Reasonable charge?

Hi,
First, let me say I live in New Orleans, and contractor professionals in any trade are in great demand due to Hurricane Katrina.
I had backup from waste removal line into bathtub and toilet of downstairs apt. Video cam found the blockage. I was quoted a price of $3300 to repair blockage (under the stamped concrete sidewalk, but they went at it from the side and didn't ruin sidewalk). Upon repair attempt, they found that 78 feet of terra cotta pipe was busted and needed to be replaced. $12,800 is the price I am now looking to pay.
The company is a long-standing, reputable company listed with the Better Business Bureau; my concern is whether I'm being taken advantage of because of 1. emergency nature of job; 2. price gouging due to Katrina. Unfortunately, I could not get different bids from plumbing contractors because, as I said, at this time, every tradesman/company is slammed with work, and I was lucky to get this company in such a relatively short time; and then, of course, the emergency nature of the problem. Raw sewerage was just flooding the apartment and I wasn't able to wait weeks for estimates.
I just would like a little peace of mind in re: the reasonableness of this charge, if anyone can help me out.
Thanks very much.

I would buy time and pay someone to drain clean the line periodically instead of biting the bullet and replacing the piping. I am saying this because if you can buy time on this line, I would wait till circumstances have it where you can get a few opinions, rather than take the first estimate coming your way.

price

we do not know anything about the physical conditions as far as replacing the pipe goes, but under normal situations, you might be correct about items #1 and 2. Unless this is an emergency that cannot be temporarily cleared, and even then I might question the eagerness of the company to replace it, I would wait, or at least get a second opinion as to whether it acutally has to be replaced immediately.

my 3 cents

one possible fix would be pipe bursting. a trench is opened only in the old pipe at each end.
a winch pulls a pipe splitting device underground spliting the old pipe ,while
pulling new pipe in it's place. the best guy for advice ,in my opinion, is plumber rick on the ridgid plumbing forum. rick does this work in ca.
this would save the stamped concrete.

thanks to all -

toolaholic said:

one possible fix would be pipe bursting. a trench is opened only in the old pipe at each end.
a winch pulls a pipe splitting device underground spliting the old pipe ,while
pulling new pipe in it's place. the best guy for advice ,in my opinion, is plumber rick on the ridgid plumbing forum. rick does this work in ca.
this would save the stamped concrete.

Click to expand...

where do i find the "ridgid" forum?
I sincerely appreciate the helpful responses.

Did they happen to say how deep down the pipe was?

sounds high

you did not mentioin how deep these fellows were digging

it was basement depth and about 80 feet of pipe to change under
a concrete sidewalk ?? And somehow they are able to get to the pipe
from the side to save the sidewalk??

that could be a little high, but by how much I dont know for sure...


why dont you just try to haggle with them to see what their bottom
price would be??

I would guess that New Orleans is pretty busy right now and
they can almost dictate what they are going to charge..

good luck, plumber Rick , IS AWSOME

www. ridgidforum.com hope this doesn't step on toes here! many great folk's here have helped me also! i know Rick does this process.