The original drain pipes buried in South Florida's pre-1975 homes have reached the end of their life. If you're fighting recurring backups and sewer odor, we cut out the corroded cast iron and install new pipe that outlasts the house — fully permitted, camera-documented, and warrantied.
Cast iron drain lines were the standard in Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach through the mid-1970s. Decades of coastal humidity, aggressive soil, and constant flow rot the pipe from the inside out. By the time symptoms surface, the walls are often paper-thin or already breached below the slab. Here is what homeowners notice first.
You snake the same line every few months and it clogs again. Scale and rust build ledges inside the pipe that grab everything passing through — cabling only buys a little time.
A persistent rotten-egg or septic odor near floor drains or bathrooms usually means a cracked pipe is venting gas into the home instead of carrying waste out.
A bright green stripe or a soggy dip in an otherwise ordinary yard often marks where a broken lateral is fertilizing the soil with leaking sewage.
Palmetto bugs and rats travel the sewer. When they start showing up in bathrooms or kitchens, a breach in the cast iron is often serving as their private entrance.
On slab-on-grade homes, a collapsing pipe washes away the sand bedding beneath the concrete. Hairline tile cracks and uneven spots can signal a void forming under the slab.
Tubs that drain in slow motion and toilets that gurgle when the washer empties point to a system that has lost its diameter to interior corrosion and channeling.
Not every home needs a full dig-out. When the pipe still holds its shape and grade, an epoxy reline can restore it from the inside with far less disruption. But once cast iron has lost its bottom, sagged into a belly, or separated at the joints, a liner has nothing to bond to and replacement is the only honest fix. We scope the line on camera first and show you the footage, so the recommendation is based on your actual pipe — not a sales script.
We push an HD sewer camera through your lines to locate every crack, belly, and offset, mark depths, and record footage you can keep for your insurance file.
You get a fixed-scope quote showing exactly which runs get replaced, whether relining fits any segments, and how we'll access the slab or trench with the least disruption.
We pull the county or municipal plumbing permit before a single tile lifts. Everything is done to Florida code so the work passes inspection and stays on record for resale.
Whether it's a controlled slab saw-cut indoors or an exterior trench, we open only what's needed, protect your floors and landscaping, and haul out the failed cast iron.
We install modern PVC set to proper slope, tie it into your existing system with correct fittings, and pressure-test the run before anything gets covered back up.
We backfill and re-pour concrete or replace soil and sod, pass the final inspection, and hand you the closed permit plus your written warranty.
Cast iron replacement isn't a flat rate because no two houses have the same layout, depth, or access. Here are the honest factors that move the number up or down — we walk through each one with you after the camera scope.
"Our 1968 house had backed up three times in a year. They scoped it, showed me the cracked pipe on screen, and replaced the whole run under the slab. Pulled the permit, patched the floor, no more smell. Wish I'd done it sooner."
"The camera footage they gave me got my insurance claim approved. Everything was documented, permitted, and inspected. They explained why relining wouldn't work on my collapsed section and did a clean replacement instead."
"Green patch in the yard turned out to be a broken lateral leaking under the grass. They trenched, replaced the old cast iron, and put my sod back so well you can barely tell. Fair price and they stuck to the quote."
"We stayed in the house the whole time. They worked one bathroom at a time and kept water available at night. Professional crew, cleaned up daily, and handed us the closed permit and warranty at the end."
The biggest factors are how many linear feet of pipe have failed and how we have to reach them. A straight exterior trench in sandy soil is far less involved than saw-cutting and re-pouring a concrete slab inside a finished home. Depth, the number of fixture branches, the water table, and how much flooring or landscaping needs restoring all move the number. After we scope the line on camera we give you a fixed-scope written quote so there are no surprises mid-project.
It depends on your policy and the cause of failure. Many carriers cover the resulting water damage and access work even when they exclude the worn-out pipe itself, and some cover sudden collapses. This is exactly why we record the camera inspection and document every break — that footage and our written report are what adjusters ask for. We're happy to provide the paperwork your claim needs, though the coverage decision always rests with your insurer.
A single-bathroom exterior run can wrap in a day or two. A whole-house under-slab replacement typically runs several days to about a week depending on square footage, depth, and how much concrete has to be cut and re-poured. Permit and inspection scheduling can add time on the front and back end. We give you a realistic day-by-day timeline in the written scope before we start so you can plan around it.
In most cases yes. We phase the work so at least one bathroom stays usable whenever possible and we restore water service at the end of each day. For heavy slab days there may be a few hours of dust and noise where you'll want to be out of that area. We seal off work zones, protect your floors, and clean up daily. If a job requires a short water shutoff we schedule it and give you plenty of notice.
Every cast iron replacement we complete is backed by a written warranty on both parts and labor, handed to you in writing when we close out the job. Because we install modern code-spec PVC set to proper slope and pressure-test it before backfilling, the new system is built to outlast the original iron by decades. You also keep the closed permit and inspection record, which matters when you sell the home. We're licensed under FL CFC1433655 and fully insured.
If your South Florida home was built before 1975 and the drains keep fighting back, the cast iron underneath isn't going to improve. A camera scope tells you exactly where you stand, and a permitted replacement ends the cycle for good. Talk to a licensed plumber today and get real footage of your pipes.
Call (954) 417-4662