Drain Line Repair in Crawlspace - am I being over quoted?

[KiLorraine]

Hi there!
First off - thank you for reading this. I've been searching everywhere online to find information on pricing small drain line repairs, and this forum was exactly what I was looking for. I very much appreciate anyone taking the time to reply.

I have a tub and bathroom sink that are not draining. Our house is on an accessible crawlspace, and we've narrowed the problem down to a T intersection and short pipe leading to toilet (toilet is working normally). I was quoted $2700.00 to replace the drain line and tub trap and replace it with PVC. I've included a photo - there's probably 6 ft total of pipe. This sounded extremely high, so I got a second opinion over the phone from a friend of a neighbor. They quoted $1,500-$1,800, and said that the first plumber quoted it high, because I was a girl.

Reading through the forum posts and projects, I think $1,500-$1,800 sounds too high, as well. (I just finished texting a friend's dad in another state, and he said half that was probably closer to a fair price)

I'm trying to determine what my question is. Probably - which ballpark estimate is the one that sounds most like the project I'm describing? I'm not a plumbing expert, so I don't want to self troubleshoot - but comparing our project with others on the forum, it seems more like a minor repair vs. a replacement. Any thoughts?

Thank you so much for reading!

 

[Terry]

That seems high for replacing the horizontals for lav and tub. It's a pretty simple job with very little material.
I would contact a few local plumbers, sending them pictures so that they don't waste a trip out. It looks like someone has replaced some pipes already in the background. Nobody really likes doing work in crawlspaces, but yes, that does seem high.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Plumber69]

I'd charge 600 to change most of it. That's if the tub waste over didn't break when cutting the pipe. If it did and I had to replace that to. Then maybe another 2 or 3 hundred on top of that.

 

[hj]

WHY are you even considering changing it? You might just need a better plumber with the proper drain cleaning tool.

 

[MACPLUMB]

see the tee with the pipe plug Plumber/Drainman pulls that out and runs short snake though to main sewer

 

[FullySprinklered]

600-800 dollars. I'd explore breaking into those unions to see what's really the problem. Ideally, I'd get rid of all the old iron if it's not in good shape after the autopsy. The drum trap needs to go, for sure. In other words, you may get by just replacing the connections under the tub and under the sink plus a little pipe to reconnect to the good parts if any. Some decisions would have to be made after the tear-down starts, more than likely. Or, I could go the 1800 dollar route and do whatever. Or, I could go the 2700 dollar route, send someone else to do the job while I'm out on the lake fishing.

 

[Dj2]

It would be wise to replace the corroded pipe once and for all (as was done in the past to the pipe in the background). Avoid future leaks that will stink your house in the wrong time.

Now the only question is "how much?". Get three additional estimates and move on to step two: choose your plumber.

 

[Plumber69]

I'd change all the steel pipe. From my experience steel pipe is usually plugged solid. And from the bad picture it looks like they are draining against each other. I just changed a setup like this last week to abs. Customer said he almost got sucked down the drain because it drained so fast. Of course he was joking about being sucked down

 

[Reach4]

Does that drum trap have a lid on the bottom? I wonder if emptying that and putting on a new lid would hold that for another 20 years.

https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/cleaning-out-a-drum-trap.19342/ is one of the threads that has discussed getting the lid off of a drum trap.

Of course a new self-cleaning trap and PVC pipes replacing galvanized would be quick low maintenance solution. I am not a plumber.


I presume you have already pulled the actuator rod from the overflow in the tub to clean off hair.