Jet line cleaning of my septic drain lines

[WilburMcG]

My septic tank is in my back yard and a sewage pump pumps it to my drain field in the upper yard. Recently I developed a leak where sewer water began slowly bubbling up near my drain field. A septic company came, found my junction box right at the source of the leak, and said the drainage lines that lead from my junction box into my individual drain lines have become clogged with tree roots and debris over the course of the 30 years.

They said they would bring a high pressure water jet hose to unclog them, and they did that work today. They arrived in a truck with a large tank and long spool of hose and spent an hour doing it. My bill was for $2200 which seems crazy expensive for 1 hour of work, call it 2 hours if you include their travel time to my house. I realize the pressure system they use might be somewhat specialized but it isn't that dang special.

Does this sound like a reasonable cost or did I just get fleeced?

 

[Reach4]

They said they would bring a high pressure water jet hose to unclog them, and they did that work today. They arrived in a truck with a large tank and long spool of hose and spent an hour doing it. My bill was for $2200 which seems crazy expensive for 1 hour of work, call it 2 hours if you include their travel time to my house. I realize the pressure system they use might be somewhat specialized but it isn't that dang special.

If it does the job, it sounds cheap to me.

Did they take 1/2 hour and diagnose that over the phone, or come out a time or two? How much was the diagnosis before the jetting?

Does this sound like a reasonable cost or did I just get fleeced?

Sound more than reasonable to me. It's not a high volume business, so the insurance and equipment makes it more expensive. How reasonable is the money you get compared to what it costs you to do your function? I am not a pro. I think that getting my septic pumped is cheap, but that is a high-volume function -- no pun intended.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[WilburMcG]

I just called a few other septic companies as I may need competing estimates to prove this fee is too high. One company said it would be $300 to have the pump truck there to pump out whatever sewage was generated during cleaning and $400 - $500 for the jet cleaning fee depending upon how bad it was clogged and the time it took to unclean it. That sounds a lot more reasonable.