Plumber Tierrasanta San Diego

Tierrasanta is one of the few San Diego neighborhoods where a plumbing job that needs a shovel comes with an extra precaution. The community sits on part of the former Camp Elliott, a military training range, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers still asks homeowners and contractors to take care before digging here. Most plumbing work never leaves the house. Sewer laterals, buried water lines and new underground gas lines do, so this page covers what to do before the ground gets opened, and who to call when the leaking pipe isn’t yours.

The land was part of the Mission San Diego de Alcalá ranch before the military bought it in 1941 for Camp Elliott, which was used for tank, anti-tank and artillery training. The federal government sold the area to the City in 1961, and Tierrasanta was founded in 1971. By 1980 about 24,000 people lived here, and the community was almost fully built out by the early 1990s. The developed area climbs from roughly 180 feet in the west to about 780 feet in the east and is cut by canyons, with only four roads leading in, which is where the local nickname “The Island in the Hills” comes from.

Homes here range from single-family houses to condominiums and apartments, and we work on all of them: leak repair, sewer line repair, gas lines, repiping, water heaters, shutoff valves, pressure regulators, fixtures and water damage cleanup. Drain clogs go to Drain Mob, our partner for that work. The roughly 2,300 homes in the Murphy Canyon military housing complex in the southwest corner of the community are maintained through their housing office.

Before Anyone Digs in Your Yard

The plumbing jobs that involve digging are the ones under the yard: replacing a sewer lateral, repairing or replacing a buried water service or yard line, and trenching for a new gas line. If you’re planning one of those in Tierrasanta, keep three things in mind.

1. Old munitions are rare, but take them seriously. The Army Corps of Engineers says the chance of finding old shells or other munitions is slim, but its fact sheet for contractors and homeowners lists excavating and installing utilities, piping included, among the activities where they can turn up, and it warns that any old metal object could be ordnance. If something suspicious appears, stop digging, walk away the way you came in, and call 911.
2. Call 811 two working days ahead. The California Public Utilities Commission tells homeowners and contractors alike to call 811 at least two working days before any digging, large or small. The service is free, and the utility companies come out and mark their underground lines with flags or paint. Those markings cover the utilities’ lines; pipes you own, like your sewer lateral or a line out to a back-yard hose bib, usually aren’t on their maps.
3. Expect a permit and an inspection. New sewer and gas lines need a permit, and the work is inspected before the trench is closed. When we install a sewer or gas line, we mark the utility lines before any trenching starts.

Can the Digging Be Avoided?

Sometimes, and checking first costs far less than a trench. A sewer camera inspection shows what’s actually wrong inside the line, and a locator shows exactly where and how deep the problem sits, so any excavation can be kept to the spot that needs it. Depending on what the camera finds, a sewer line repair can mean replacing one damaged section and keeping the rest of the pipe, or replacing the whole line when the damage runs its full length. For buried water lines, finding the exact leak point first likewise keeps the hole small.

Water Running in the Street? That’s the City’s Call

If water is bubbling up from the street, the sidewalk or the strip of grass by the curb, it’s most likely coming from the City’s side of the meter, not your plumbing. The City of San Diego’s Public Utilities Department takes reports of water leaks, sewer spills and water pressure problems at 619-515-3525. If the leak is between the meter and your house, that pipe is yours, and that’s a call for us. The City also has a leak adjustment request for customers whose bill jumped because of a leak.

Allied Gardens, across the San Diego River to the south, has its own page.

Courtesy Plumbing was started in 2007 by Tony Misleh, a master plumber, and is licensed with the CSLB as #910268. We’re in the office from 8 to 5, Monday to Friday. Call (858) 567-0544, or tell us about the job through our contact page, especially if it involves digging, so we can plan for it.