foundation wasn't good enough for us to analyze. Do you have a raised foundation or in your property on a cement slab?

Getting one quote from a single plumbing contractor is like playing Russian Roulette, better to have 3 or 4 estimates.

In plumbing there are always several ways to repair or replace a defective sewer system. Change over from metal to ABS plastic. Installing an epoxy sleeve inside a cracked system. Installing a liner. But if the pitch is wrong and the pipes have issues, then correction of the slope and replacement will be necessary.

In one of my brother's rental homes he too had a back up of the main sewer line under the slab. His estimate to replace and repair half the sewer line was $26,000 from one plumber and $15,000 from his second plumbing contractor. I used my large snaking tool and cleared the line of roots and was able to use my sewer camera and locate two separate issue.

First issue, under the slab the pipe had rusted out and was leaking. When the sewer line would back up, it caused the water to rise though cracks in the slab into the living room area. The second issue, trees were going along the sewer line as it exited the property.

Robert J has a good point

Robert's story reminded me of a nice bed-time story ...

Young tenant flushed an infant diaper .... major clog. Called Roto-rooter - per my plumbers recommendation. Kid shows up with a camera snake and proceeds to get the snake STUCK. All the kings horses, all the kings men couldn't get the camera un-stuck. So I was told a back-hoe was needed and would cost ME $1500. I said "no thank you, your camera, your problem".

Not all slab houses around here have post tension cables. My houses built in the 70-80 do not. Regular rebar, with lazy concrete installers that half the time didn't bother pulling the rebar to the middle, I have cut into more than one slab, and the rebar is on the bottom. My houses were cheaply built track homes.