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

[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.