I recently discovered water coming up through the ground.After doing a little digging, we noticed a broken septic pipe.The pipe runs under ground-under concrete- from the house to the septic.The concrete was cracked so we moved a chunk of it and that's when we found the broken pipe.I understand it could've been caused from many things-age, weather or from the most likely culprit someone driving over it.the hole in the pipe is about 4 inches in length.I was told that it would be easy to fix with a sleeve and a clamp (or a sleeve and glue?) Its a straight pipe about 30 ft in length (estimating) it appears to be PVC.Is this quick fix acceptable? Ive seen other 'fixes' in DIY videos, but those particular videos were for water pipes.Im new at this and have owned this house for 5 yrs.Single family septic tank with a drain field.any advice before I spend a ton calling in professionals?

 

Can a sleeve and clamp work? Well, sorta and it depends on the patch and your system. Is it proper... no. Would it be acceptable at my house... no. There is a Band-Aid repair and then there is a proper repair or replacement.

That high and mighty stuff said there are a lot of Band-Aid patches applied to sewer lines. My town has largely stopped doing it but it used to be common to just wrap inner tube rubber, tin cans or anything else around sewer lines to patch holes. The big concern for you would be how do you prevent it from happening again? You've got broken concrete above and it's already broken once whatever caused the break may reoccur. Also, if the patch is not totally water tight it will attract roots which can clog your drain line.

 

Why not cut out a one foot section containing the 4 inch hole, then insert a one foot replacement section held on with two couplings, one at each end.

Somehow I can't see why a rigid patch that fit over the hole with a reasonable overlap all the way around, glued on as if you were assembling a model airplane, won't work, but the preceding paragraph describes a more standard method.

Don't apply a flexible patch with the material bridging the 4 inch hole.

 

I agree with AllanJ but with one coupling...cut out broken bit, get a new pvc pipe, cut to length (use end that will sleeve over existing pipe), slide Fernco coupling on smaller end, glue sleeve end on, and tighten the fernco on the other end. Pretty standard fare from where I am.
As far as not having it break again...how deep is pipe? Usually, pipe is surrounded by 6" min of packed washed sand, then your fill.
If pipe is shallow, and cars drive over area, I'd redo the concrete, but with rebar to avoid cracking and to distribute weight over a larger area.

 

What type pipe is it?
If it's PVC it can be done with a section of pipe and two repair couplings (repair couplings have no hub in the center so they can slip over the pipe) or two Fenco's.

 

Even if it is iron pipe, rubber couplings can be used to splice in a piece of PVC pipe. But if it's clay pipe, I dunno.

My city uses a system where a contractor sprays the inside of the leaky clay street sewer pipes with some sort of epoxy. I have heard that there are home contractors that can do the same thing.