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On Monday, I walked out the back door to my house, and noticed a puddle in my driveway. The driveway slopes towards my house, and there is a large drain at the end. This is where the puddle was located. Obviously, the reason to have a drain is so that no puddle forms, so I was a bit concerned. I popped the top off of the drain, and poked around a bit, finding nothing. With the weather looking poor, and knowing that five minutes of good rain would send water into the garage in this situation, I called a plumber. The truck showed up a couple of hours later, and I showed the guys the problem. One of them asked me to go inside and flush the toilet. Sure enough, the water level rose. After giving me a quick estimate, they fired up the snake, and thrust it down the clean-out. Sixty five feet later, they hit the obstruction, and the water went running down the pipe. Normally, this would be good news. Drawing out the snake, the end brought roots with it. Not a joyous thing! Basically, the pipe is cracked or broken 65 feet in. The crack let water (with associated nutrients) get into the soil, which attracted roots. Following the water, roots got into the pipe and clogged it up. Price at this point: $470.49. Sound like a familiar number? Think of $450 for a SER with $20 for shipping! Yup, there goes my AK money! Literally down the drain!
Next step will be sending a camera down to see how bad it is, and about a 90% chance of having to have a section replaced. The pipe is 8 to 10 feet underground at that point, and runs along the property line. I?ll have to pull out my front fence to get a tractor in, my side fence to get the work done, and lose a walkway to the tractor. I?ll also be loosing four rose bushes, three Japanese maples, and assorted other shrubbery. So, I?ll have to re-fence, re-landscape, and re-sewer at the same time! Houses are like cars ? they are great when everything works fine, but terrible when it doesn?t!
All in all, not that big of a deal. Just unexpected! At least I found it before anything backed up into the house! :smile:
Next step will be sending a camera down to see how bad it is, and about a 90% chance of having to have a section replaced. The pipe is 8 to 10 feet underground at that point, and runs along the property line. I?ll have to pull out my front fence to get a tractor in, my side fence to get the work done, and lose a walkway to the tractor. I?ll also be loosing four rose bushes, three Japanese maples, and assorted other shrubbery. So, I?ll have to re-fence, re-landscape, and re-sewer at the same time! Houses are like cars ? they are great when everything works fine, but terrible when it doesn?t!
All in all, not that big of a deal. Just unexpected! At least I found it before anything backed up into the house! :smile: