02.19.18 Redoing Plumbing Pipes – How Fun!!!

Tuesday, February 19, 2018 – Roy took on some work in our yard this past week. When we first built the house we planted three rose bushes in front of the concrete opening to the septic tank. They’ve grown large and would make accessing the opening very prickly. I cut the bushes back a good bit several weeks ago. Roy dug all three up yesterday and moved them a couple of feet forward and planted them further apart so they can grow better. Moving the rose bushes and redoing the plumbing pipes are probably not something anyone will care about but it helps us to document when we do things!

Before

After

After moving the rose bushes Roy took on another project. The man does not know when to stop when he gets started.

When we built the house we told the septic tank company we wanted 4 inch schedule 40 pvc connecting the house to the septic tank. After they was paid and we were off enjoying our travels we got a phone call from the renters that nasty things were backing up into the tub. We discovered after this happened TWICE that the septic tank company didn’t put down what we requested. They put down thin wall pvc pipe (which is what some people do use but Roy wanted something sturdier and thought that’s what we paid for and got). The thin wall pipe made it susceptible to collapse which it did.

This first photo is the 4 inch schedule 40 PVC we originally asked for.

This is the thin wall PVC that has to come out and be replaced by the one above. You can see the difference in the quality of pipe.

When we got the first call about the problem we learned that the pipe had collapsed. Still not knowing it was not what we requested our contractor contacted the septic people but they didn’t want to fool with it. He then contacted our original plumber who came back and replaced a portion of the line. He charged us almost $1000 to replace 5 feet of pipe, which was way more than the work was worth. We ended up paying what we thought the work was worth. He probably wasn’t happy with us.

The second time the nasty things were backing up into the tub it was late one Sunday afternoon. Roy got in touch with Roto Rooter who came out and ran a snake into the line to clear it. Roy then requested that the Roto Rooter man put a camera down the pipe so he could look and see what was going on. This allowed him to discover that sections of the pipe were way below grade and was totally filled with water even though the pipe was clog free. Roto Rooter then gave us a price of $3,500 to repair the problems.

My honey Roy, being the fix it man he is, started digging the dirt away from the thin pipe and got about 2/3 way from the house to the septic tank yesterday. Today we purchased the 4 inch schedule 40 pvc we thought we were getting originally. He finished digging up the dirt to the top of the pipe today. He then used a pick ax to dig along the sides of the pipe to get deep enough to remove it. We are now having to put it in ourselves (you know ourselves means Roy, not me). We disliked greatly having to do this (This also means Roy!) Don’t understand why subcontractors don’t always do what they are asked to do.

This is the old pipe going from the house to the septic tank.

This is Roy starting his second day of digging to get to the old pipe.

Taking out part of the old pipe.

After this photo was taken, Roy installed the new pipe, making sure that everything was set to grade so that the pipes would no longer hold water. He added a couple of new sewer clean out plugs to help with future issues. All the dirt that was dug out was put back and hopefully grass will grow over it soon! It’s all finished. Roy cut the old pipe up and it is piled out by the street so the trash people will take it.