Sewer, part II

Sewer, part II

The whole new pipe

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.
Time to Dig

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?