Sheltons Construction repairs and replaces sewer lines for homes and small commercial buildings across the Portland metro — spot repairs where a camera finds one bad section, trenchless pipe lining or bursting where the yard should stay intact, and full open-trench replacement where the line has failed end to end. The permit and inspection are part of the job, not an extra call you have to make yourself.
How do you know it's the sewer line and not just a clogged drain?
A single slow drain is usually local — hair, grease, a bad P-trap. A sewer line problem shows up differently: multiple drains backing up at once, gurgling from the lowest fixtures (usually a basement floor drain or the tub) when you run the washer or flush a toilet, sewage smell in the yard or basement, or a soggy patch over the line that stays wet after weeks without rain. If it's more than one fixture, or it happens every time it rains hard, that's the main line, not a trap.
We start with a sewer camera inspection rather than guessing. It shows exactly where the problem is, what it is — roots, a belly, an offset joint, a collapsed section — and how much of the line is affected, before anyone talks about digging.
What does the visit look like?
We camera the line first and record it. If it's roots or grease buildup and the pipe itself is sound, we run a hydro jetting or cutting job and re-camera to confirm it's clear — sometimes that's the whole visit. If the camera shows a cracked, bellied, offset or root-infiltrated section, we mark where it is (usually with a locate), scope whether trenchless repair fits the situation, and put together options: spot dig on that one section, trenchless lining or bursting for the full run, or open-trench replacement if the pipe is too far gone or too shallow for trenchless. We pull the permit, do the work, and the city inspects before we backfill or close things up.
What affects the scope of the job
- Length and depth of the run — from the house to the street or septic connection, and how deep it sits.
- Pipe material and age — older Portland-area lines are often clay tile or Orangeburg (tar-paper pipe used mid-century); clay cracks at the joints, Orangeburg deforms and eventually collapses. Cast iron shows up in some older houses too and rusts through from the inside.
- How much of the line is affected — one bad joint is a different job than a line with root intrusion or bellies (low spots where the pipe has settled) along its whole length.
- What's above it — a driveway, a mature tree, a retaining wall, or a fence line changes whether trenchless makes sense or the job has to go open-trench.
- Access — side-sewer connections, easement lines shared with a neighbor, and how close the cleanout is to the property line all factor in.
- City permit and inspection timing — this is part of the job, not a delay you should have to chase down yourself.
We don't price any of that until we've seen the camera footage. No price is quoted from a description over the phone.
What's specific to sewer lines in Portland
A lot of the housing stock here — the bungalows and foursquares in inner Portland neighborhoods, the postwar ranches further out — was built with clay or Orangeburg sewer lines that were never meant to last a century. Big-leaf maples, sweetgums and the street trees planted along so many Portland blocks send roots straight into any joint with a hairline gap, and Portland's clay soil holds water long enough that a line with a low spot (a belly) stays wet and slow for days after it rains instead of draining and drying out. Add a wet-season pattern of long soaking rains rather than short storms, and a marginal line that's been "fine for years" tends to finally back up in November or during the first hard freeze-thaw cycle, when ground movement opens up an already-weak joint.
Portland and its surrounding cities also each have their own permit process for side-sewer work, and older neighborhoods sometimes have shared laterals or easement connections from before individual permits were tracked the way they are now — worth knowing before anyone starts digging in a shared line.
Why call Sheltons Construction
We're a licensed Oregon plumbing contractor working sewer and drain calls across the Portland metro, and we camera before we quote — you see what we see. We handle the permit and the inspection as part of the job. If the fix is really a clog and not a line failure, we'll say so and jet it rather than sell you a replacement. For an active backup that's putting sewage into the house, that's an emergency plumbing call, not a scheduled one.
What to do now
If it's backing up right now, shut off water use in the house — no laundry, no long showers — and contact us or call. If it's a slow pattern you've been watching for a while, book a camera inspection so you know what you're actually dealing with before it becomes an emergency. Questions about permits or how the visit works are also covered on our FAQ page.
We serve Portland, Beaverton, Hillsboro, Gresham, Tigard, and Tualatin, along with the rest of the Portland metro. Related work: drain cleaning, hydro jetting, water heater repair & installation, and tankless water heaters.