Rust Weeping From a Cast Iron Stack
Orange staining, flaking or damp spots on a vertical cast iron stack mean the pipe wall is thinning or a joint has opened. Pre-1940 homes are the likeliest to still have original cast iron.
OVERVIEW
Drain Repair in West Des Moines
Drain repair in West Des Moines means fixing the pipes inside and beneath the house: the building drain under the basement slab, the floor drains, and the cast iron, galvanized or plastic stacks that carry waste down to it. We at Clog Busters repair those lines for West Des Moines homeowners from our Des Moines branch, 24 hours a day, and we put a camera through the pipe before we quote the work.
The age of a house points to its drain material, though only a camera confirms it. The city was incorporated as Valley Junction, a railroad town, on October 9, 1893, and Census estimates count about 1,500 homes here built in 1939 or earlier. Houses of that era commonly drain through cast iron, often with galvanized branch lines. Roughly 16,000 more homes went up from 1970 through 1999 and about 5,900 in the 2010s as West Des Moines grew into one of the fastest-growing cities in Iowa, and those homes usually run PVC or ABS plastic.
West Des Moines adopts Chapter 1 of the 2021 International Residential Code, with local amendments, in Section 8-2A-3 of the West Des Moines City Code. Under that chapter, stopping a leak or clearing a stoppage needs no permit, but removing a defective concealed drain pipe and replacing it with new material is new work that needs a permit and an inspection. See our drain repair services, or drain cleaning in West Des Moines when the pipe is sound.
Drain repairs follow the State of Iowa Plumbing Code, the 2024 Uniform Plumbing Code with Iowa amendments, which West Des Moines lists among the codes it enforces.
