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Keith B wrote:If the house is that old the sewer line is probably clay tile and not cast iron due to the fact roots are getting in it. If his house is on a slab, then it will be a lot of work to properly tie into the exiting sewer line under the slab. Don't let them just tie in at the edge of the slab. PVC will end his root problems, so if he plans to live there for awhile then it would be in his best interest to do it right.

He might check Craigslist. There are several plumbing companies on there that may be cheaper and can do that job. The main thing is make sure they get the job permitted, inspected and provide a written warranty of their workmanship.

His house is on pier and beam with a crawlspace and no slab, so that would make it easier. Craigslist might be a good idea, thanks. It occurs to me that maybe he could organize the men of his Life Group and turn it into a working party. I'd do the BBQ to feed the troops.

I had no idea that $3k-$5k is normal for this kind of job.

Thanks RPBrown. I'll mention that to my son. But his line really is only about 12"-18" below the surface, so the excavation and backfill would have to be simpler and less expensive. I think that the fact that the line is so shallow is part of the problem with poor drainage.

I know that some of you must be for real plumbers, and I'm looking for opinions/help for a problem faced by my son.

My son and DIL bought a first home in North Richland Hills almost two years ago. It is an older home, built in 1952 (that was a good year ), and the sellers refurbished it and flipped it. The sale was "as is", but the home appeared to be in very good shape and it easily passed inspection. However, one major flaw has become a large thorn in my son's side.

The sewage line exits the back of the house and makes a beeline across the back yard for the rear fence. My son doesn't know where the actual sewer is located, so he has no guarantee that the pipe from his house actually empties into the municipal sewer line or not, but there appears to be an easement of some kind at the back of the property, because that is where the telephone lines are......and there are no manhole covers on the street at all. The problem is that the line from the house has a dip in it at one one point where it dips down and then back up, and it has become choked with roots. The dip means that even without the root problem, sewage flow out from the house isn't reliable, and the line backs up easily. It makes it difficult to use their washing machine without experiencing frequent backups, and let's not mention the showers and the toilets. He had a plumber out because his own efforts to clear the line himself with a snake were a failure. The plumber - a guy from Benjamin Franklin Plumbing - ran a camera down the pipe, found the root blockage, and cleared it out. Of course, that is a temporary fix as the roots will eventually grow back into the pipe; and the problem with poor flow due to the dip in the line remains.

Anyway, and this is where my son needs help, the upshot is that the sewage line out from the house to the sewer needs to be dug up and replaced. The horizontal distance from the back of the house to the back of the property where, presumably, the municipal sewer easement lies is 125 ft. The Benjamin Franklin guy quoted my son $4,000 to dig up and replace the line from the house to the sewer. That seems like a LOT of money to dig a trench maybe a foot and half deep and lay in the new line. In fact, it seems way overpriced. I suspect that Franklin is taking advantage of my son as a new homeowner. My son is willing to do the digging and backfilling if that will save money on the job. Like a lot of first time homeowners, their mortgage payment takes a BIG bite out of their monthly income, and they just cannot afford $4,000 to fix what seems like a fairly simple problem.

Here is an aerial snapshot from Google Maps of the layout: If you are a plumber, can one of you please tell me if you can do this job for less than this? Again, my son is willing to aid the process by doing the digging if that will save him some money. But $4,000 is so far out of his price range that it just isn't possible, and to me, it just seems usurious.

If you can help and are available to take this on for a more reasonable price, please PM me and I'll put you in touch with my son.

By the way, he is also a gunsmith and knife-maker, and he might be able to help make this worth your while in other ways.