[OT] plumbing grumbles

A couple of weeks ago, my sewer starting clogging up noticeably. At
first, the only symptom was that, when I took a shower, the water
would accumulate in the tub and take a few extra minutes to drain out.
This soon turned into taking a couple of hours to drain. Then, the
toilet started causing sewage to show up in the tub if I flushed the
toilet while the tub was draining. I tried to clean the drains
myself, using a "plumber's snake", but to no avail. I finally had to
call in a professional plumber. $1800 later, my drains are finally
working correctly again. The problem turned out to be that, when my
house was converted over from septic tank to city sewer, 17 years ago,
the sewer line was put in with too gradual a slope. This means that I
may have such problems again in a few years, but I had the plumber
make a couple of changes to the system that will hopefully make it
easier for me to clean it out myself without having to call in a
professional.

I have enough money in the bank to cover the cost of the repairs, but
I will have to change some of my plans. Never having had such a
problem before, I had anticipated a bill on the order of $300 or so,
not $1800. Ouch.

--
John F. Eldredge --
PGP key available from http://pgp.mit.edu
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better
than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria

Ack, that sucks :-( I'm sorry it turned out to be so expensive,
hopefully you don't have to change your plans too much. Purrs,
--
Britta
"There is no snooze button on a cat who wants breakfast." -- Unknown
Check out pictures of Vino at:
http://photos.yahoo.com/badwilson click on the Vino album




John F. Eldredge wrote:
A couple of weeks ago, my sewer starting clogging up noticeably. At
first, the only symptom was that, when I took a shower, the water
would accumulate in the tub and take a few extra minutes to drain
out.
This soon turned into taking a couple of hours to drain. Then, the
toilet started causing sewage to show up in the tub if I flushed the
toilet while the tub was draining. I tried to clean the drains
myself, using a "plumber's snake", but to no avail. I finally had
to
call in a professional plumber. $1800 later, my drains are finally
working correctly again. The problem turned out to be that, when my
house was converted over from septic tank to city sewer, 17 years
ago,
the sewer line was put in with too gradual a slope. This means that
I
may have such problems again in a few years, but I had the plumber
make a couple of changes to the system that will hopefully make it
easier for me to clean it out myself without having to call in a
professional.

I have enough money in the bank to cover the cost of the repairs,
but
I will have to change some of my plans. Never having had such a
problem before, I had anticipated a bill on the order of $300 or so,
not $1800. Ouch.

Strangely enough, not being a plumber nor even a handy-around-house male, I
can completely understand what you went through and sympathize! A few months
ago, my son & his family, who live in a 1898-vintage 2-story house about a
mile from me, had your identical sewage/drainage going on - but in their
basement laundry room sinks, not in their bathroom (which is on top floor)
and as water doesn't flow uphill, were spared your ordeal! BUT: they rent,
and landlord had a series of plumbers coming for *over a week* with
progressively larger snakes to clear the blockage...I was babysitting my
granddaughter the day the last big truck came and success finally occurred:
you should have *seen* the size of that motor-driven snake, plus all the
digging in the back yard! I didn't even know snakes came that big; that's
what it took pressure-wise to clear the pipes! We were just grateful my son
didn't have to pay for it all -
a small benefit of renting from an A-1 landlord; it was much more than
$1800. But as you-know-who used to say, I feel your pain, John....


"badwilson" wrote in message
...
Ack, that sucks :-( I'm sorry it turned out to be so expensive,
hopefully you don't have to change your plans too much. Purrs,
--
Britta
"There is no snooze button on a cat who wants breakfast." -- Unknown
Check out pictures of Vino at:
http://photos.yahoo.com/badwilson click on the Vino album




John F. Eldredge wrote:
A couple of weeks ago, my sewer starting clogging up noticeably. At
first, the only symptom was that, when I took a shower, the water
would accumulate in the tub and take a few extra minutes to drain
out.
This soon turned into taking a couple of hours to drain. Then, the
toilet started causing sewage to show up in the tub if I flushed the
toilet while the tub was draining. I tried to clean the drains
myself, using a "plumber's snake", but to no avail. I finally had
to
call in a professional plumber. $1800 later, my drains are finally
working correctly again. The problem turned out to be that, when my
house was converted over from septic tank to city sewer, 17 years
ago,
the sewer line was put in with too gradual a slope. This means that
I
may have such problems again in a few years, but I had the plumber
make a couple of changes to the system that will hopefully make it
easier for me to clean it out myself without having to call in a
professional.

I have enough money in the bank to cover the cost of the repairs,
but
I will have to change some of my plans. Never having had such a
problem before, I had anticipated a bill on the order of $300 or so,
not $1800. Ouch.

"John F. Eldredge" wrote in message
...
A couple of weeks ago, my sewer starting clogging up noticeably. At
first, the only symptom was that, when I took a shower, the water
would accumulate in the tub and take a few extra minutes to drain out.
This soon turned into taking a couple of hours to drain. Then, the
toilet started causing sewage to show up in the tub if I flushed the
toilet while the tub was draining. I tried to clean the drains
myself, using a "plumber's snake", but to no avail. I finally had to
call in a professional plumber. $1800 later, my drains are finally
working correctly again. The problem turned out to be that, when my
house was converted over from septic tank to city sewer, 17 years ago,
the sewer line was put in with too gradual a slope. This means that I
may have such problems again in a few years, but I had the plumber
make a couple of changes to the system that will hopefully make it
easier for me to clean it out myself without having to call in a
professional.

I have enough money in the bank to cover the cost of the repairs, but
I will have to change some of my plans. Never having had such a
problem before, I had anticipated a bill on the order of $300 or so,
not $1800. Ouch.

--
John F. Eldredge --
PGP key available from http://pgp.mit.edu
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better
than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria

Ouch, indeed! I hope the changes take care of the problem.

--
Joy

**Don't believe everything you think**

John F. Eldredge wrote:
I will have to change some of my plans. Never having had such a
problem before, I had anticipated a bill on the order of $300 or so,
not $1800. Ouch.

Holy cow! That's a big ouch.

--
Victor M. Martinez
Owned and operated by the Fantastic Seven (TM)
Send your spam he
Email me he

"John F. Eldredge" wrote in message
...
A couple of weeks ago, my sewer starting clogging up noticeably. At
first, the only symptom was that, when I took a shower, the water
would accumulate in the tub and take a few extra minutes to drain out.
This soon turned into taking a couple of hours to drain. Then, the
toilet started causing sewage to show up in the tub if I flushed the
toilet while the tub was draining. I tried to clean the drains
myself, using a "plumber's snake", but to no avail. I finally had to
call in a professional plumber. $1800 later, my drains are finally
working correctly again. The problem turned out to be that, when my
house was converted over from septic tank to city sewer, 17 years ago,
the sewer line was put in with too gradual a slope. This means that I
may have such problems again in a few years, but I had the plumber
make a couple of changes to the system that will hopefully make it
easier for me to clean it out myself without having to call in a
professional.

I have enough money in the bank to cover the cost of the repairs, but
I will have to change some of my plans. Never having had such a
problem before, I had anticipated a bill on the order of $300 or so,
not $1800. Ouch.

Ouch is right.

When we first bought our house, one week after we moved in, it had been
raining heavily that whole week. My husband let the water out of the tub
upstairs and it caused the toilet to overflow (with sewerage from the
pipes). The whole first floor was flooded and we found out that: 1)
Homeowner's insurance would not cover an collateral damage (carpets,
sheetrock, etc.) only the pipes that (may have) burst, 2) Home warranty
coverage would only cover anything contained within the radius of the
foundation of the house (we found out the problem was with the pipe going to
the public sewerage system), 3) The inspector couldn't be held liable
because the pipes were working during the inspection, 4) The sellers
couldn't be held liable for not telling us about the (ongoing) problem of
the clogged pipes. It turned out that the pipe going from the house to the
public system had become broken and clogged with tree roots. The plumber
had to dig up the entire pipe running through our back yard and replace it.
He was a fellow coon-@$$, also displaced to Houston from New Orleans, so he
gave us a *HUGE* break by doing it himself on his own time rather than
through his plumbing company and it *ONLY* cost us around $5,000.

Whenever you have plumbing problems you're looking at a substantial cash
outlay - and there's not a darn thing you can do about it except pay it
(unless you own an outhouse!).

Purrs that your pipes will continue to remain clog-free!

Hugs,

CatNipped


--
John F. Eldredge --
PGP key available from http://pgp.mit.edu
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better
than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria

John F. Eldredge wrote:
I have enough money in the bank to cover the cost of the repairs, but
I will have to change some of my plans. Never having had such a
problem before, I had anticipated a bill on the order of $300 or so,
not $1800. Ouch.

Glad to hear everything's alright now, but sorry about the expense.
Purrs for your bank account!

--
Marina, Frank and Miranda. In loving memory of Nikki.
marina (dot) kurten (at) pp (dot) inet (dot) fi
Pics at http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/frankiennikki/
and http://community.webshots.com/user/frankiennikki

Sorry to hear about your plumbing problems. Glad it was resolved.
My mother also had a plumbing problem recently. The underground
water pipe leaked. The plumbers charged over $1000 Cdn.
I wonder whether her home insurance will cover it. But then
they may raise her premiums once she file a claim.

Winnie

"CatNipped" wrote in message
...
"John F. Eldredge" wrote in message
...
A couple of weeks ago, my sewer starting clogging up noticeably. At
first, the only symptom was that, when I took a shower, the water
would accumulate in the tub and take a few extra minutes to drain out.
This soon turned into taking a couple of hours to drain. Then, the
toilet started causing sewage to show up in the tub if I flushed the
toilet while the tub was draining. I tried to clean the drains
myself, using a "plumber's snake", but to no avail. I finally had to
call in a professional plumber. $1800 later, my drains are finally
working correctly again. The problem turned out to be that, when my
house was converted over from septic tank to city sewer, 17 years ago,
the sewer line was put in with too gradual a slope. This means that I
may have such problems again in a few years, but I had the plumber
make a couple of changes to the system that will hopefully make it
easier for me to clean it out myself without having to call in a
professional.

I have enough money in the bank to cover the cost of the repairs, but
I will have to change some of my plans. Never having had such a
problem before, I had anticipated a bill on the order of $300 or so,
not $1800. Ouch.

Ouch is right.

When we first bought our house, one week after we moved in, it had been
raining heavily that whole week. My husband let the water out of the tub
upstairs and it caused the toilet to overflow (with sewerage from the
pipes). The whole first floor was flooded and we found out that: 1)
Homeowner's insurance would not cover an collateral damage (carpets,
sheetrock, etc.) only the pipes that (may have) burst, 2) Home warranty
coverage would only cover anything contained within the radius of the
foundation of the house (we found out the problem was with the pipe going
to the public sewerage system), 3) The inspector couldn't be held liable
because the pipes were working during the inspection, 4) The sellers
couldn't be held liable for not telling us about the (ongoing) problem of
the clogged pipes. It turned out that the pipe going from the house to
the public system had become broken and clogged with tree roots. The
plumber had to dig up the entire pipe running through our back yard and
replace it. He was a fellow coon-@$$, also displaced to Houston from New
Orleans, so he gave us a *HUGE* break by doing it himself on his own time
rather than through his plumbing company and it *ONLY* cost us around
$5,000.

Whenever you have plumbing problems you're looking at a substantial cash
outlay - and there's not a darn thing you can do about it except pay it
(unless you own an outhouse!).

Purrs that your pipes will continue to remain clog-free!

Hugs,

CatNipped


--
John F. Eldredge --
PGP key available from http://pgp.mit.edu
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better
than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria

"W. Leong" wrote in message
...
Sorry to hear about your plumbing problems. Glad it was resolved.
My mother also had a plumbing problem recently. The underground
water pipe leaked. The plumbers charged over $1000 Cdn.
I wonder whether her home insurance will cover it. But then
they may raise her premiums once she file a claim.

My home-owner's insurance didn't cover it.

Hugs,

CatNipped

Winnie

"CatNipped" wrote in message
...
"John F. Eldredge" wrote in message
...
A couple of weeks ago, my sewer starting clogging up noticeably. At
first, the only symptom was that, when I took a shower, the water
would accumulate in the tub and take a few extra minutes to drain out.
This soon turned into taking a couple of hours to drain. Then, the
toilet started causing sewage to show up in the tub if I flushed the
toilet while the tub was draining. I tried to clean the drains
myself, using a "plumber's snake", but to no avail. I finally had to
call in a professional plumber. $1800 later, my drains are finally
working correctly again. The problem turned out to be that, when my
house was converted over from septic tank to city sewer, 17 years ago,
the sewer line was put in with too gradual a slope. This means that I
may have such problems again in a few years, but I had the plumber
make a couple of changes to the system that will hopefully make it
easier for me to clean it out myself without having to call in a
professional.

I have enough money in the bank to cover the cost of the repairs, but
I will have to change some of my plans. Never having had such a
problem before, I had anticipated a bill on the order of $300 or so,
not $1800. Ouch.

Ouch is right.

When we first bought our house, one week after we moved in, it had been
raining heavily that whole week. My husband let the water out of the tub
upstairs and it caused the toilet to overflow (with sewerage from the
pipes). The whole first floor was flooded and we found out that: 1)
Homeowner's insurance would not cover an collateral damage (carpets,
sheetrock, etc.) only the pipes that (may have) burst, 2) Home warranty
coverage would only cover anything contained within the radius of the
foundation of the house (we found out the problem was with the pipe going
to the public sewerage system), 3) The inspector couldn't be held liable
because the pipes were working during the inspection, 4) The sellers
couldn't be held liable for not telling us about the (ongoing) problem of
the clogged pipes. It turned out that the pipe going from the house to
the public system had become broken and clogged with tree roots. The
plumber had to dig up the entire pipe running through our back yard and
replace it. He was a fellow coon-@$$, also displaced to Houston from New
Orleans, so he gave us a *HUGE* break by doing it himself on his own time
rather than through his plumbing company and it *ONLY* cost us around
$5,000.

Whenever you have plumbing problems you're looking at a substantial cash
outlay - and there's not a darn thing you can do about it except pay it
(unless you own an outhouse!).

Purrs that your pipes will continue to remain clog-free!

Hugs,

CatNipped


--
John F. Eldredge --
PGP key available from http://pgp.mit.edu
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better
than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria

That's horribly expensive!
Purrs and hugs,
--
Polonca & Soncek

"John F. Eldredge" wrote in message
...
A couple of weeks ago, my sewer starting clogging up noticeably. At
first, the only symptom was that, when I took a shower, the water
would accumulate in the tub and take a few extra minutes to drain out.
This soon turned into taking a couple of hours to drain. Then, the
toilet started causing sewage to show up in the tub if I flushed the
toilet while the tub was draining. I tried to clean the drains
myself, using a "plumber's snake", but to no avail. I finally had to
call in a professional plumber. $1800 later, my drains are finally
working correctly again. The problem turned out to be that, when my
house was converted over from septic tank to city sewer, 17 years ago,
the sewer line was put in with too gradual a slope. This means that I
may have such problems again in a few years, but I had the plumber
make a couple of changes to the system that will hopefully make it
easier for me to clean it out myself without having to call in a
professional.

I have enough money in the bank to cover the cost of the repairs, but
I will have to change some of my plans. Never having had such a
problem before, I had anticipated a bill on the order of $300 or so,
not $1800. Ouch.

--
John F. Eldredge --
PGP key available from http://pgp.mit.edu
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better
than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria