So we just sold our house but the closing hasn't happened yet, and we just had a flood last weekend. It happened while relatives who were in town for a graduation and a marriage were staying in the house, and they had to go to a hotel as a result. The roto-rooter guys came and determined which drain had backed up, and then came back to stick a camera attached to a hose-like thing down it to see where the problem was.
The guy couldn't even get past the trap (when he tried, the camera got pushed into the wrong pipe and went into the house). He determined that the trap is clogged up, likely from tree roots, and quoted us about $2700 to replace it, working completely from the inside of the house (the trap is half-inside, half-outside, but there is an 8-foot porch sticking out over the outside part). To do the job, he said we'd have to rip out the cabinets in our basement that go over top of the beginning of the trap (where he twisted off the cap to stick the camera in), and then drill through the cement there. After replacing the trap, the guy said, he can run the camera again to see if there are any other problems farther along.
He said one thing we could try is blasting water down the pipe to see if it would unclog the trap and take care of the problem, for about $500 (I forget the term for this!). He says this is risky because the water can shoot back into the house if it doesn't go through, but we are going to tear out the carpet down there anyway since it's all nasty from the flood and was old anyway.
My questions are:
1.) Does that quote ($2700) sound reasonable, and is it possible there is a better way?
2.) Is it worth having them try to unclog the drain by shooting water down it? The guy said he didn't think it would solve the problem.
The guy couldn't even get past the trap (when he tried, the camera got pushed into the wrong pipe and went into the house). He determined that the trap is clogged up, likely from tree roots, and quoted us about $2700 to replace it, working completely from the inside of the house (the trap is half-inside, half-outside, but there is an 8-foot porch sticking out over the outside part). To do the job, he said we'd have to rip out the cabinets in our basement that go over top of the beginning of the trap (where he twisted off the cap to stick the camera in), and then drill through the cement there. After replacing the trap, the guy said, he can run the camera again to see if there are any other problems farther along.
He said one thing we could try is blasting water down the pipe to see if it would unclog the trap and take care of the problem, for about $500 (I forget the term for this!). He says this is risky because the water can shoot back into the house if it doesn't go through, but we are going to tear out the carpet down there anyway since it's all nasty from the flood and was old anyway.
My questions are:
1.) Does that quote ($2700) sound reasonable, and is it possible there is a better way?
2.) Is it worth having them try to unclog the drain by shooting water down it? The guy said he didn't think it would solve the problem.
