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Waiting for the axe to fall...
Sep. 5th, 2006 12:34 pmIt was a good weekend; friends came over, I barbecued and then ran a RuneQuest scenario that went well enough. But on Monday the basement was flooded.
We've had problems with the main drain line blocking up every six to ten months. Roots grow into it, and we have to call the plumbers to power-snake it clear. So once again we called. But this time things didn't work out well.
We've always known that it was possible that the main drain line itself could break or collapse. If it does, we're not sure what that will mean; in part that depends on where the break is. Here are the possibilities:
1. It could break between our house and the sidewalk, on (under) our property.
2. It could break under the sidewalk or street, in which case we believe it's on city land.
In either case, the pipe would have to be dug out and replaced. We weren't sure what the cost would be, but we were sure it would be very, very high - more than we could pay for.
But would we be liable for the repairs if the break was on city property? Would insurance pay for some or all of the repairs on our property? We don't know. So now I'm waiting for a plumber to come out with a camera to take a look at the break, and we're also waiting for a call for our insurance agent. They covered the repairs in our basement when the main drain line trap shattered and had to be replaced; maybe they'll cover this, although it's probably in our front yard rather than actually under the house. But right now, we just don't know.
The plumber who came out yesterday thinks that the break is 10-12 feet out, which places it in our front yard. His guess is that the pipe has a break and that there's a pretty severe offset - in other words, part of the pipe has shifted inside the ground, and the two parts of pipe don't line up. He was able to get the snake cable itself through the hole, but not any of the attachments on the end of it. That means that what was normally a 4-inch pipe is now effectively less than 1 inch.
LATER - I was stopped in the middle of writing this by the arrival of the plumber with the camera. He took color video (!) down the pipe. It's not quite what I expected, but it's not good.
The portion of the pipe that extends out from the foundation is rotted out, and the bottom is simply gone. A huge mass of roots have grown into the area, almost totally blocking the pipe. Fortunately the damaged area is limited, since the rest of the pipe is clay rather than cast iron; it's clear all the way out to the sewer. But the broken pipe will need to be dug out and replaced.
It looks as if our insurance will cover almost all of the cost, which is good because we don't have a spare $3,000.00. More when I know it.
We've had problems with the main drain line blocking up every six to ten months. Roots grow into it, and we have to call the plumbers to power-snake it clear. So once again we called. But this time things didn't work out well.
We've always known that it was possible that the main drain line itself could break or collapse. If it does, we're not sure what that will mean; in part that depends on where the break is. Here are the possibilities:
1. It could break between our house and the sidewalk, on (under) our property.
2. It could break under the sidewalk or street, in which case we believe it's on city land.
In either case, the pipe would have to be dug out and replaced. We weren't sure what the cost would be, but we were sure it would be very, very high - more than we could pay for.
But would we be liable for the repairs if the break was on city property? Would insurance pay for some or all of the repairs on our property? We don't know. So now I'm waiting for a plumber to come out with a camera to take a look at the break, and we're also waiting for a call for our insurance agent. They covered the repairs in our basement when the main drain line trap shattered and had to be replaced; maybe they'll cover this, although it's probably in our front yard rather than actually under the house. But right now, we just don't know.
The plumber who came out yesterday thinks that the break is 10-12 feet out, which places it in our front yard. His guess is that the pipe has a break and that there's a pretty severe offset - in other words, part of the pipe has shifted inside the ground, and the two parts of pipe don't line up. He was able to get the snake cable itself through the hole, but not any of the attachments on the end of it. That means that what was normally a 4-inch pipe is now effectively less than 1 inch.
LATER - I was stopped in the middle of writing this by the arrival of the plumber with the camera. He took color video (!) down the pipe. It's not quite what I expected, but it's not good.
The portion of the pipe that extends out from the foundation is rotted out, and the bottom is simply gone. A huge mass of roots have grown into the area, almost totally blocking the pipe. Fortunately the damaged area is limited, since the rest of the pipe is clay rather than cast iron; it's clear all the way out to the sewer. But the broken pipe will need to be dug out and replaced.
It looks as if our insurance will cover almost all of the cost, which is good because we don't have a spare $3,000.00. More when I know it.
