Early yesterday we got an early Christmas present from the "You're A Homeowner And Haven't Spent Enough Money Recently" fairy

I went down into the basement and slipped on the concrete floor. I didn't fall (good) but did have the presence of mind to ask myself the question, "I wonder why my concrete floor is so slippery all the sudden?" Lo and behold water here, water there, water all the way to the carpet in the finished part of the basement. I suppose I should thank my lucky stars that It was just puddles and remainders instead of inches, but still. Looks like the basement floor drain overflowed, so YAY.

So I call the 24/7 rescue plumbers and get the only one that was answering their phone to actually come out and snake out the pipe. The previous owners had had this done every few years, and since the video inspection we had done when we were buying the house looked really clean, we figured we were golden until the end of 2020. After verifying that yes indeed it was backing (with wet/dry shop vac on standby) he went in. Cut to 45 minutes later and he has retrieved a nice big root ball from the pipe. He tries one more run, but says he can't do any more because there is a serious blockage.

Cut to this morning, the master plumber comes out with his borescope. Baaad juju. Using all the tricks and tech he has, he sees the one blockage, but also determines that there is another blockage...a big...bad...blockage about 8 ft from the junction with the city sewer, 11 feet down. Yeah, that's under the street. Oh, and the earliest that job can get done is Tuesday, what with permits and all. Soooo, now we get to have a temporary septic pit dug (in all the landscaping I did this summer) to last us until Tuesday. Than, they will dig up the street and HOPEFULLY repair the one big other problem, put in some 4" cleanout standpipes, and put in a new cleanout in the basement since the plug is being held in place by one thread and plumbers putty. All to the tune of $20,000.

Olde House Problems.

I've dealt with these folks before and trust them. They are on the expensive side, but they answered the phone when none of the other "Emergency 24/7" outfits did, so they earned the business.

BTW, anyone know what the going rate for selling a high mileage, clean running, American made kidney is? Just exploring options.

Merry Christmas to us! But again, it beats a fully flooded house and our gym has showers and toilets. LOL

P.S. Get one of those basement water alarms to go by your drain or sump. Really. I was thinking about it, but I probably should have thought harder. Or, maybe bought one. Yeah, that would have been good.

Dang, I feel your pain. Maybe not kidney severe though.

I have a house built in 1945. We had some plumbing problems, they ran a snake, and the verdict was "damn". Line collapsed, right at the edge of the property. My side, of course. Well dang, maybe that's why there was a patch of green grass there when the rest of the yard is a desert (literally - Carlsbad NM).

Where they needed to dig, they did a locate. Sewer, water, gas, all in the same area, so no digging. It all had to be hydro-vac'ed.

I think I got off easy at about $6K.

quote:

Originally posted by Otto Pilot:...
BTW, anyone know what the going rate for selling a high mileage, clean running, American made kidney is? Just exploring options. ...

I know a guy in Vegas...

But, you have to supply your own bathtub, the ice and pay for the hooker and drinks.

I feel your pain.
At the municipal utility that I worked for, everything past the curb line was our responsibility, not the homeowners. The section on your property was your problem.

quote:

Originally posted by rtquig:
I feel your pain.
At the municipal utility that I worked for, everything past the curb line was our responsibility, not the homeowners. The section on your property was your problem.

Interesting rtquig. I am going to have to look hard at our regs because that would save us a ton of money if the boundary is the street and not the sewer itself.

Edited to add: Ah well it was a good idea and a great hope, but in our neck of the woods, I am, in fact, responsible all the way out to the main sewer pipe in the street.

Darn. I hoped you get the town to do their side. 11ft. Is an expensive job. Trench box, bigger back how, possibly dewatering. Good luck to you.

Thinking the right-of-way would be the point of demarcation. Usually measured from the centerline of the roadway.

.38supersig, I had to dig through code and regs for both the city and the county since we are in an unincorporated part of the metro. In both cases, we as the homeowner are responsible all the way out to the actual main sewer line, which in our case is unfortunately biased towards the other side of the street.

rtquig, yep, that is one of the real problems. Besides being responsible for digging the street, we also have to repair it. And yes, the trench box and all the associated mess is really driving the cost up.

Ah well, that gold brick was just collecting dust in the bank vault anyway.

A village near me is intending to tear up their main street (which is also a state Hwy) this summer to replace every utility under there in one fell swoop. Some of the system has to be well over 100 years old. They've been "intending" to do this for about a decade, but they may actually go through with it this year.

I can only hope that every last landowner along there replaces their own systems at the same time as the main system.

I'm sure it's a forlorn hope, and about three weeks after the new road is finally open, somebody's going to be tearing it up again to fix something that "looked fine" when the whole thing was wide open and easily accessible.

When we had to call out the police for road closer/traffic control, they received $750 per day each. Not everyone requires the police to do traffic control.

quote:

Originally posted by rtquig:
I feel your pain.
At the municipal utility that I worked for, everything past the curb line was our responsibility, not the homeowners. The section on your property was your problem.

Wish I could live there. Where I live, the homeowner is responsible for the sewer line all the way out into the street including the tap.

It was to keep the integrity of our lines. I have seen some bad taps to the point were we had to call out an emergency crew to replace the main with a bad tap.

Well, in that respect, we will have to have an inspector out to verify all the work before it can be reburied.

Sorry to hear of your pipe issue. I hope it turns out to be less expensive than expected.

Appreciate it, but we have a contract now to do the work. It's a big financial hit, but we can absorb it, albeit painfully.

quote:

Originally posted by Otto Pilot:
.38supersig, I had to dig through code and regs for both the city and the county since we are in an unincorporated part of the metro. In both cases, we as the homeowner are responsible all the way out to the actual main sewer line, which in our case is unfortunately biased towards the other side of the street.

rtquig, yep, that is one of the real problems. Besides being responsible for digging the street, we also have to repair it. And yes, the trench box and all the associated mess is really driving the cost up.

Ah well, that gold brick was just collecting dust in the bank vault anyway.

Physically go to your cities Public Works department, because honestly, I don't think any city would allow a home owner to hire any public company to dig 11 feet underneath a city/county street. Everything I've always heard and read is that you are responsible to the edge of your property line and everything else is the cities responsibility including the easement. Think about it, if it was your water supply, you're responsible to the meter, which should be right next to your property line. Anyways, I'm willing to bet if you go there and talk to them nicely, they'll replace it for you.

One interesting bit of trivia that I just found out today. I was talking to our neighbor and she said that about a week ago she thinks the wastewater district was doing something to clean the sewers. she saw a truck out in the street with some hoses down the manhole. She said there was a loud thumping and vibrating emanating from all their plumbing. I have to wonder if whatever they were doing may have collapsed some of our system. Even if it did, there is likely nothing we can do, but still...

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:

Physically go to your cities Public Works department, because honestly, I don't think any city would allow a home owner to hire any public company to dig 11 feet underneath a city/county street. Everything I've always heard and read is that you are responsible to the edge of your property line and everything else is the cities responsibility including the easement. Think about it, if it was your water supply, you're responsible to the meter, which should be right next to your property line. Anyways, I'm willing to bet if you go there and talk to them nicely, they'll replace it for you.

It's a nice thought jimmy, but city and county ordinance both state very plainly that the line from the house to the sewer is homeowner responsibility. We just get the extra joy of having to pull a permit to tear up and repair the street to fix our sewer line.

I am going to make some calls tomorrow regarding the cleaning that the wastewater district was doing as mentioned above, but I doubt I can get them for any liability.

That pumper truck probably caused the problem.
That happened in my fifty year old subdivision.
Poor neighbor three doors down on low side of street wound up with three feet of sewage in her basement.
She sewed ,won,and they had to tare out all her basement sheet rock and re build,pay for furniture and hotel bills to boot.
Servpro was there for days.

quote:

Originally posted by Otto Pilot:
One interesting bit of trivia that I just found out today. I was talking to our neighbor and she said that about a week ago she thinks the wastewater district was doing something to clean the sewers. she saw a truck out in the street with some hoses down the manhole. She said there was a loud thumping and vibrating emanating from all their plumbing. I have to wonder if whatever they were doing may have collapsed some of our system. Even if it did, there is likely nothing we can do, but still...

Sure you can do something. I’d notify local media if the city doesn’t want to pay for it.

You can’t chalk this one up to coincidence.