[Frostbite]

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:

 

[LightSpeed]

It was 470.00 to run a snake down your out tube ???????????

 

[ptannjr]

dude that sucks, sorry to hear about that .

 

[JOHNO]

Sounds like you're like me,if its not one thing its ten!

 

[Frostbite]

It was 470.00 to run a snake down your out tube ???????????

It does beat cleaning overspill from a backed-up sewer line! :wink:

It will pale in comparison to the cost of the upcoming fix. But, this stuff happens! 1945 house, and this is the first real problem I've had in eight years of owning it.

 

[Frostbite]

Sounds like you're like me,if its not one thing its ten!

Hey, when there is a problem, why not go big!!! :twisted:

 

[Accountant30339]

It was 470.00 to run a snake down your out tube ???????????

It does beat cleaning overspill from a backed-up sewer line! :wink:

It will pale in comparison to the cost of the upcoming fix. But, this stuff happens! 1945 house, and this is the first real problem I've had in eight years of owning it.

This exact thing happened to me last year....except I didn't notice until I was bailing sewage out of the house.

$4,000 later, I have a new sewer and water line. :grin:

Accountant

 

[StreetTrends]

Better than 2,800 for a tree falling on your house the a/c going out the next month, and the garage door opener the next week and no insurance covering any of it. Plus my wife quit work to take care of the new kid and I had to do it all myself. "No matter how bad you have it, someone always has it worse." Good luck.

 

[MotorcityMan]

Septic system :wink: with sewer you pay for water comming in and going out. They are less to worry about sometimes, but if a septic system is running properly you'll never have a problem and you'll never have to have it pumped out bacteria in the tank breaks everything down and it just drains into the field. My house is 53 years old and the septic system runs great and i've never had it pumped, i asked the previous owners when the last time they pumped it and he said never, he lived here since 1969. But i know how you feel brother, if its not one thing its another, they dont call it a money pit for no reason.

 

[Frostbite]

This exact thing happened to me last year....except I didn't notice until I was bailing sewage out of the house.

$4,000 later, I have a new sewer and water line. :grin:

Accountant

Nice! It was 100% pure luck that I got mine before it became really crappy! I am guestimating $5,000 for my replacement, sans fence and new bushes. We'll see!

 

[MiniZ]

I feel your pain. I too, live in an old house.

 

[CornFedHusker]

Fuckin A... I wake up this morning to a house that is 55 degrees. No gas. No pilot light for my water heater. I'm sitting here waiting for the energy company to send someone over.

And I still have a backyard that looks like a disaster area due to the ice storm in November.... :evil:

 

[Bachelor_of_Science]

Sounds like you're like me,if its not one thing its ten!

Boy, you hit the "nail on the head," with that statement "JohnO." Sometimes I think I want to sell my house, get the equity and move into an apartment!

 

[Jicky]

I can sympathize as well....Hoping you the best. :beer:

 

[moses]

drain

Man I feel your pain!!! just spent $860.00 to have new submersible water pump replaced. great no water! now whats wrong!!!!!

 

[Mogwa]

When I bought my house out here in the sticks, I was given the do's and don'ts for septic systems and tile. Where to plant trees and where not to. Whether you live in town or country, it is cheap insurance to put Cooper Sulfate in your sewer lines once or twice a year. Kills any roots that attempt to burrow into your tile.

 

[No1Here]

Woke up Christmas day, go to the kitchen sink. No water comes out. The guy came out around 2 that afternoon and fixed it but of all days for it to happen. Then 2 weeks before that I had to get the A/C fixed and radiator for my car.
I don't own the house but the owners let me live here so that I can watch it and take care of things for them. So it's not a bad tradeoff. :smile:

 

[762BODYDROPPER]

This exact thing happened to me last year....except I didn't notice until I was bailing sewage out of the house.

$4,000 later, I have a new sewer and water line. :grin:

Accountant

Nice! It was 100% pure luck that I got mine before it became really crappy! I am guestimating $5,000 for my replacement, sans fence and new bushes. We'll see!

:lol:
No really man, 470 to run an auger souds really steep man. I would run some price checks with several companies before using one to do it. One thing I would suggest is finding a home depot or lowes in your area and find out who they use to do thier plumbing contracts, Big name companies like that are only going to use high quality and generally competitive contractors due to liability and cost factors for the company....I know because I work for home depot.

 

[Frostbite]

No really man, 470 to run an auger souds really steep man. I would run some price checks with several companies before using one to do it. One thing I would suggest is finding a home depot or lowes in your area and find out who they use to do thier plumbing contracts, Big name companies like that are only going to use high quality and generally competitive contractors due to liability and cost factors for the company....I know because I work for home depot.

The main problem was that the weather was looking really iffy, and only about four minutes of good rain would have spilled it into the house. I had no time to run price checks, I just needed someone there immediately. As for the rest of the work, I will be getting several bids, and have some good contractor recommedations from those in the industry already.

 

[Accountant30339]

....I know because I work for home depot.

Discount?

I need a Framing nail gun, Rigid band saw, one of those Lincoln Electric welders, and the acetalyne (sp?) rig. :grin:

Accountant