Original post - [
forums.macresource.com]
I had a plumber come out last week to clear the floor drain. He had a pretty serious plug-in sectional drain snake tool (Rigid K50) with the typical wire auger attachment which did nothing. He switched to a more aggressive sawtooth style cutter attachment and was able to get through after several minutes of work. He stopped at one point to say he thought the pipe might be damaged and would need to be dug out and replaced, but then went back to it. He said he was able to get it in about 7 feet or so, well beyond the trap and into the main line.
Hearing the sound of water flowing through that drain for the first time ever made the $400 charge worth it! /mastercard
I also had him snake the main sewer from a 4" clean-out on the main stack. He used a much larger wheeled auger for that. No issues there, but then we've never had a problem with that so no surprise. I had wanted to just do a camera inspection but the company said they would only run the camera after the line had been snaked, to ensure it would be clear enough to see, and to avoid getting their camera stuck of course.
The main sewer snaking job was another $400, and that came with a complimentary camera inspection!
Camera guy came today *trigger warning for any colonoscopy enthusiasts*- [
www.youtube.com]
He said no emergency issues. No obvious damage, misaligned pipe or intruding roots. But there is a section with more standing water than there really should be, (at about 17 feet in on the video). He says that is a spot where a blockage would most likely occur since it doesn't slope down like it should. Makes sense.
He seemed surprised that we have not had any backups in the 5 years since we moved in. Of course he recommended replacing the whole line, but admitted that it was kind of a tough call. Estimate to replace the whole line is $12K, w/10 year warranty on new PVC pipe.
We both agreed that it would not get any better on its own. I imagine if we really flushed out the line on a regular basis that a serious blockage will be avoided as it has not happened in 5 years, I'm not sure it ever will.
We talked about if re-lining the cast iron pipe might be an option (trenchless repair), but that would not remedy the slope issue so that doesn't make sense here.
I don't think we will do anything at this time, but rather take this one data point and probably come back to it next year to compare against.