Homes built around Hollywood before the mid-1970s were plumbed with cast iron drain lines that are now decades past their intended life. When rust eats through the pipe wall, you get backups, odor, and sometimes water working its way under the slab. We open a camera, show you the damage on screen, and rebuild the line with modern pipe. Documented, permitted, and backed by our written warranty.
Hollywood's older housing stock, from the Lakes area to blocks near Young Circle, was largely built with cast iron drainage before PVC became standard. Salt air and decades of use erode that pipe from within until it perforates or collapses. These are the tells we hear about most on service calls.
If a snake clears the line but the clog returns within weeks, rust flakes and scale ridges inside the pipe are catching debris. Cabling treats the symptom, not the corroded pipe causing it.
Gas escaping through a hairline crack often smells worse than an actual overflow. If the odor shows up near a drain but nothing visibly overflowed, suspect the pipe itself.
A soggy trail or a stripe of grass growing faster than everything around it usually traces the path of a leaking exterior line feeding the soil with wastewater.
Roaches and small rodents can travel long distances through a breached line. If they keep surfacing near a specific fixture, that's where we start scoping.
A washed-out void beneath the slab, caused by a leaking pipe carrying away the bedding sand, can shift the concrete just enough to crack tile lines that were fine last year.
A tub that empties in slow motion or a toilet that gurgles whenever the washing machine drains points to a pipe that has lost most of its usable diameter to rust buildup.
Some cast iron lines are salvageable with an epoxy liner if the pipe walls still hold their round shape. Others have already sagged, separated at a joint, or lost their floor to rust, and a liner simply has nothing solid to adhere to. We never guess at this. Every recommendation follows an actual camera pass through your pipe, and we play the footage back for you before quoting anything.
We run a self-leveling camera through the drain system, mark every crack, sag, and offset by depth, and save the footage for you and, if needed, your insurer.
You receive one document listing exactly which runs get replaced, what could be relined instead, and how we'll access the pipe with the smallest possible footprint.
Nothing gets cut open until the plumbing permit is pulled with the local building department. Everything follows Florida plumbing code from the first swing of the saw.
Indoors we saw-cut the slab along a marked line; outdoors we trench. Either way we cover flooring, protect landscaping, and remove only what the job requires.
We set new PVC to the correct fall, tie it into the existing system with proper fittings, and run a pressure test before anyone thinks about closing it up.
Concrete gets re-poured or soil and sod go back in place, the inspector signs off, and you leave with a closed permit plus our written warranty in hand.
We don't quote cast iron work off a flat number, because the layout underneath your floor is unique. These are the real variables that move a project up or down, and we walk through each one with you once the scope footage is in hand.
"Third backup in six months in our 1962 house near the Lakes. They ran a camera, showed me the belly in the pipe on their tablet, and replaced the section under the kitchen. Permit closed, floor patched, done."
"They found a hairline crack under our slab that another company missed entirely. Had the report and video I needed for our insurance adjuster. The replacement was clean and the tile matched almost perfectly."
"That wet, extra-green spot in the side yard turned out to be our sewer line leaking. They trenched it, swapped the bad cast iron section, and the lawn recovered within a couple of weeks. Fair, upfront pricing."
"We had to keep both kids' bathrooms running during the slab work. They phased it, kept the water on for us at night, and swept up every day. Left us the permit paperwork and the warranty in a folder."
Cast iron failures hide underground or under a slab, so the same symptom on the surface can mean a two-foot repair or a whole-house replacement. We run a camera first so the quote is built off what your pipe actually looks like, not a guess. Once we've seen the footage together, you get one fixed-scope number covering the dig, the pipe, the permit, and the restoration, with no add-ons sprung on you mid-job.
Coverage varies by carrier and by the cause of failure, but many policies pay for the resulting damage even when normal wear on the pipe itself isn't covered. That's why we hand over the camera footage and a written condition report on every job, since that's the documentation adjusters generally ask for. We'll gladly supply what your claim needs, though the coverage call ultimately belongs to your insurance company.
A single-branch exterior run can be finished in a day or two. A full under-slab replacement across a mid-size home usually falls somewhere between four days and a week and a half, depending on how much concrete needs to come up and go back. Permit review and inspection scheduling can add a bit on either end. We lay out a realistic timeline in your written quote before any concrete gets cut.
Most families stay put. We sequence the job so at least one bathroom keeps working and restore water each evening whenever we can. Heavy saw-cutting days bring dust and noise you'll want to avoid in that room, so we section off the work area and clean up before we leave. If a longer water shutoff becomes necessary, we schedule it in advance and let you know exactly when.
Every replacement includes a written warranty covering the new pipe and our labor, delivered to you at project close. Because we install code-spec PVC set to proper slope and pressure-test each run before it's buried, the system is built to run for decades. You also keep the closed permit on file, which future buyers and inspectors will want to see if you sell. We're insured and hold Lic. #XXXXXXX.
If your Hollywood-area home predates the mid-1970s and the drains keep acting up, the cast iron underneath is on borrowed time. A camera scope gives you real answers instead of guesses, and a properly permitted replacement puts the problem behind you for good. Reach out to our licensed team and see your own pipe on screen.
Call (954) 613-1060