Sewer Line Repair in Hicksville, NY1950s House Sewers

Valentine Hicks bought the land in 1834 and the LIRR stopped there by 1837, but Hicksville stayed farm country until the post-World War II building boom, according to Wikipedia. The Census Bureau's latest five-year survey shows the result: about 13,600 homes, 93% single-family detached, with a median year built of 1955, 58% built in the 1950s alone, and only 9% after 1980. The house sewers went in with the houses. Many are still the originals, about 70 years old.

Over that time, joints shift and open, roots from yard and street trees work in, and sections crack or settle into a sag. A sag holds water and waste; a crack lets roots in. Either one gives you a line that clears for a while and then clogs again.

• One damaged section: repair or replace that section.
• Roots or cracks at several points along the run: replacing the line from the house to the street connection is usually the lasting fix.
• The problem is in the county main: that's the county's.

Before anything is dug up, we tell you where the problem is and what the repair involves. Hicksville is an unincorporated hamlet in the Town of Oyster Bay.

The survey puts the average Hicksville household at 3.27 people, and 3.57 in rented homes, with 86% of homes having three or more bedrooms and 43% four or more. A house sewer laid for a 1950s family now often carries more showers and more laundry every day. That extra flow is one reason a weak section that held up for decades starts backing up now.