Plumbing story of the day: Drain Cleaners

[Terry]

Plumbing story of the day:
Property management company called and wanted a price on unstopping a drain over the phone. As usual I told them we can'r/won't give prices over the phone without doing a diagnosis 1st.
They pitched a fit and said their "normal plumber" charges $150 to unclog the main drain.
I told them to call their normal plumber. They call ed back later in the day and setup service. I go out and do a diagnostic and question the property manager. They have had the same company come out 5 times in 1 year to unclog the main drain. Last time they came out they said they needed to do a jetting (typically a high ticket job) since their 75 foot snake couldn't unstop the line. Well I went out and found a full lift station (kinda like a septic tank, but with pumps) that was slap full with both circuit breakers tripped. Turned the breakers on and manually operated the pumps to partially pump the tank down. Found a nice fat scum line on the tank just under the man holes. This means the tank had been over filled for a long time.

So basically their cheepo "plumber" had been going out and cabling the line that drains into the tank and charging them everytime even though it wasn't fixing the problem. So let's see. That's $150 times 5 visits. So that's $750 over about a year plus the cost of their employees time dealing with the service call to NOT FIX THE PROBLEM.

Yeah, I guess I just can't compete with that other plumbers pricing. I wonder how I will ever manage to stay in business lol.

https://www.facebook.com/ProTechPlumbingLLC

reposted by admin
Terry Love

 

[FullySprinklered]

Went to look at a noisy toilet for lady. Of course it wouldn't make the noise for me. It was the upstairs toilet farthest away from the main that was making the noise and that seems to be consistent with a pressure issue.
First guy she called couldn't figure it out, but charged her 150 dollars. Second guy wanted to replace the toilet with a 60 dollar Glacier Bay and charge her 400 dollars. I went and tapped on the expansion tank with my fingernails and found the tank to be waterlogged. Checked the house pressure and it was high and the PRV had a drippy rust streak. Replaced the both of them, plus the fill valve in the offending toilet, as the float was kind of low in the water.
Interesting thing was she had had a frog in the toilet. Splashed around and made a mess, she said. She fished him out and put him outdoors. Three days later he was back in the bowl. I'm guessing it was a tree frog who found his way down a vent. The toilet is upstairs and very rarely used. Maybe it was him making the noise after all that.