As much as I’ve learned about money in the past five years, and as much as I like to share what I’ve learned, there are still times when I fail to follow my own advice.
As I’ve mentioned, we live in a hundred-year-old house. This is a great and terrible thing. The house is beautiful and full of character, but it’s also a pain in the ass. In the six years we’ve lived here, one of the pains we’ve encountered repeatedly is the sewer line. About once a year, the thing clogs. But in the past year, it’s clogged more like once a quarter.
Generally, we’re able to handle the clogs on our own. We pour a little drain cleaner into the toilet or bathtub, and things magically work out on their own. But the recent clogs have been unresponsive to the magic of modern chemistry. In March, I finally broke down and called in a plumber. The plumber worked his magic, charged me 300 bucks, and asked if I wanted his boss to come give me a bid on repairing the sewer line.
“Sure,” I said.
The next day, a man named Jeremy showed up with his fancy equipment to scope out the problem with our line. Turns out the old concrete sewer pipe was probably laid in the 1940s or 1950s, and has never been repaired or replaced. There’s a section about 90 feet from the house (about 20 feet from the road) that has developed a “belly”: for several feet, the pipe has sunk below the rest of the line. Near this belly, there’s also a break in the line, and tree roots are encroaching. Basically, it’s a mess.
“It’s not a big deal,” Jeremy told me. “It’s easy to replace. Your sewer line is easy to access because it’s in the middle of the lawn. I can probably replace it in a day.” He quoted me a price of $1700.
Over the next couple of weeks, Jeremy called back twice to see if we wanted to spend the $1700 to repair the sewer line. “No,” I said. “Things seem to be okay for now.”
Well, things were okay for a while. Friday, however, the sewer line clogged again, and this time it was very very gross. Dirty water came flooding up into the bathtub. Yuck!
We called the plumber again. A different fellow came out and cleared the line. Because Kris and I were both home, he called us over to look when he’d finished his work. He had a camera 90 feet into the line, and he showed us the very damage that Jeremy had described. And then he said something that was very GRS-y.
“You can replace that five-foot section,” he told us, “but if I were you, I’d think about replacing everything from the sidewalk to the street. It’ll cost more, but if you save up for it, it’ll be more cost-effective in the long run. You’ve got other trees in that area, and they’re likely to cause trouble eventually if you don’t take steps to correct the problems now. And if you have us do all of it at once, it’ll cost less than if we have to repair it in pieces.”
A plumber with advice on budgeting for repairs — I like it!
The real lesson, of course, is not to defer home maintenance. I know this is one of the cardinal rules of home ownership, yet for some reason, I always procrastinate. I think it’s hard for me to spend on something that isn’t really an immediate problem. It’s May — my gutters aren’t overflowing. I just had the drain cleaned — the toilet isn’t clogging. And so on. But as we just learned, what would have cost me $1700 to repair in March will now cost me $2000 because I delayed. (That’s $1700 for the repair and $300 for the most recent visit by the plumber.)
After the plumber left, Kris and I had a chat.
“This is kind of a pattern for you, isn’t it?” she asked. She meant that I have a tendency to ignore warning signs and just hope that things will get better on their own. Last week, I wrote about ignoring warning signs from my computer as it began to fail. I’ve done the same many times in the past with cars, computers, clothing, home repairs, and (worst of all) my personal health. I don’t fix problems when they’re small; as a result, they often become big problems later on.
Basically, I should heed the advice I always give others. To quote Your Money: The Missing Manual:
Just as daily exercise and a sensible diet keep your body healthy and help you avoid costly medical bills, regular home maintenance keeps normal wear-and-tear from developing into problems, and problems from turning into emergencies.
[...]
When we bought our new house in 2004, the home inspector told us that for every dollar we spent on maintenance, we’d avoid roughly $100 in future repairs. He wrote in his inspection report, “In my experience as a professional home inspector, I have looked at hundreds of homes in all age ranges, and I have seen thousands of dollars of damage to homes that could have been avoided by spending $5 to $10 and just a few minutes of work.”
So, Kris and I are going to have some sewer work done.
Right now, we need to decide if we can afford to have the larger section replaced, or whether we’ll just go with the small patch. And if we do replace the longer section, do we tap into emergency savings to do so? I think we might.
It’s tough for me to accept that it’s not just okay, but it’s good to spend on solving small problems. It’s like self-insurance, or an investment in my future. My hope is that you can have the wisdom to learn from my mistakes. If you deal with a small problem before it becomes a big problem, you can save yourself time, money, and hassle.
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Wow, I’m impressed by the $1700 street-to-house replacement. We just bought a 1940′s house up in Portland, and one of the contingencies was that the previous owner replace the entire sewer line. I think it cost around $5k, and everyone thought that was pretty reasonable.
But yeah, sewers are not something we mess around with.
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JD, i hope you really went to the doctor!
The thing about sewers, and health issues, is that they are way more expensive to get fixed on an emergency basis – and if things seem fine Monday morning when the office is closed that doesn’t mean they’ll be fine at 10 pm on Friday when the emergency room/overtime plumber are your only option.
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We have two older properties (1928 single family and 1946 duplex, where we live), and we also get to deal with the “charm” of old plumbing and wiring.
Just to toss another variable into the mix, neither of these are candidates for our “forever” homes, although I could see hanging onto the duplex for a long time. We aren’t sure how long we’ll own the properties, so we have to try to determine whether today’s inconvenience will turn into our expensive problem, or the next owner’s expensive problem.
We keep up with issues that affect the value, safety, and integrity of the buildings, so roofing, plumbing, painting and electrical issues are more urgent than new windows and a new driveway. We already run “into the red” on the properties tax-wise because of depreciation, so tax write-offs don’t make much of a difference.
I’m pretty sure we’d get the entire pipe done, too. I’d also make sure the plumber uses a specialized subcontractor to dig out the line, instead of having a $$ plumber do it, unless you’re up to doing it yourself.
Like I said, just throwing another consideration in there!
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The only word of warning is that you can spend a lot of money preparing for emergencies that aren’t that likely.
If you spend $25 twenty times to avoid a $500 repair, you are not coming out ahead. Also, if you can push the recursive repair back a bit, you are reducing the total cost of that recursive repair. But these lessons aren’t generally needed because most people avoid simple repairs more often than not.
One example though, I bought a rug on clearance this weekend, and the sales guy tried to tell me that the rug was like sand paper on my floor, and that I needed a mat underneath. It’s scary to compare the cost of a $30 mat to the cost of replacing my flooring, but I really think there’s a small chance of it ruining my flooring. With regular checks, and maintenance, I can watch for signs of wear, and even refinish the floor if I think it’s about to do permanent damage.
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What a timely coincidence! My car’s clutch has been making an odd (but soft) noise for several weeks now. This weekend the noise got much worse, so this morning the car is in the shop. I’ve got an auto section within my emergency fund and though this section is not yet maxed out, I’m not stressing on the upcoming car repair bill… and I’ll have the confidence of knowing I won’t break down ( at least from this problem) while on the road, thus requiring a tow. Yay for emergency funds applying to averting emergencies and reducing stress!
Now… do I also use my emergency fund to replace the cell phone I killed yesterday, or do I keep using my daughter’s old beat up brick of a phone?
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Based on your $300 bill I would say you’re calling a plumber with “Rooter” in the name. Just a heads up, Apollo plumbing in Portland will clear it for a price tag closer to $60. Might drastically affect your calculus.
As for the replacement of the pipe, I would get that bid out too, but in my experience the quotes were about the same from most plumbers.
“Rooter” told me I needed to replace my line as well, for $5,000 several years ago. Had it rooted at that time and haven’t had problems since, but I called for bids on the line replacement and while they were there asked them what it would cost to clear it. Most independents came in around $60 to $80 for the service.
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Google: “Trenchless sewer drain” and “cured in place pipe”
JD, one of these technologies could save you tremendous amounts of time and money if you plan to repair/replace the entire stretch of pipe.
We bought a 1950s era home less than a year ago – and discovered late that we have tree root intrusion and a belly in the line also. In my research, I found out about the trenchless types of lines that are being installed these days. Apparently saves a bundle because there’s not a lot of excavation and backfilling involved.
And I agree with everyone else… get a second or third quote before you begin any work. Ask about the process, too. Traditional pipes (those with sections/seams) are going to be susceptible to tree root intrusion in the future… seamless pipes are much less susceptible.
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Folks, the $1700 quote is just for the “belly” section. I’m calling today to get a quote on sidewalk-to-street (which is about 30 feet in my case). I’ll also call Apollo plumbing, as Brian suggested. I’ve been using Mr. Rooter. They’re good guys, but you’re right: It’s a good idea to get multiple bids…
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I know this wasn’t the point of the article, but I just had to comment on one thing: Please don’t put drain cleaner down your toilet. It could break down the wax seal and cause a whole new plumbing problem!
That said, I’d have to agree with Brian B and recommend getting additional estimates.
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Out of curiosity how do you know they’re great guys? You’re not a plumber and it sounds like you call the same place every time. FYI, I thought the same thing as Brian when you said the price. My regular plumber charged me $60-80 depending on time etc for rooting my failing pipe. His operation was too small to do the whole line or I would have used him.
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Just a note prompted by the $100 cost of moving an adolescent maple tree … this is a great discussion on the cost of deferred maintenance, and our natural tendency to defer maintenance, but I’d invite everyone who *has* deferred maintenance to take a look through your checkbook and see what the last ten things were that you spent more than $100 (apiece) on.
If your only big payments are insurance and a mortgage, then you may be better off deferring maintenance. But if you have $100+ a month going out on travel, entertainment, or toys, car payments or cable bills or extended cell-phone plans, it’s time to think about whether putting off a $100 maintenance job – that you KNOW will save you multiples of that sum later on – is rational.
It’s exactly analogous to skipping the doctor visit because of the $50 co-pay.
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Preventative care and timely visits are especially important for dental care! I spent a miserable weekend once with a filling that had come loose and the nerve was exposed. Of course it got really bad friday night when everyone is closed for the weekend. Car emergencies tend to happen on sundays as well!
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You live in Portland, right? Number one attractant for rats in Portland (especially in SE) is broken clay sewer lines (composts of table scraps is no. 2). Rats love sewer lines. See those holes in the front lawns of old houses? Rat holes down to sewer lines.
Get it replaced before you open the toilet seat one day to find a cute little rodent staring back at you. Take my word for it.
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I had been thinking it sounded a bit expensive, but I figured that was just the difference in price between a real city and a small city. Our plumber charges $80 to do almost anything small (like unclogging drains, checking out mysterious leaks) and they charged us something like $300 to dig up and fix the gas pipes along our driveway that were doing bad things (and were not included in our home warranty), including dealing with the city for digging permits and stuff.
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I agree, replace the entire line stat. It’s going to cost more over a period of several years to replace it piecemeal plus will be a giant recurring headache. You wouldn’t advocate paying a higher final cost to finance an item over time so use your emergency fund to save money now. I had to pay $6000 to replace the sewer line to my 80+ yr old home.
Multiple bids are also a must. I have an annoying toilet line pipe repair that I don’t have time to do but shouldn’t be too hard. The first guy came in at $650 and the others at $150-250. I should have solicited more bids for the sewer line but because it was rather unsightly I just signed off on the first guy but of course found out later I had paid way too much. So never go with the first bid just because its easy or they seem trustworthy.
I also procrastinate on home repairs, and guess what, I’m making the same bathtub plumbing repair twice in 6 months now on the tenant side of the double. If I had just dealt with it then I wouldn’t now be shelling out an extra few hundred and replacing damaged sheetrock.
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I have lived in and renovated old houses for the last 30 years. One of the best things to do right away is to find a good group of professionals: plumber, mason, electrician, painter, roofer, etc. who have come highly recommended and are reasonably priced. This takes some time, but it’s worth it when you want to maintain your house and also have a team who knows you and you know them, when there are emergencies. (If you don’t have someone you know in your speed dial and have to call a new professional because of an emergency, chances are the price is going to go up.)
Just as an aside, I sold my last house 3 years ago and I’m now renting a small (old) carriage house, so maintenance isn’t my problem anymore. This sure makes my monthly expenses more predictable!
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I think crap in your bathtub constitutes and emergency. Definitely dip into you emergency fund to fix the WHOLE thing if you don’t have the money elsewhere.
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I will also add, when you’re looking for plumbers, don’t just go with the yellow pages. Try to get referrals from friends and neighbors. My regular plumber doesn’t advertise because he gets enough business just through referrals. He is fully licensed, but works out of his truck with a cell phone which keeps his costs way down.
Plumbing itself it actually a very very straightforward vocation with very simple principles. It pays well because it often involves getting covered in poop. I could likely come in and change your line, so make them explain everything they are doing, and if you don’t understand the explanation they are delivering a load of crap before they clean up yours. We would have done our own but my husband wasn’t comfortable running the line through the foundation. When he saw what the guy did he felt pretty stupid.
A number of people have said it and I can’t stress enough: THE MAJORITY OF THE PRICE OF A SEWAGE/SEPTIC LINE REPLACEMENT IS MOVING DIRT. You can move dirt, and if you don’t want to you can pay people a lot less than you’re plumber’s making to do it.
Get a quote for the job and then get a quote for the job if you do the excavation and replace the dirt. If the job for just the line is more than ~$1500 ask him why. Materials are marked up, but you’re probably looking at a 3-4 hour job (many times longer if you leave the dirt in place).
Plumbers put a lot of markup on a sewage line because most people are like you: they deal with it when it’s a problem and no one wants to put off the work for a few days while they solicit quotes. Work it into their schedule, do the heavy lifting yourself, and watch the price drop considerably.
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Plumbing and electrical are 2 things I would not attempt on my own.
Emergency funds are for emergencies- use the money.
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Oh, and this is poop, but the same principle applies as if you were buying a car: 1) do your research, 2) talk to more than one vendor, 3) negotiate. Don’t let the difference in the product mess with your head.
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@ Gretchen
With both electrical and plumbing I would suggest thinking of any project in stages. I intend to replace a furnace this year. To do that: I will shop online and find one, have it delivered, turn off all electrical and gas lines to the current one, physically move the old one out and new one in, THEN pay a licensed plumber to connect all of the lines and test the system.
I will spend a couple hours of my time and spend 1/3 compared to calling a plumber/HVAC guy and having him do everything. I won’t touch anything dangerous, and I will have a signed receipt from a licensed professional if something goes wrong.
When you’re looking at major repairs like a furnace or sewage line doing the grunt work can save you many thousands of dollars and not risk the integrity of the repair at all.
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Remind me never to buy a 100 year old house…..even if it’s “cheap”..! Just too many issues
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Nice post man..
This is true that by our human nature we have a inherent tendency to avoid seeing what is beforehand, whether its a small problem of a small solution! We tend to ignore the free advices but spend thousand of bucks on buying nuts later on…
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Do it right the first time. Frankly the cost to patch vs. the full repair should be similar.
In our case we’re looking at a $5k job, so we’re waiting.
But when we had our sewer inspected when we bought our 100 year old house 3 years ago he said they can dig one hole at the street, one at the house, and pull a new PVC line right through the old one.
In our case there is no way to get a backhoe into our backyard (15 ft above street level) so the hand digging ups the price.
Get 3 bids to replace it all. Do it right. And if you ever go to sell that’s one more plus on your side.
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Karen, the issues for a 100 year old house are just different than for a newer house – we’re never going to have to worry about mold in the walls, for sure.
I was wondering – does anyone else use Angie’s List? We have had a lot of luck getting quotes through there – usually if we call 3 or 4 professionals with A ratings there, there’s a very expensive one, a very cheap one, and two in the middle – we always choose the middle and none of them have done us wrong yet.
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Isnt that is what Duct Tape was made for? For folks like us that want to procrastinate to the rainy season.
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I would check out the companies on a site like Angie’s List before hiring anyone. For what it’s worth, I went with Mr. Rooter for a while because they were cheaper. Unfortunately, the problem I had was recurring. That’s when I found out that Roto-Rooter (which is more expensive up front) has a three-year guarantee for the kind of work I had done, while Mr. Rooter had no guarantee. So the next time the problem recurred, I went with Roto-Rooter, and they fixed it free when it recurred again within the three-year time period. (After that I spent the big bucks to have the whole system replaced.) I should add that I have no ties to any of these companies. My point is to check out the companies ahead of time, and find out what their guarantees are (and how often they honor them).
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Get 3 bids minimun with the same details, ie: Street to house with lawn back into place, etc. You’ll be surprised at how they differ & the low one is usually not the one to go with as they may have some hidden add ons to make it proper and back as it was before everything gets dug up. Your city can help with this as connecting to public sewers requires a city approvel – even for replacing a line already connected. Also check under Side Sewers in your phone book – that’s their speciality & sometimes are the ones subcontracted by the rooter plumbers as many are inside work specialists & do not dig ditches on their own. Good luck!
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Read Flushed by W. Hodding Carter
Very entertaining and informative on the subject of plumbing! And it’s short!!
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What are they replacing it with? My parents have PVC drain pipes and my father digs them up to get the roots out at least every 10 years. I spent a spring break in high school helping out with this job. It may be all anybody does these days, but it probably won’t last as long as your existing pipe did.
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Definitely repair the entire thing. If it helps to justify the expense, just remember that broken sewer pipes go both ways: They let tree roots and soils in, and they also let untreated sewage into the environment. Not someone else’s environment (whatever that is), but your own yard.
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@EscapeVelocity
Your dad should re-evaluate how he is using his pipe. If installed correctly it should be lasting much longer than 10 years.
Where is he draining to? We have a problem with PVC drainpipe that is quite old, but that is because roots have grown back into it a number of feet to get at water. They grew up from the end, not through it. An end to end enclosed system like sewage shouldn’t have problems for a very long time.
while anecdotal evidence suggests it can last 60-100 years a study commissioned by the National Association of Homebuilders and Bank of America says buried PVC piping for sprinkler systems are expected to have a life expectancy of 25 years.
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On preventative medicine….
My office is fantastic and runs some great programmes for the employees.
Being in Australia we have a bit of an issue with the sun and skin cancer, so one of the programmes run last year was a free skin cancer check. We had a skin cancer specialist come in, you made a 15 minute appointment and he checked over any areas you had concerns about.
We had 477 employees do this, and 85 of them were referred on with issues. Including myself. I ended up having two skin cancers removed from my face and head, and I have always been very sun phobic.
I am so grateful to my employers and so thankful that I took the 15 minutes to get myself checked out and saved myself a possible melanoma in the future.
I had been like you JD and actively avoided the doctor unless I was bleeding from an artery…I fully understand now the benefits of preventative medicine.
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All great stuff.
Its a fine line whether to pull the trigger on a major repair or try to wait it out.
Especially because a lot of the time, these repair people will try to talk you into repairs that aren’t really needed.
In the end, its all a crapshoot. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose
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JD–we had a $7K sewer repair in an old house about 8 years ago. It wasn’t $7k all at once, but rather a little fix here, a scope here, a patch repair at the junction of a spur line and the main line in the driveway and THEN the scope that figured out the whole darn sewer line had disintegrated about a foot in front of the city main and was dumping sewage into an impending sinkhole in front of our house. Get the whole thing fixed now. Toilet paper geysers and sewage sinkholes are no fun, and they only cost you more time and aggravation the longer you put them off.
But I agree that these sorts of things are hard to muster up the enthusiasm for. This was our first house and we had budgeted for all sorts of things but not for this kind of expense right away. We ended up borrowing the $$ from my parents. My mom lamented with me, “No one will ever come over and say; I JUST LOVE WHAT YOU DID WITH YOUR SEWER!”
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So many awesome recommendations in these comments (and I don’t even have a house!)
Second Opinions (of course)
Specific Estimates in Writing
Lein Waivers & A Vendor Lein Release
Different piping materials
Digsafe.com
Contacting the City/County for help w/ payment
JD — I know you need a well deserved break, but after that — recommended next project: GRS Home & Garden ebook — written w/ help from experts & your awesome community of commenters!!
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JD, This is about “infrastructure”. The basics need to work properly in order for the rest of life to be comfortable. Dip into the emergency fund and fix the sewer line properly.
I’m still teaching this one to my new hubby. He’s great, hard-working, and wonderful. However, he hates to spend money on things he knows he needs. His 15 year old car was dying on him regularly during his 45 minute a day commute to work. Buying a new car was the smart thing to do, but it took me months to convince him to do it, even though he had the money saved specifically for that purpose!
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Around here, $1,700 would be a good price for sewer line work, even for a short stretch. It’s expensive. As Shara and some other writers mention, a lot of the cost is paying a skilled craftsman’s rates for laborer’s work. It might be worth hiring a yard guy to do the excavation–or, if the pipe isn’t buried halfway to China, do the digging yourself.
Since eventually the entire line may have to be replaced, it could be cost-effective to do it now. A geyser in the front yard can do some serious damage to your landscape and maybe even to the house. Insurance companies cast a gimlet eye on water damage claims.
On the other hand, I sure would get at least one other opinion about it. And several bids.
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Definitely do the digging yourself; if you just can’t do that, pay someone cheap. People dig ditches for minimum wage, fixing pipes fetches (and deserves) a premium. It doesn’t make sense to pay someone $100/hr to work a shovel.
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My husband and I had a similar belly issue with our main sewer line. We had to have a trench jackhammered through the basement floor, and a hole dug in the front yard. It’s worth it to not have to worry about backups that would cost even more to clean up. I’d say tap the emergency fund and get it done in one shot. It’ll cost less in the long run then to have the plumbing company have to mobilize again.
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Angie’s List may work well in big cities where they’ve had time to build up their database, but when we tried it, we were extremely disappointed with how little we could find in our area. Even though we were part of three smallish metropolitan areas all grouped together, there was still hardly anything there, and you were lucky to see any thoughts of a specific vendor.
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Trust me when I say this as I have done plenty of these myself; REPLACE THE ENTIRE LINE! Clay pipe laid down in the 40′s or 50′s is well overdue for failure. If you only replace the suspect section, will WILL end up replacing the other sections. It may be immediate or it may come years down the road but the entire thing will have to be replaced. Do it all now and save yourself the headache.
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And don’t forget to take high resolution pictures during the process. It’s also a good point to inform the contractor that you will take pictures during the process.
More specifically, you want to take the line when it’s dug out. The first picture should pinpoint the location of the problem and take a second picture of the whole work area. Third and fourth would be the same of the job completed.
In case of doubt, take some more pictures of the joints, between the house and the main pipe, and between the main pipe and the city connection.
If something happens, you will have documents to go back to. Very useful when dealing with insurance companies and applying the insurance given by the contractor. You will also have valuable documents if the house is sold eventually.
Good luck!
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JD, You could always do it yourself. If it is simply replacing the old concrete ones with newer, perhaps plastic, piping, all you need as a shovel (or rent a machine since its a big job (100 feet)) and the new pipes. It will save you a lot of money and you will be so satisfied that you did it yourself. It doesn’t sound like there is any connection issues so no real technical issues that only qualified plumbers would know. I’ve saved thousands doing things around the house myself. Go to a builders store and look for the pipes. You might be amazed at how cheap they are. Get on-line to forums first so you know what you are looking for – correct type of pipe, thickness, material etc. The only work involved is digging, lifting old pipes, droping in new pipes. Perhaps some sealing of the joins and then covering back in the trench. That’s a basic overview and perhaps some small details omitted but a DIY forum should put you straight on that.
Good luck.
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@Irish Tom
Normally I would agree with you, but in this case I wouldn’t recommend JD do the whole job himself. The first issue is making sure the angle and connections are right. Sure he COULD do it himself, but it’s a high cost to repair after he puts the dirt back in place. The second is liability. If he hires someone licensed and bonded he has someone to appeal to other than himself if it’s wrong.
I agree that he should do as much as he can and as much as he’s comfortable with. Personally if I were in his shoes (with a currently working pipe) I would buy the materials, make a date with an independent certified plumber (a small guy who has full license and insurance but not the contacts/hardware for larger jobs), and dig out the line to be ready for the plumber. When he was there I would offer my hands as an assistant both to learn and to not pay someone else to do it.
If I were digging it by hand I would dig out most of it well before (but not so much the structure the dirt is providing is compromised), and finish it up the morning of the pipe being out. If I were using a backhoe I would rent it for the day before and let my family know there is no sewage service as soon as I hit the pipe as it will likely break when depth is reached.
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Not too long ago I replaced my entire drain line due to it being old and collapsing under ground somewhere in the front yard. I used to work in construction so I did the job myself. The drain was made from cast iron and only a 12 foot section was damaged, but I decided to replace the whole line with PVC which ran the length of the house and out to the street (water meter roughly). I’m glad I did because I sure don’t want to have to dig up any more dirt in the front yard. I also replaced the galvanized steel water line supplying the house. It ran along the drain pipe. If yours does the same, I’d recommend taking a look at it and replacing if necessary since the ground will be dug up, if doing the whole thing. Then at least all your plumbing from the street to the underside of your house will last for a long time without you having to worry any more.
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JD,
We really need the obvious followup article – a list of inexpensive, quick maintenance that saves $100 on the $1. Preferably with links to how to accomplish each item, or which ones need to be handled by a pro.
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