Sewer line collapsed

[kcflhrc]

Well, we have lived at our new to us place for 1 year now. Seems as though the troubles will never end, always something. Had a sewer back up into the basement shower. Had a guy come out and clean it out and ran his camera through it. About 10 feet out from the house under our nice concrete patio the PVC had collapsed. These idiots prior to me put a piece of thin wall PVC under the slab. Over the years it appears the weight of the slab and the earth pushing it up caused the collapse. Should have never been thin wall in the first place. So he charged me $1000 to cut up about 15' of concrete, remove the concrete and replace the collapsed part with schedule 40 pvc. Seemed like a lot especially since I helped a lot with the concrete removal and pipe installation. But I agreed to the price before we started in so there you have it. I didn't have to help but I wanted to get it done. Took us about 4 hours. Anyway, my frustration with this place continues. I love living here but it just always seems there is another disaster right around the corner. Everything I have fixed here is because someone took a stupid short cut and half assed it to get by. Electrical, plumbing, you name it. It really doesn't take that much more time to do it right. Anyway, the Royals play Game 1 tonight and I will rest a little more easy knowing we did it right. GO ROYALS

 

[Rock knocker]

That a ****** deal

 

[dave1949]

Ouch. Some of those masonry saws aren't cheap to own or run. That may be a reason for the cost.

Those concrete paver stones are good for a situation like that. The nice ones aren't cheap but you only have to buy them once. You can take them up, do your fix, then relay them. Takes a little messing around to get them even with the adjacent pavers but not too bad. An 8" x 8" hand tamper works well enough for compacting small spaces.

 

[dodge man]

If he was using his equipment, that's not that bad of a price.

 

[Gary Fowler]

In my previous home, my sewer line was stopping up about once per year and required roto rooting out. Finally I got a guy to check it and the line had collapsed under the house PLUS what was causing the stoppage initially was that someone (almost certainly the electric installer) ditchwitched across my sewer pipe cutting a hole in the top. Rather than cut and repair with new pipe and couplings, they laid an oil can that they had split in half over the pipe and back filled it. Roots would grow thru the area around the cut and stop up the pipe.
Foundation settlement due to lack of compaction of the base caused the other pipe to crush. Once I got all that fixed, no more sewer problems.
I did find that the original builder also didn't insulate one of the walls in my master bedroom/bathroom when I had the exterior siding replaced. The entire south wall was not insulated which consisted of one wall of the master bath and the interior of a walk in closet. Same guys that walled over the return air vent for the AC which I discovered when I upgraded that system also.

Old houses, especially tract homes that have little to no inspection have all kinds of issues that may or may not surface.

Another home builder cut my 220v power line to the meter when he installed power to a new house next door. This happened while I was out of the country and house was vacant for several months. 75 feet of cable x 3= $2500 est. to repair from another contractor. Power company came out, found the problem, put me in a temporary line to get me back running but I had to convince the new construction company that they did the damage and then get them to come run a new line then coordinate them with the power company to hook it up to the meter (what a nightmare)

 

[kcflhrc]

If he was using his equipment, that's not that bad of a price.

Yes, all his own equipment. Concrete saw, jack hammer, PVC and couplings. I was glad he was there. All I had to do was put the concrete back in after the job was done.

 

[ultrarunner]

City passed a law that any sewer line 10 or more years old must be inspected/re-certified upon sale.

99% of the work is trench-less... a cable pulls a new seamless heat fused pipe trough the old existing pipe...

I had 90' pulled under the driveway and under my shop which was built 20 years after the home was built... cost 3k with inspection and certificate.

 

[kcflhrc]

I think the problem is when this place was built in 1970 there were very few codes or inspections out in the county. We had the septic inspected and pumped before we bought it but I guess this problem wasn't bad enough at the time to show up. Really all they did was pump it out and had me flush all the toilets and run faucets and check for flow. I'll know better next time, if there is a next time.

 

[kenmac]

Pumping and inspecting the tank wouldn't have reviled a collapsed sewer line. This is a job for the camera. Good sewer cams aren't cheap

 

[Loadstar]

In my previous home, my sewer line was stopping up about once per year and required roto rooting out. Finally I got a guy to check it and the line had collapsed under the house PLUS what was causing the stoppage initially was that someone (almost certainly the electric installer) ditchwitched across my sewer pipe cutting a hole in the top. Rather than cut and repair with new pipe and couplings, they laid an oil can that they had split in half over the pipe and back filled it. Roots would grow thru the area around the cut and stop up the pipe.

See that on sewer lines near the house. Usually it was intentionally done for a cleanout at one time or another.