Giant Poo Puddle in my basement

[Garga]

My home was built in '49. It has a big drain in the basement. If the pipes get backed up in the yard with roots or something, water will back up into the basement. This has happened before about 6 times and we get a Speedy Rooter person out and they snake the line.

 

This time, some poo water backed up. So we got the Rotor Rooter people out and they used a power wash to clear it out.

 

Only they didn't clear it all the way out. We know because the borough (county) people came out and used a camera to look at the main line and there was a clump of roots/sludge in our line where it meets the main line.

 

So the Speedy Rooter people came back out to try to get to the end of the line. They used the water first. And the line got completely clogged and I have a gigantic, stinky puddle of poo water in my basement. The clog wouldn't budge, so they got a snake (a wire that whips around and tears up clogs, but doesn't use water), in the hole.

 

That snake should pull back with a bunch of stuff on it, showing that there was something for it to be working through. But it pulled back clean.

 

Now they're saying, "Well, you're going to have to dig up the yard now and replace pipes."

 

For $8000.

 

Um...

 

I'm going to see if the borough people can check and see if the Speedy Rooter people didn't just somehow push a big clump of something into the main line and it's clogging up the mainline now...but if that didn't happen, has anyone had this happen to them?

 

Am I doomed to the $8000 dig up? That's more than we spend for cars. That a lot of money.

 

Any tips? Suggestions? Commiseration?

 

(The speedy people are back---they'd gone somewhere for something...gotta run.). (The speedy guy talks too loudly and is overwhelming me...Gotta go.)

[happypamama]

Yikes. Good grief, that's lousy. I am so sorry. I have no idea if you have other options, but I'm sending commiserations.

[scrapbookbuzz]

Ditto on what happypamama said.

[TranquilMind]

My home was built in '49. It has a big drain in the basement. If the pipes get backed up in the yard with roots or something, water will back up into the basement. This has happened before about 6 times and we get a Speedy Rooter person out and they snake the line.

 

This time, some poo water backed up. So we got the Rotor Rooter people out and they used a power wash to clear it out.

 

Only they didn't clear it all the way out. We know because the borough (county) people came out and used a camera to look at the main line and there was a clump of roots/sludge in our line where it meets the main line.

 

So the Speedy Rooter people came back out to try to get to the end of the line. They used the water first. And the line got completely clogged and I have a gigantic, stinky puddle of poo water in my basement. The clog wouldn't budge, so they got a snake (a wire that whips around and tears up clogs, but doesn't use water), in the hole.

 

That snake should pull back with a bunch of stuff on it, showing that there was something for it to be working through. But it pulled back clean.

 

Now they're saying, "Well, you're going to have to dig up the yard now and replace pipes."

 

For $8000.

 

Um...

 

I'm going to see if the borough people can check and see if the Speedy Rooter people didn't just somehow push a big clump of something into the main line and it's clogging up the mainline now...but if that didn't happen, has anyone had this happen to them?

 

Am I doomed to the $8000 dig up? That's more than we spend for cars. That a lot of money.

 

Any tips? Suggestions? Commiseration?

 

(The speedy people are back---they'd gone somewhere for something...gotta run.). (The speedy guy talks too loudly and is overwhelming me...Gotta go.)

Commiseration:  I'm really sorry.  That sucks!

Recommendation:  Call a company with great reviews that has a camera.  He can see what is actually happening in the line and show you on the spot if there are breaks.  That way you won't get ripped off.    I don't know who Speedy rooter is, but you need a plumber for this one, not just a guy who unclogs drains.  If it is equivalent to our Rotor rooter, get someone else. 

That seems like a lot.  I bet you can find someone to do it cheaper.  I just had a new sewer line laid to the street (closed off septic), and the actual laying the line part was $500.  The city had a bunch of fees though. 

[Caroline]

When we had tree roots grow into our main line, they had to dig up the pipes and replace them. 

[Andromeda]

That is terrible!

 

Do you have to dig up the pipes? Maybe, maybe not.

 

We had the same problem - sewer backup into basement, roots growing through the sewer line, you name it. Had a mitigation company come and clean out the basement with (supposedly) special cleaning products.

 

Our solution was in two parts.

 

Part one - installed a sewer line liner (Google "trenchless pipe liner system" or similar), done by a plumbing company. They first cleared out the roots and then unrolled this soft "bladder" down the pipe. Then they used some tools to harden it. We saw the resulting video, and it basically looks like a white PVC pipe inside your sewer line once done. It's been more than 5 years and no issues. I do not remember how much it cost, but it was far, far less than the estimate to dig everything up.

 

Part two - install a sewer backup prevention valve (flap). It looks something like this YouTube video  (but I have no idea what our model is, exactly).  This requires a little digging in your basement, about 2 -3 square feet area.  I had to call several plumbers to get someone who was familiar with this. I have no idea why, but 3 or 4 kept telling me that such a unicorn does not exist and/or I could not possibly need one. Anyway, finally found someone familiar with the product, and it was done. Best investment. ever.

 

What you need to know with the backup prevention valve is that if there is a backup event happening in your line, you should not flush toilet, or use any other taps in the house as much as possible. The waste water can only go to the flap and stay there until the external pressure lowers and the flap can operate again in the normal fashion.

 

Hugs, commiseration, been there.

 

Edited January 13, 2017 by RosemaryAndThyme

[Garga]

Yeah, we definately need to call around. The guy even said to get a second opinion, so that was nice of him.

 

We have a plumber who has always been very ethical with us in the past--doing exactly what we need and not trying to sell us on stuff we don't need. He suggested the rooter people for the cleanout, but we will call him if this turns out to be an entire dig up. He will direct us best. The guys from the rooter place seem nice enough, but I trust our plumber completely.

 

In the meanwhile I guess the poo puddle will just sit there? I guess we could sacrifice some sort of shop vac and vacuum it up. I don't know if the shop vac could be salvaged after getting up the brown poo water.

 

For now, though, even if the poo puddle is cleaned, we can't flush our toilet or use the water or it all bubbles up more into the house. I suppose we'll have to move out somewhere for the weekend?

 

Thank goodness our basement is an ugly cement floor/cinder block basement so nothing in it is ruined. There's just poo water on the cement.

[TranquilMind]

Yeah, we definately need to call around. The guy even said to get a second opinion, so that was nice of him.

 

We have a plumber who has always been very ethical with us in the past--doing exactly what we need and not trying to sell us on stuff we don't need. He suggested the rooter people for the cleanout, but we will call him if this turns out to be an entire dig up. He will direct us best. The guys from the rooter place seem nice enough, but I trust our plumber completely.

 

In the meanwhile I guess the poo puddle will just sit there? I guess we could sacrifice some sort of shop vac and vacuum it up. I don't know if the shop vac could be salvaged after getting up the brown poo water.

 

For now, though, even if the poo puddle is cleaned, we can't flush our toilet or use the water or it all bubbles up more into the house. I suppose we'll have to move out somewhere for the weekend?

 

Thank goodness our basement is an ugly cement floor/cinder block basement so nothing in it is ruined. There's just poo water on the cement.

I'd sacrifice the shop vac.  You need to get rid of that.  Then I would call someone with a camera and the capability of doing a liner today.  Or two or three of them. Get the best price. Do it Monday if you can. 

[Garga]

That is terrible!

 

Do you have to dig up the pipes? Maybe, maybe not.

 

We had the same problem - sewer backup into basement, roots growing through the sewer line, you name it. Had a mitigation company come and clean out the basement with (supposedly) special cleaning products.

 

Our solution was in two parts.

 

Part one - installed a sewer line liner (Google "trenchless pipe liner system" or similar), done by a plumbing company. They first cleared out the roots and then unrolled this soft "bladder" down the pipe. Then they used some tools to harden it. We saw the resulting video, and it basically looks like a white PVC pipe inside your sewer line once done. It's been more than 5 years and no issues. I do not remember how much it cost, but it was far, far less than the estimate to dig everything up.

 

Part two - install a sewer backup prevention valve (flap). It looks something like

(but I have no idea what our model is, exactly). This requires a little digging in your basement, about 2 -3 square feet area. I had to call several plumbers to get someone who was familiar with this. I have no idea why, but 3 or 4 kept telling me that such a unicorn does not exist and/or I could not possibly need one. Anyway, finally found someone familiar with the product, and it was done. Best investment. ever.

 

What you need to know with the backup prevention valve is that if there is a backup event happening in your line, you should not flush toilet, or use any other taps in the house as much as possible. The waste water can only go to the flap and stay there until the external pressure lowers and the flap can operate again in the normal fashion.

 

Hugs, commiseration, been there.

 

Good stuff. I will certainly be looking into all of this. And this is why I came here with my problem, because someone in the hive always has information to share about everything!

[Garga]

I'd sacrifice the shop vac. You need to get rid of that. Then I would call someone with a camera and the capability of doing a liner today. Or two or three of them. Get the best price. Do it Monday if you can.

Do cameras work underwater? Right now it's a milk chocolately brown poo color that is in a gigantic puddle in the basement because the waterpipe that leads out to the sewer is completely filled with water. Poo water. Blech. I'm not sure a camera can go through the water, and if it can, I don't know if it'll see anything through the brown. :(.

 

Maybe over the next day or so it'll recede. It's done that in the past--we've had water come up over the past few days, but it wasn't deep poo water and it receeded--but now that the guys came trying to clear it out, it is a bigger puddle because they were using water to cut through the roots.

 

So, maybe the camera will work if it recedes for a day or two.

 

But you know, as frustrating as it is, I still am in that place where I think of the horrors of Aleppo and also a dear friend who experienced a devastating loss, and my problems are so small in comparision that I'm not very upset. Nothing was ruined in the basement. It's just a hassle but eventually it'll be fixed. We just have to work our way through the hassle one step at a time, not getting gouged by a rooter company along the way.

 

ETA: My dh, on the other hand, is freaking out a bit. But when I freak out, he tends to go calm. Maybe I'll pretend to freak out to calm him down. :)

Edited January 13, 2017 by Garga

[Hilltopmom]

Cameras can work underwater.

Hang in there.

 

Locally, a whole neighborhood has had to redo the lines that run from homes to street as they fail in the older homes.

Runs around $6,000. Sorry

 

Hope it's an easier fix

[TranquilMind]

Do cameras work underwater? Right now it's a milk chocolately brown poo color that is in a gigantic puddle in the basement because the waterpipe that leads out to the sewer is completely filled with water. Poo water. Blech. I'm not sure a camera can go through the water, and if it can, I don't know if it'll see anything through the brown. :(.

 

Maybe over the next day or so it'll recede. It's done that in the past--we've had water come up over the past few days, but it wasn't deep poo water and it receeded--but now that the guys came trying to clear it out, it is a bigger puddle because they were using water to cut through the roots.

 

So, maybe the camera will work if it recedes for a day or two.

 

But you know, as frustrating as it is, I still am in that place where I think of the horrors of Aleppo and also a dear friend who experienced a devastating loss, and my problems are so small in comparision that I'm not very upset. Nothing was ruined in the basement. It's just a hassle but eventually it'll be fixed. We just have to work our way through the hassle one step at a time, not getting gouged by a rooter company along the way.

 

ETA: My dh, on the other hand, is freaking out a bit. But when I freak out, he tends to go calm. Maybe I'll pretend to freak out to calm him down. :)

Yes, I am pretty sure the camera will work in water to show you what the problem is.   I'm sure the experts deal with this all the time. 

I would at least call a few and ask questions now. 

 

I get that there can be only one person freaking out at a time!  Definitely protocol here too.  ;)

[happypamama]

But you know, as frustrating as it is, I still am in that place where I think of the horrors of Aleppo and also a dear friend who experienced a devastating loss, and my problems are so small in comparision that I'm not very upset. Nothing was ruined in the basement. It's just a hassle but eventually it'll be fixed. We just have to work our way through the hassle one step at a time, not getting gouged by a rooter company along the way.

 

ETA: My dh, on the other hand, is freaking out a bit. But when I freak out, he tends to go calm. Maybe I'll pretend to freak out to calm him down. :)

Haha, I'm now picturing that scene in the Garga household -- thanks for the chuckle!

 

Even if this isn't the worst thing, it's still really aggravating. It's okay to be annoyed about it.

 

Tuesday afternoon, our washer died. Like, seriously, right NOW? But maybe it happened then so that I could have a simple problem that I could solve easily. A few minutes on the Home Depot app on my phone, and a new washer will be here early next week. But aggravating to deal with an unexpected breakdown.

[clementine]

Oh, that title.  You know we all read that & thought 'You poor thing!!'

 

 I hope it gets fixed for much cheaper than expected!

Edited January 13, 2017 by clementine

[zoobie]

If the poo water has touched walls and baseboards, they need to go. Friends of ours had a sewage backup in their finished basement and they had to call out Serv-Pro to clean it. Insurance covered costs. They cut out about 2" of drywall, ripped out carpet and pads, bleached everything...

[Garga]

If the poo water has touched walls and baseboards, they need to go. Friends of ours had a sewage backup in their finished basement and they had to call out Serv-Pro to clean it. Insurance covered costs. They cut out about 2" of drywall, ripped out carpet and pads, bleached everything...

I have the ugliest basement on the planet. Cinderblock walls and a cement floor that someone tried to paint once in the past 70 years, and the paint is only in splotches.

 

It only got on the cement. I'll check the walls, but it's just cinderblock meeting the floors. So maybe that's good news?

[Garga]

Well, the borough people were here during the time that the rooter people were here. The borough people said that the tools the rooter people were using weren't all that great.

 

Apparently, there are metal claws and stuff you can attach to the ends of the snake they put down the pipes. They didn't have that. And there are skinny snakes and fat snakes. They only had the skinny.

 

So, the borough guys looked down the main line with the camera and we all stood around in the middle of the street around the manhole, and then they started talking about the better equipment and which local plumber was the best and we all picked a good plumber and called him out to stand around the hole with us. By the time the plumber got there, my dh got home, so all 8 of us stood in the middle of the road around a man hole.

 

This was good. My dh stopped freaking out because he was around a bunch of guys and had to be cool. The plumber came inside and looked at our puddle and after we vaccum some up, we'll probably be able to flush the toilets and use the very minimum amount of water. (He had us flush while he was there and no new water bubbled up, so it's probably receding very, very slowly.)

 

Then he'll come out on Tuesday with a heavy duty snake with jaws on the ends and cut through roots and stuff.

 

The borough is going to drop off some heavy duty root killer that is for industrial use to get us started. After the plumber comes through, we're to flush the root killer down the drains.

 

And after that, we'll take stock and figure out what to do as far as cameras, chopping down trees, and digging up pipes.

 

On a good note: my paramecium and amoeba arrived in the mail today! We'll carve out some time to do a biology lab and look at these guys. We've been waiting all year to look at them under a microscope.

Edited January 13, 2017 by Garga

[Garga]

I get that there can be only one person freaking out at a time! Definitely protocol here too. ;)

Yup. Those are the rules. Only one person flying around in an emotional state at a time. :)

[Barb_]

Betcha got lots of bacteria down in your basement you could examine.

[MrsMommy]

Betcha got lots of bacteria down in your basement you could examine.

 

That was my first thought, too!

[MomsintheGarden]

I'm so sorry about your pipes, Garga, and your washer, Happypamama! I agree with Barb - you probably have some really interesting stuff growing in that poop water.

[Guest]

Oh oh, what a mess! I'm so sorry you're dealing with a giant, disgusting puddle. You probably do need to dig up and replace those old pipes, but hopefully you can do it on your own budget and schedule and not take sub a big hit out of the blue.

[Reefgazer]

They might be right.  If they're old pipes, you may not have a clog so much as buildup on the pipe that blocks the pipes.  Newer pies are plastic and not as susceptible to buildup than older ones.  But we called a private plumber and they poured a super-super-Fred-T-Hooper strong acid down there to get the buildup off the pipes. 

My home was built in '49. It has a big drain in the basement. If the pipes get backed up in the yard with roots or something, water will back up into the basement. This has happened before about 6 times and we get a Speedy Rooter person out and they snake the line.

This time, some poo water backed up. So we got the Rotor Rooter people out and they used a power wash to clear it out.

Only they didn't clear it all the way out. We know because the borough (county) people came out and used a camera to look at the main line and there was a clump of roots/sludge in our line where it meets the main line.

So the Speedy Rooter people came back out to try to get to the end of the line. They used the water first. And the line got completely clogged and I have a gigantic, stinky puddle of poo water in my basement. The clog wouldn't budge, so they got a snake (a wire that whips around and tears up clogs, but doesn't use water), in the hole.

That snake should pull back with a bunch of stuff on it, showing that there was something for it to be working through. But it pulled back clean.

Now they're saying, "Well, you're going to have to dig up the yard now and replace pipes."

For $8000.

Um...

I'm going to see if the borough people can check and see if the Speedy Rooter people didn't just somehow push a big clump of something into the main line and it's clogging up the mainline now...but if that didn't happen, has anyone had this happen to them?

Am I doomed to the $8000 dig up? That's more than we spend for cars. That a lot of money.

Any tips? Suggestions? Commiseration?

(The speedy people are back---they'd gone somewhere for something...gotta run.). (The speedy guy talks too loudly and is overwhelming me...Gotta go.)

 

[Farrar]

That's about what we paid to dig up and replace our line - totally different issue, but same thing you're talking about. We live in a very high cola area. But that doesn't sound crazy to me at all if you have to replace the line, unfortunately.

[Ausmumof3]

I'm still trying to get over the business name ...

[City Mouse]

Thank you for reminding me that my problems could always be worse.

[Anne in CA]

I would make sure it is really YOUR problem. I would make sure you know what is really going on. I knew a woman who had all the sewage from her whole subdivision back up into her house. It filled her house. It ruined her possessions and her children's possessions, she and her husband and three kids lived in a motel for a month and it took more than a year for her insurance to kick in so they could buy a new house. The subdivision she lived in had not done proper maintenance on their system and she was the victim. And since the damage was so great her insurance and the insurance for the home owner's association both denied the claims until she got a good lawyer, who took a big chunk of the settlement.  Knowing what happened to her I would not leave your house for longer than an hour until you know this problem is resolved and I would IMMEDIATELY get your treasured photos and keepsakes into a storage unit. It may be your problem, it may be a neighborhood problem, but if your favorite photos and keepsakes are covered with sewage while you are at soccer practice, you will be sorry. 

[Garga]

I would make sure it is really YOUR problem. I would make sure you know what is really going on. I knew a woman who had all the sewage from her whole subdivision back up into her house. It filled her house. It ruined her possessions and her children's possessions, she and her husband and three kids lived in a motel for a month and it took more than a year for her insurance to kick in so they could buy a new house. The subdivision she lived in had not done proper maintenance on their system and she was the victim. And since the damage was so great her insurance and the insurance for the home owner's association both denied the claims until she got a good lawyer, who took a big chunk of the settlement.  Knowing what happened to her I would not leave your house for longer than an hour until you know this problem is resolved and I would IMMEDIATELY get your treasured photos and keepsakes into a storage unit. It may be your problem, it may be a neighborhood problem, but if your favorite photos and keepsakes are covered with sewage while you are at soccer practice, you will be sorry. 

 

 

 

The borough has been out twice cleaning out the main line and putting a camera down the mainline (twice).  They've called me out into the street to stand over the hole and look at the live video from the camera.

 

The mainline is completely, 100% clear of anything.  As soon as the camera gets to where my line meets with their line, it is very clear to see that there's sludge and roots blocking the end of my line.  

 

We ditched the Speedy Rooter people and now our local plumber is coming out on Tuesday with a snake that has metal attachments on it that should break through what's at the end of the line.  The Speedy Rooter people's equipment just wasn't good enough--this was the assessment of the Borough people who came out when the Rooter people were here and saw their equipment and went into my house to see the poo puddle.

 

 

In the meanwhile, my poor dh cleaned up the poo puddle and the water is draining enough that we can flush toilets.  We are using basins to wash in and not running anything else with water (dishwasher or laundry.)  

 

Any more backups would come up through the basement drain in the floor or in the basement sink before it comes up to the toilets/sinks upstairs.  

 

I think we're as safe as can be until Tuesday when the plumber comes out with his better tools than the Speedy people.  I kinda wonder about the Speedy people; if they use weaker equipment and then recommend the digging up of the yard.  

 

There are roots and that problem does need to be addressed, but in the meanwhile if the plumber breaks through the sludge and roots, it'll buy us time to figure out exactly what to do:  the liner or digging up everything.

 

 

But thanks for posting!  If we hadn't had the borough people out to check, I would have done so based on what you were saying.  My dh thought of that already though, and had called them to come out and check.  They were right on top of things for us on their end.

Edited January 15, 2017 by Garga