Sewer, part II
April 25th, 2006
Today was insane. Neither Heather nor I slept all that well, and judging from Leta’s attitude this morning, she didn’t sleep so well either. Hard to wonder why. Our street would be turned into chaos and the realities started to hit the neighbors. It was a pretty big deal to have the street dug up and the look on everybody’s face was the look that Heather and I had last week when we were told to expect the worst.
Some of our neighbors have been in the hood for almost twenty years and they haven’t had any problems. Or have had their lines cabled/bladed and all was well. The guys said that it looked like 20-30 years of no maintenance on our line. The previous owner lived here 18 years and we’ve been here 3. That’s a long damn time for no maintenance.
We found out a couple of days ago that two houses up the street (in a different block) had to do the same thing we did. We live on a hill and I would imagine that the main and the lines move over time. Based on the clay that was in the hole, it’s wouldn’t be a stretch to have enough movement to cause major pain.
I took a bunch of photos, some of which I’ve posted on flickr and can be seen as a slideshow here. And they are in wacky order, which should be rectified by the time this is published.
The photos tell most of the story.
They pulled the pipe through right as Leta went down for her nap, and the little engine they used to power the hydraulic piston that pulls the new pipe in was louder than [insert current loud band here]. Leta slept through it like a champ and woke in a mostly better mood.
They return tomorrow to patch the street and reassemble our driveway. Cost: too much. But now I can poop with impunity. And that goes a long way in this house, my friend. Plus, as many of you have suggested, it will be a selling point should we ever move.
I’ve come to the conclusion that we are extremely lucky that we didn’t have more damage in our house and that we caught it in time before it was a much bigger and costlier nightmare. Some of you have asked for specific recommendations and I can’t really do that in good conscience. I’d recommend you contact a reputable licensed plumber near you that will have specific steps you can take to properly maintain your line that are unique to your locale and age of your house.
Where’s the bourbon? o
April 27th, 2006 at 8:15 am
Comments are closed at Dooce, so here goes…I am sending a check for $20.00, hoping to start a trend. The address is on the “contact me” page of Heather’s site. We want to help!! Let us!!
Jezz
April 27th, 2006 at 4:01 pm
I can relate to not wishing to awaken the baby. Our baby is 19 and only her mother is officially allowed to wake her up. I’ve pointed out that if she ever marries and goes on a honeymoon that her mother will have to got with her wake her up.
Oddly they both think that is ok.
I don’t know how we got here but returning to your pipe problem, we had the same issue but our pipes were destroyed by apple tree roots. Ever since then I have been reluctant to eat an apple.
I know this has been an enormous financial burden for you and you’ve got my sympathy. I know it will be problematic when your neighbors are showing off their new BMW and your only response will be “So? I’ve got that much money just in my 4″ PVC sewer pipe!
Want to check it out?”
They did install PVC pipe didn’t they?
April 27th, 2006 at 4:46 pm
Mike, the new pipe is better than PVC, it’s HDPE (High Density Polythylene). Read about HDPE here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_density_polyethylene
April 29th, 2006 at 4:20 pm
Dude, acting on your advice, we called out a plumber to our house last week, because we read this and we were properly afeared of the fisting that awaited us if we didn’t blade the line. We asked plumber guy to blade our line & he REFUSED! Apparently they won’t do it until all your drains are backing up. (Isn’t that already too late?)
May 1st, 2006 at 8:58 am
I had the same problem a couple of years ago (though my pictures are not as pretty). http://www.udink.org/pictures/02032004/
Anyway, my homeowner’s insurance is through MetLife, and they covered almost 95% of the costs associated with replacing the line. It was strange, but they said they’d cover the excavation and rehabilitation of the yard, but not the actual sewer line. So I ended up paying about $600 for the pipe and labor for installing the pipe, and they paid the rest of the nearly $10,000 tab. It was quite a production, with all the neighbors curious and milling around, several of whom were hoping this was a city problem and hoped they could also get their lines replaced.
May 1st, 2006 at 5:31 pm
I liked the cookie sandwich–quite a bit, in fact–but I think that a project like this calls for a dedicated cocktail. Perhaps one with Kahlua?
May 3rd, 2006 at 4:12 pm
I’m wondering….did the sewer guys look at you weird as you took all these pics? They are very cool and artsy and make a yucky situation…..interesting.
May 3rd, 2006 at 11:55 pm
On the Ellen show right now on Oxygen, they have a plumber teaching you how to fix little household issues that would normally cost a crap load if you called a plumber.
Too bad this didn’t air earlier, because now their digging a hold near the front row and are going to show you how to blade and de-root your sewer lines with a toothbrush and a small wrench.
Damn the timing.