Plumbing's backing up. Someone had the genius idea of planting a tree right where the damn sewer pipe runs and we had to clear the roots out last year.
Anyhoo if I call a plumber out here again it's going to be about $200, if I rent a snake it's about $110, or I can buy a HF drain snake and hope that it'll pay me back after about 3 uses.
Thoughts?
I own one for the same reasons. I've only had to call a plumber once because it was too clogged up from the upstairs renter flushing wet wipes
Rent one at Homer depot, if you bust it they own it. If 50 feet of line aint enough you can get more also.
Did you dig it up to clear the roots, or use the drain snake? If it's backing up again, something ain't right! If you have a tree around your pipes and the plumbing is backing up, you are going to have to dig and get the roots removed and/or remove the tree. You will continue to have problems until you do that. 
The drain snake should work fine if 50 feet is all you need.
But it sounds like this will only be temporary.
This is what you need to rent.
TRoglodyte wrote: Rent one at Homer depot, if you bust it they own it. If 50 feet of line aint enough you can get more also.
berkeley. I didn't even think about them renting those, I could have saved myself a ton of money a few months ago. This post has ruined my day. Thanks
Municipal sewer or septic tank? Seems odd just a year after fixing a root problem you're having it again.
In reply to t25torx: Sorry, but if you had asked,one of the deviants here would have helped you out.
Municipal sewer.
For some reason every house I live in seems to have trees over their sewer lines. The house is almost 100 years old (the tree isnt) so I'm guessing the old concrete sewer lines are at fault (and why roots are able to get in). We're due to re-sleeve the pipes, but we're having trouble scraping together the $10k to do so. WHEN we do the re-sleeve you can bet your bottom dollar that we'll be getting rid of that damn tree at the same time.
So rent don't buy then?
Had a similar problem at our old(now rental) house a few years ago when we still lived there. There's a maple tree and the fine hair roots were getting into the joints of the old clay sewer tile.
The first time it clogged was 10pm on a Sunday night, so I had no real choice but to pay a plumber to come auger it out ASAP. The second time it got pugged(less than a year later) we dug it up & replaced all the tile in that area with PVC, which has worked fine so far.
The "10pm on a saturday night" brings up a good point. Having one on hand would be (wait for it...) handy (thank you, I'll be here all night).
Home Depot has a 75-footer for $500 with good reviews. I think I'm just going to buy one and be done with it.
another plus: Owning one means I don't have to put someone else's sewage in my wife's station wagon.
Small roots can grow pretty quickly. I use this 2x per year and it helps.
It's a horrible, gross, unpleasant job. I've used Harbor Freight tools and I've used the Home Depot 100ft snake. I've never used the Harbor Frieght snake.
My experience with Harbor Freight power tools tells me I'd never want to take on so unpleasant a job with tools that are apt to go to hell mere minutes after setting up. I know some here have had good luck, but I have had one good power tool out of five purchased.
I'd rent the snake. It's bad enough with good equipment.
I bought a 100' drain auger at the local pawn shop. Renting is fine if you know it'll only happen once. But renting was $50 and I bought one for $100. It works fine and has come in handy a couple of times.
I prefer to own. Bill, you can borrow mine, just stop by and pick it up :-)
I became good friends with this. Home Depot, 4pm Sunday, go downstairs and there is a lake. Head to the store, get the 4 hour rental deal if I bring it back by 8am the next day (they close at 6 on Sunday). I paid a plumber twice to do this, once on Christmas Day. I ended up renting a snake 2-3 times a year, usually in the evening after getting home from work. I think the 4 hour rental was in the $50 range - never needed more than an hour or 2. We had a cherry and a pine planted over our mainline and orangeburg pipe (tera cota fiber crap). Last year it finally collapsed so we had to replace it. Roto guy said $10k for resleeve but we did the traditional dig and replace for $3k.
If you are going to clear roots, you better have a snake with knife cutters on the end. Be very careful. You will feel the torque start to build up once you get to the obstruction. Don't let too much build up or the whole reel of cable will jump out of the basket and it will hurt you.
chrispy wrote: I became good friends with this. Home Depot, 4pm Sunday, go downstairs and there is a lake. Head to the store, get the 4 hour rental deal if I bring it back by 8am the next day (they close at 6 on Sunday). I paid a plumber twice to do this, once on Christmas Day. I ended up renting a snake 2-3 times a year, usually in the evening after getting home from work. I think the 4 hour rental was in the $50 range - never needed more than an hour or 2. We had a cherry and a pine planted over our mainline and orangeburg pipe (tera cota fiber crap). Last year it finally collapsed so we had to replace it. Roto guy said $10k for resleeve but we did the traditional dig and replace for $3k.
Did you dig and replace yourself or hire someone? I didn't know that was an option!
(we were told by the home inspector that a re-sleeve would be necessary in less than 10 years)
In reply to Hungary Bill:
10K is WAY too much.
We just had all of the drains in our basement redone (dug up re covered, etc...) and a new PVC line run out to the street (dug up, connected, inspected, recovered, etc...) for $2800.00. Granted this was only about a 25 ft run. However, 4 times that length would NOT equal 4 times the price. My neighbor who had to go 105 feet cost him about 4500$.
We hired someone. Digging 150' of line 6' deep and connecting to the City system was beyond my comfort level. Took 2 guys 2 days, but the second day was remediation and another drain project that they threw in for us. We were without plumbing for most of a day. Our intial $10k "best scenerio" estimate had us looking at a 401k loan, then I priced PVC, and decided there was no way it should cost that much. Mr Rooter's system doesn't disturb the landscape - just some "small holes", but my landscape was grass and 2 trees that were coming down anyway. Today it doesn't look any different than before they dug up 1/2 my yard.
wvumtnbkr wrote: In reply to Hungary Bill: 10K is WAY too much. We just had all of the drains in our basement redone (dug up re covered, etc...) and a new PVC line run out to the street (dug up, connected, inspected, recovered, etc...) for $2800.00. Granted this was only about a 25 ft run. However, 4 times that length would NOT equal 4 times the price. My neighbor who had to go 105 feet cost him about 4500$.
Seriously, where would I be without you guys? This has moved from "holy crap, where are we going to get THAT?" bin to the "ah, that aint so bad" bin.
Puget Sound Energy guy is out here now. Apparently there were some gas lines inadvertently run through sewer pipes in my area and they want us to call before we snake.
Good times
If you were to estimate, how far is the closest cleanout to the clog? I've had good experience cleaning big clogs by pounding through them with inexpensive Pex piping. Pex will go around corners, but is rigid enough to really beat on a clog. I've gone through snakes of all different sizes, but for yard work, Pex is now my go-to.
Now I'm not sure how far the clog is. I thought the pipe ran from my house to the street, but the PSE guy is telling me that Tacoma often runs the pipe from the house to the alley.
If the alley is the case, then I have some huge ass trees that are going to need chopping down.
How deep is the pipe buried? One of those below the basement floor deals? Might get lucky and find its cast iron under the floor slab, metal detector might pick it up.
If your house is that old, it will be terra cotta tiles most likely.
I would NOT suggest hitting anything in or near them. They will break.
We had roto rooter come in for a clogged drain. They broke 2 of our basement drain lines (terra cotta) trying to ram the snake in them.
This is what started our quest for somebody else. Check out any sort of excavation company. Most of them do sewer lines and hook-ups.
Better yet, ask the local municipality who they recommend. These are the people that need to inspect the lines. They know who does a good job and who doesn't.
Get 2 or 3 quotes. We got quotes all over the place. We actually didn't go with the lowest price because we didn't really like the way the guy acted. YMMV.
If you get new PVC run, you don't need to cut down any trees. They can work around them for the most part.
It goes under the "big trees" out back. The PSE guy ran a scope and found a blockage at 39 feet that wouldn't let his camera go any further.
I bought the Home Depot Rigid K-400 and I'm at 75 feet right now and it's not letting go.
That's what I get for trying to save money 
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