plumbing/excavator recommendations

[juldea.livejournal.com]

My fiance and I just found out from our initial plumbing contact that the main line from the house to the sewer, about 20 feet of clay pipe, is collapsed and needs replacing. This involves digging up part of the porch, the front yard, the sidewalk, and part of the street, then of course rebuilding all of that after the pipes are replaced. We have been quoted almost $20,000 for this job, which is a lot. We'd like to have a few competing quotes to sanity-check. Can anyone recommend a plumbing company?

Comments

[sparr0.livejournal.com]

Do the digging yourself, save a lot of money.

[juldea.livejournal.com]

We're considering this for the portion that's our yard, but considering the permits, permissions, and qualifications needed to dig up and replace the sidewalk and the street, the whole job is not doable by us.

[somervilleguy.livejournal.com]

Don't dig anywhere yourself. Insurance will probably not cover this if you hit a gas line. Not to mention you will need a drainlayers license to do this (even on your property) and you will need to rent a machine of appropriate size for this job. The contractor will call dig safe and they will mark all the lines in the area and he will pull the permit.

BTW did they put a camera into this pipe or was it just snaked?

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

I assume this is not something that homeowner's insurance covers?

I'm not sure if that's beyond what he can do (not sure he does all the digging and replacing, etc), but James Dillon Plumbing has been fantastic for us.

[juldea.livejournal.com]

We went over the paperwork for our policy last night, and it's neither explicitly included or excluded, so he's contacting our insurer today to find out. A brief internet search leads me to believe it's not likely covered, though. :/

Thank you for the rec!

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

another thought to explore is if the pipe is yours or the city's? I'm sure at some point it becomes their problem, but I have no idea where that point is.

what a pain in the arse!

[juldea.livejournal.com]

The plumber we have was pretty clear that until the pipe empties into the main sewer line, it's ours to deal with. :/

[somervilleguy.livejournal.com]

The pipe on your property is yours, once on the sidewalk it's the city's problem.

[greyling.livejournal.com]

I wasn't aware of any general rule of thumb on this, but the plumber I worked with said it was worth checking to see if the sewer line leaving my house belongs to the city once its under the sidewalk.

[vibrantabyss.livejournal.com]

I have used J.J. Sullivan for years for plumbing.

however, it sounds like you want a general contractor given the scope. Mine is here right now, and you can call him @ (617) 504-5888 (Joe Coviello, who I found from recommendations here, and can't say enough good things about)

He said he'd be happy to come take a look, and if it is beyond his scope, he'd be able to give you some good recommendations.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

This strikes me as the sort of job where you want to get three to five estimates, because some companies will really want the work. general contractor is the right place to start, I think.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

mmm, just had that work done (but not local to you, so can't offer details)... but for something like 20-25 feet of new plastic pipe, and hookups, it was UNDER $3000 iirc.

instead of "estimates" perhaps, more on "bids"?

write up a bid offer letter, and contact as many reputable firms as you can. then they get to decide if they want the work for a given price... heck, there's probably a nearly standard form letter for such a thing, that you can customize, and the email/fax it out. eh voila. a lawyer wouldn't hurt to iron out a contract.

one of those things that given the Winter coming on as well, you don't want to delay on. good luck.

#

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

$20K seems really high for that. Really, really high. My inlaws had something similar done in Cleveland and it was a couple or three thousand dollars, and a much longer pipe.

I would invest in an Angie's List membership and get several estimates.

[springhill02143.livejournal.com]

We had a similar problem that was discovered years ago while our porch was being rebuilt - the holes our contractor was digging for the porch footings kept filling with water, and it turned out to be from the waste pipe, which was 50% disconnected from the line out to the sewer. More damage to the connection to the sewer was discovered when the plumber sent a camera down the pipe toward the street.

So our part of the plumbing problem ended up costing $2,200 for a connector, small piece of pipe and installation (but not including the porch, excavation, etc. since that was part of a much larger project) and the City's contractor kindly took care of the part in the street, which the City (Somerville) was very clear with me that they didn't have to do - although it did involve digging up the street, so I'm sure it would have been complicated if I'd decided to take on the problem using my own contractor.

My advice: beg the water department superintendent to have mercy on you and your street's old pipes. It worked for me.