Neighbors drain

[Cookie]

I got a neighbor who just got a plumer out here, one with a pretty bad name at that, to dig up his main drain. The neighbor showed me the string of roots that was clogging his main drain in his basement. Granted, this was pretty impressive.

 

[Gouranga]

So why are they digging up his entire line? I recently had the similar thing happen to me. My sewer backed up, we had a guy over to snake it out, he got ao a blockage he could not get past (and he tried!). I eventually had a guy with a camera come in and scope out the drain and he found the blockage. Now because he used the cam he could see anything that was broken. He only dug up specifically where the break was (about a 3 ft by 3 ft hole) with a backhoe pulled up the offending section, replaced it, and reburied it, simple (yeah the $$ sucked but it hurt less than a backed up sewer in a home with 4 girls). Now I am not a lawyer here but, it seems to me that there would be an easement on that part of your property already since the main sewer line (I am assuming that is what it is) is city/county property. However, far as I know the city takes care of the city property. There is a point where that line hits the cities portion and I cannot imagine the city/county engineers office being to happy about a private plumber digging up their stuff. I would like ask the plumber 1. Where is this manhole. 2. What authorization does he have to be digging up the city/county line? Depending on that answer I would contact the city/county and verify anything he says with them. If he is off on even one item (since he is already suspect) I would ask the city engineer to come in and I would tell that plumber he needs to refrain from entering your property until the city/county engineer comes in and makes an assesment. If ANY of this is going to be on your dime, I would tell him to STOP at your property line and hire a guy to do the part you are going to be paying for.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[hj]

drain

It's a good thing you are not a lawyer.
1. The sewer is in an easement, which is public property as far as access is concerned.
2. The utility normally only maintains the main central sewer, and is some cases, such as around here, the actual connection to the main is your responsibility even if it has to be replaced due to breakage.
3. If the sewer is made of one of the stoppage prone materials, it should all be replaced, even if the current problem is at just one point.
4. If the neighbor showed you a mass of roots, then that implies that the sewer is made of a poor material or is damaged.
5. All the utility will do, if they were called, would be to insure that there is plumbing permit, possibly an encroachment permit to work in the easement, and the necessary inspections. All of these will do nothing except add to the cost of the job, assuming the plumber is doing the work properly.
6. If the plumber has a bad reputation, why is the neighbor having him do the work?

 

[Terry]

I always tell my guys that's it's okay to accept the tips.

It's hard work and they deserve it when offered.

Funny thing is, one of the guys called in sick one day, so I did his work that morning.

The work was at a nice home on the lake, and it came with a nice $60 tip.

 

[hj]

Questions

1. It wouldn't have made any difference since very few house sewers are allowed to connect into a manhole.
2. The two sewers should not be connected together anywhere. If they are, then who ever has his sewer on the other person's property has to install a new proper connection.
3. No he could not have pushed the obstruction into your pipe.
4. Even if you remove the trees, the roots can still cause problems up to 25 years later, or longer.

 

[hj]

?

#6. I would think that is a valid assumption.