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Walked
Apr 14, 2003

I have two toilets both on the second floor.

One flushes awesome. The other one flushes slowly as hell SOMETIMES, and othertimes totally normally. It's seemingly random to me. We have already had our main sewer line snaked and camera inspected, so that's good (was for a totally different matter, and I forgot to have the plumber check out the toilet).

I'm wondering if the venting is an issue, or if it's likely something somewhere before that toilet hits the main line of the house. Any checks I can do to narrow down the issue? Plumbers are getting expensive and I'd love to avoid paying yet another.

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kid sinister
Nov 16, 2002

Walked posted:

I have two toilets both on the second floor.

One flushes awesome. The other one flushes slowly as hell SOMETIMES, and othertimes totally normally. It's seemingly random to me. We have already had our main sewer line snaked and camera inspected, so that's good (was for a totally different matter, and I forgot to have the plumber check out the toilet).

I'm wondering if the venting is an issue, or if it's likely something somewhere before that toilet hits the main line of the house. Any checks I can do to narrow down the issue? Plumbers are getting expensive and I'd love to avoid paying yet another.

How is the water level in the tank? Is it up to the fill line? That's the first check.

Walked
Apr 14, 2003

kid sinister posted:

How is the water level in the tank? Is it up to the fill line? That's the first check.

Tank fills totally fine. It seems like the water from the tank to the bowl is really slow on some flushes. Any idea why that'd be? Once I track down a bucket I'm going to try manually flushing to confirm that's where the issue lies.

slap me silly
Nov 1, 2009
Grimey Drawer
Is it the flap type? The slow flush will happen if the flap doesn't come up far enough. I've seen that happen due to the chain being goobered up (try pulling it up by hand) and due to the flap getting stuck on something.

Walked
Apr 14, 2003

slap me silly posted:

Is it the flap type? The slow flush will happen if the flap doesn't come up far enough. I've seen that happen due to the chain being goobered up (try pulling it up by hand) and due to the flap getting stuck on something.

Bucket flush works perfectly.
Holding up the flap does not make a difference, the tank empties too slowly to get a good siphon. What's strange though is once in a while the normal flush does work.

I'd say I'll just buy a new toilet, but this bathroom is slated for remodel later this year and I dont really feel like dealing with replacing fixtures twice, if I can avoid it.

boberteatskitten
Jan 30, 2013

Do not put rocks in brain.
Just bought a house, and the inspector noted that two copper water supply pipes (cold) are contacting each other and recommends they be separated. Should I read that as "the inspector has to point out anything that is technically wrong" or as a problem I should fix? And, if I should fix it, can I just put a piece of cloth between the pipes, or do I need to plan on moving the pipes?

Vulture Culture
Jul 14, 2003

I was never enjoying it. I only eat it for the nutrients.

boberteatskitten posted:

Just bought a house, and the inspector noted that two copper water supply pipes (cold) are contacting each other and recommends they be separated. Should I read that as "the inspector has to point out anything that is technically wrong" or as a problem I should fix? And, if I should fix it, can I just put a piece of cloth between the pipes, or do I need to plan on moving the pipes?
You're allowed to follow up with the inspector and ask him his recommendation on things, you know. I'm assuming you paid him money for a service.

My impression is that if the pipes are the same material, you don't need to worry about galvanic corrosion, so that just leaves heat transfer issues. Where do the pipes come from/go?

boberteatskitten
Jan 30, 2013

Do not put rocks in brain.

Misogynist posted:

You're allowed to follow up with the inspector and ask him his recommendation on things, you know. I'm assuming you paid him money for a service.

Yeah, I gave up the follow up option by accepting the seller's very recent pre-sale inspection document and not paying a second person to do it a week later, so I'm doing a little bit of interpretation. But thanks for confirming it's probably more of a heat transfer issue than anything else. Pipes are just supply lines as far as I can tell (two bathrooms).

Motronic
Nov 6, 2009

boberteatskitten posted:

Just bought a house, and the inspector noted that two copper water supply pipes (cold) are contacting each other and recommends they be separated. Should I read that as "the inspector has to point out anything that is technically wrong" or as a problem I should fix? And, if I should fix it, can I just put a piece of cloth between the pipes, or do I need to plan on moving the pipes?

No, a piece of cloth is not appropriate.

Pipes move when things they are hooked up to are turned on/off if they aren't properly restrained (it's called water hammer). This leads to noise and possible wear damage.

He was likely noting an issue where pipes are touching because a run of it isn't properly attached to the ceiling/wall/etc.

Yes, you should fix it. Depending on where/what this will take all of $10 worth of bells or strap and 15 minutes of your time. Does it need to be fixed NOW? Absolutely not. Just put it on your list. You do have a list, right? If not, you just started one and it will grow as you're moving in.

Good luck and congratulations on the new place.

kid sinister
Nov 16, 2002

boberteatskitten posted:

Just bought a house, and the inspector noted that two copper water supply pipes (cold) are contacting each other and recommends they be separated. Should I read that as "the inspector has to point out anything that is technically wrong" or as a problem I should fix? And, if I should fix it, can I just put a piece of cloth between the pipes, or do I need to plan on moving the pipes?

Could you post a picture of where they're touching? If they're both cold pipes, then I really can't imagine how that would be a problem...

^^^^^doh, forgot about water hammer

boberteatskitten
Jan 30, 2013

Do not put rocks in brain.

Motronic posted:

No, a piece of cloth is not appropriate.

Pipes move when things they are hooked up to are turned on/off if they aren't properly restrained (it's called water hammer). This leads to noise and possible wear damage.

He was likely noting an issue where pipes are touching because a run of it isn't properly attached to the ceiling/wall/etc.

Yes, you should fix it. Depending on where/what this will take all of $10 worth of bells or strap and 15 minutes of your time. Does it need to be fixed NOW? Absolutely not. Just put it on your list. You do have a list, right? If not, you just started one and it will grow as you're moving in.

Good luck and congratulations on the new place.

GREAT point. Thanks much for the help. And yeah -- definitely have a giant, color coded list :) -- moving this guy from "possibly critical" to "medium" on the priority scale.

Bad Munki
Nov 4, 2008

We're all mad here.


After accidentally posting this in the electrical thread because it has the same icon and I wasn't paying attention, let's try this again:

The last two days, I think my hot water has run out a lot faster than before. Like, I drained it on my own the last two days, whereas previously my wife could shower, then I could shower, and we wouldn't even notice a dip in the temp. Heck, over Christmas, we had my wife and I, our kid, both my parents, and my sister and her boyfriend living here for a week, and we never had any hot water issues. I'm going to time it tomorrow to see how long I get hot water, but I feel like if I'm even noticing it, even if it's a long shower, something has changed suddenly. The water is still just as hot as ever, it's just not lasting as long. And it's not like someone else is sneaking hot water at the same time, as I'm the only one here during the day when I finally have a few minutes to shower. It's a gas water heater.

Any ideas?

kid sinister
Nov 16, 2002
Me again! At only 2 days, it's still possible that you just caught your water heater at inopportune times when it was just beginning to reheat the tank. That has happened to me before with my gas heater. Give it a week and report back.

Bad Munki
Nov 4, 2008

We're all mad here.


Okay. It just seems really odd that I have lived in this house for just shy of two years now and I don't think I've EVER run low on hot water before, in spite of showering at random times and having tons of people stay here from time to time. I'll just keep an eye on it, though, and maybe actually intentionally run it out while timing it a few times. :)

Jadunk
Feb 27, 2013

Bad Munki posted:

Okay. It just seems really odd that I have lived in this house for just shy of two years now and I don't think I've EVER run low on hot water before, in spite of showering at random times and having tons of people stay here from time to time. I'll just keep an eye on it, though, and maybe actually intentionally run it out while timing it a few times. :)

If it continues to be an issue most likely causes are either the thermowell having problems or the dip tube breaking down. Pull the aerator off a fixture you regularly use for hot water and see if there are chunks of what could be plastic in there. How old is the water heater? (if you can't find the date on there post the manufacturer name and serial and I can figure it out from there)

Motronic
Nov 6, 2009

Bad Munki posted:

After accidentally posting this in the electrical thread because it has the same icon and I wasn't paying attention, let's try this again:

The last two days, I think my hot water has run out a lot faster than before. Like, I drained it on my own the last two days, whereas previously my wife could shower, then I could shower, and we wouldn't even notice a dip in the temp. Heck, over Christmas, we had my wife and I, our kid, both my parents, and my sister and her boyfriend living here for a week, and we never had any hot water issues. I'm going to time it tomorrow to see how long I get hot water, but I feel like if I'm even noticing it, even if it's a long shower, something has changed suddenly. The water is still just as hot as ever, it's just not lasting as long. And it's not like someone else is sneaking hot water at the same time, as I'm the only one here during the day when I finally have a few minutes to shower. It's a gas water heater.

Any ideas?

Is this a gas or electric water heater? Tanked or tankless?

I'll assume tanked electric and tell you that it's time to test your heating elements. One of them is probably bad. They are cheap and easy to change.

Bad Munki
Nov 4, 2008

We're all mad here.


Tanked. Last sentence in the main paragraph you quotes says gas. ;)

I can get a make or model if it helps. The house was built in 2007, so this heater undoubtedly came in at that time. I didn't notice any drop in temp today, but I didn't wait around for the water to get cold, I had somewhere to be. Maybe this weekend I'll test it a little more formally.

Motronic
Nov 6, 2009

Bad Munki posted:

Tanked. Last sentence in the main paragraph you quotes says gas. ;)

Obvious lack of coffee.

First things first....easy stuff: have you drained the tank....ever? It could be full of crap on the bottom. This reduces the volume of water in it as well as screwing up the thermal transfer. Turn it off, drain it. Maybe fill it back up a bit again and drain some more. Keep doing this until nasty crap stops coming out.

Next up when you've turned it back on, watch/listen to how it burns as it heats up that new tank full of cold water. It is nice and blue and mostly quiet? Or is it burning "ragged" (orange/yellow and noisy)?

edit: you should be doing all of this annually.

Bad Munki
Nov 4, 2008

We're all mad here.


All right, I'll have a look. This is my first house, but we've only been here about a year and a half, so I haven't been TOO negligent in my water tank duties. ;)

Slugworth
Feb 18, 2001

If two grown men can't make a pervert happy for a few minutes in order to watch a film about zombies, then maybe we should all just move to Iran!
I just saw a person on another forum claim he can get about 87 gallons of water a day for free through meter slippage. Does that seem feasible? I get the concept, I just can't imagine a water meter being that insensitive.

Motronic
Nov 6, 2009

Slugworth posted:

I just saw a person on another forum claim he can get about 87 gallons of water a day for free through meter slippage. Does that seem feasible? I get the concept, I just can't imagine a water meter being that insensitive.

A large meter that is particularly beat up could probably slip that much at low flow.

ntd
Apr 17, 2001

Give me a sandwich!

Slugworth posted:

I just saw a person on another forum claim he can get about 87 gallons of water a day for free through meter slippage. Does that seem feasible? I get the concept, I just can't imagine a water meter being that insensitive.

Is this something the person does to save money or just got curious and figured out? I can't imagine the $.50 per day being worth messing around with faucets to keep the flow low enough...maybe I could see him setting a toilet to or something, but then you probably wouldn't use all of that delicious free water

Slugworth
Feb 18, 2001

If two grown men can't make a pervert happy for a few minutes in order to watch a film about zombies, then maybe we should all just move to Iran!

ntd posted:

Is this something the person does to save money or just got curious and figured out? I can't imagine the $.50 per day being worth messing around with faucets to keep the flow low enough...maybe I could see him setting a toilet to or something, but then you probably wouldn't use all of that delicious free water
Drip system for a 400 gallon snapping turtle tank. It's overkill, but he replaces 87 gallons a day to keep the water pristine (they are filthy creatures, but not *that* bad). Drip systems are real popular on big fish tanks too, and it always seemed wasteful to me. I guess if it's not getting metered though, more power to them.

Motronic
Nov 6, 2009

Slugworth posted:

Drip system for a 400 gallon snapping turtle tank. It's overkill, but he replaces 87 gallons a day to keep the water pristine (they are filthy creatures, but not *that* bad). Drip systems are real popular on big fish tanks too, and it always seemed wasteful to me. I guess if it's not getting metered though, more power to them.

Yup, that makes sense. A big (3/4", 1") and old meter with a less than 4 GPH continuous draw would be a prime candidate for that kind of slip.

Gatla
Apr 29, 2004
Blah blah blah.
I have three toilets in my house. Two on the top floor and one in the basement. The one in the basement is giving me some problems. The first thing is it leaks around the base so I'm guessing the seal for the drain is bad. Because of this I turned off the water to it so we can't use it until I fix it. However, the bowl will fill up with water occasionally and then "flush" and by that I mean the water will drain out till there is just a little left in the bowl. Also, before I noticed it leaking it would do a kind of double flush where the water would drain the bowl would fill back up and then drain again in the same flush. Besides the leaking are these things I should be worried about?

Recluse
Mar 5, 2004

Yeah, I did that.

Gatla posted:

I have three toilets in my house. Two on the top floor and one in the basement. The one in the basement is giving me some problems. The first thing is it leaks around the base so I'm guessing the seal for the drain is bad. Because of this I turned off the water to it so we can't use it until I fix it. However, the bowl will fill up with water occasionally and then "flush" and by that I mean the water will drain out till there is just a little left in the bowl. Also, before I noticed it leaking it would do a kind of double flush where the water would drain the bowl would fill back up and then drain again in the same flush. Besides the leaking are these things I should be worried about?

Check for leaks around the water shut-off and the water intake, but yeah sounds like you may need to replace the wax gasket. For the double flush, not sure I understand correctly, but sounds like you may need to replace your flush valve? Take the tank lid off and watch and see what is going on during the double flushes or if it looks like the flapper is leaking. The water going low in the tank though sounds a little more serious though, like it's leaking into the trap but I have no idea, hopefully someone here will have a better idea.

kid sinister
Nov 16, 2002

Gatla posted:

I have three toilets in my house. Two on the top floor and one in the basement. The one in the basement is giving me some problems. The first thing is it leaks around the base so I'm guessing the seal for the drain is bad. Because of this I turned off the water to it so we can't use it until I fix it. However, the bowl will fill up with water occasionally and then "flush" and by that I mean the water will drain out till there is just a little left in the bowl. Also, before I noticed it leaking it would do a kind of double flush where the water would drain the bowl would fill back up and then drain again in the same flush. Besides the leaking are these things I should be worried about?

Recluse is right, replace the wax ring for the leak around the base. However, I would first do the stop valve fix below since you will need to shut the toilet's water off first before you take the toilet off the floor to replace its wax ring.

It sounds like your toilet is still filling up regardless of closing the stop valve on the wall. That means that your stop valve is leaking down the pipe and I would fix that first. You need to turn off the water to your house, put a big towel under the valve, unscrew the screw holding on the handle, take off the handle, unscrew the packing nut, put the handle back on the stem and use it to unscrew the stem out of the valve, then take that stem to your local hardware store/plumbing supply and get a new stem washer and packing washer for it.

As for a toilet flushing by itself, that can sometimes be caused by a bad flapper in the tank.

Regarding the double flush, is this a low flush toilet? That can be caused in low flush toilets by using a flapper for an older toilet.

kid sinister fucked around with this message at 19:51 on Mar 27, 2014

Walked
Apr 14, 2003

Can someone give me a second/third/etc opinion on a camera of my sewer? We've had two recent clogs and had it run with a camera by two plumbers and gotten two stories. Finally got a DVD

Plumber 1 suggested that the issue is a "massive belly" in the line (which the DVD does not seem to support).

Plumber 2 says there's a cracked pipe in the line, but I'm not sure of that either. He notes the collection of stuff around 3:45 in the video, but I'm not seeing a cracked pipe (albeit I am not sure exactly what I should be seeing either)

This is what he pointed out basically for the cracked pipe:


Both offered quotes to replace it for $8700 and $7200 respectively.

Noone seems to have a good guess as to what the gunk in the line is; one suggested mud, but wasnt sure. It looks to me like that's the main cause of things backing up, but again - I'm not an expert. Dirt makes some sense as we have a floor drain in the concrete area outside the basement and its pretty dirty, but who knows - we only bought the house in September)

Camera on youtube:
http://youtu.be/5VldUIvErS0

Obviously I dont want to replace the pipe unless it's necessary and I'd love to have someone who isnt going to sell me a new sewer give an opinion or two. I've had two master plumbers give wildly different opinions so who the hell knows.

Walked fucked around with this message at 15:53 on Mar 28, 2014

ManDingo
Jun 1, 2001
I'm planning on redoing my rats nest of steel/copper supply lines with pex. I had a call in to the city (St. Louis Park, MN) inspector to ask some questions about the code. I'm a homeowner not a licensed contractor. He said I will need a card that says I'm certified by the specific manufacturer to install the new stuff or it will not pass. Any ideas on where I would get this? It looks like Apollo has one online (http://www.apolloflow.com/pex) but I bought all Nibco materials.

Jadunk
Feb 27, 2013

Walked posted:

Can someone give me a second/third/etc opinion on a camera of my sewer? We've had two recent clogs and had it run with a camera by two plumbers and gotten two stories. Finally got a DVD

Plumber 1 suggested that the issue is a "massive belly" in the line (which the DVD does not seem to support).

Plumber 2 says there's a cracked pipe in the line, but I'm not sure of that either. He notes the collection of stuff around 3:45 in the video, but I'm not seeing a cracked pipe (albeit I am not sure exactly what I should be seeing either)

This is what he pointed out basically for the cracked pipe:


Both offered quotes to replace it for $8700 and $7200 respectively.

Noone seems to have a good guess as to what the gunk in the line is; one suggested mud, but wasnt sure. It looks to me like that's the main cause of things backing up, but again - I'm not an expert. Dirt makes some sense as we have a floor drain in the concrete area outside the basement and its pretty dirty, but who knows - we only bought the house in September)

Camera on youtube:
http://youtu.be/5VldUIvErS0

Obviously I dont want to replace the pipe unless it's necessary and I'd love to have someone who isnt going to sell me a new sewer give an opinion or two. I've had two master plumbers give wildly different opinions so who the hell knows.

First off, the stuff they couldn't identify worries me as any service plumber that has worked in an area with old cast iron should recognize scale. Did one of the people jet the line after it clogged? That amount of scale that's flaked off looks to me like either the line was jetted, a blade that barely fit was run down or the line sat for some time without any use. Whenever old cast iron with scale buildup on the walls sits for long enough to fully dry out you will have scale crack and fall into the bottom of the pipe. Can't tell you how many times I've gone to restaurants that sat for awhile before the new tenant moved in and discovered all their floor drains were clogged.

I guess technically you have a couple options, one of them is gonna be kinda expensive and might fix it the other is a new sewer which will fix it. Either the whole line needs to be replaced or relined (do not do relining if you're in CA or somewhere that gets lots of earthquakes, we have been seeing tons and tons of 3-5 year old liners falling apart from even small earthquakes) OR someone needs to add a cleanout at the end of the line and thoroughly jet the line with a good jetter head that rotates. Basically if you are using 4k PSI water with a rotating head you can work it in then slowly pull the scale out into your hole, then work it a little farther, slowly pull it back etc.

What was the scope of work on their bid / what area of the world are you in? Are you on septic or city sewer? (I didn't see the camera drop into the city sewer OR a septic tank) Also hassle them and find out why they stopped the inspection at that length out? Does your muncipality take ownership of the pipe off your property line, were they not able to push the camera in any further, or were they just lazy and stopped for "reasons"?

Jadunk
Feb 27, 2013

ManDingo posted:

I'm planning on redoing my rats nest of steel/copper supply lines with pex. I had a call in to the city (St. Louis Park, MN) inspector to ask some questions about the code. I'm a homeowner not a licensed contractor. He said I will need a card that says I'm certified by the specific manufacturer to install the new stuff or it will not pass. Any ideas on where I would get this? It looks like Apollo has one online (http://www.apolloflow.com/pex) but I bought all Nibco materials.

Do you know any local (or local-ish) plumbing supply vendors? You can call them and ask who their rep for nibco is and then call them up and ask if you can come in and get your cert. Otherwise you can call nibco up and ask them who their rep in your area is as you need to get a cert card to use their piping. Also if you didn't already buy the hand operated expander do yourself a huge favor and call around to see if you can find one for rent. Doing 1-2 fittings with a hand expander is no big deal but you don't want to use one for your whole house. Several of my local supply houses have one they will rent out for like 50-75 a day. Alternately you can just buy one for a couple hundred bucks. (it will save you a couple hundred bucks worth of time and aggravation)

Gatla
Apr 29, 2004
Blah blah blah.

kid sinister posted:

Recluse is right, replace the wax ring for the leak around the base. However, I would first do the stop valve fix below since you will need to shut the toilet's water off first before you take the toilet off the floor to replace its wax ring.

It sounds like your toilet is still filling up regardless of closing the stop valve on the wall. That means that your stop valve is leaking down the pipe and I would fix that first. You need to turn off the water to your house, put a big towel under the valve, unscrew the screw holding on the handle, take off the handle, unscrew the packing nut, put the handle back on the stem and use it to unscrew the stem out of the valve, then take that stem to your local hardware store/plumbing supply and get a new stem washer and packing washer for it.

As for a toilet flushing by itself, that can sometimes be caused by a bad flapper in the tank.

Regarding the double flush, is this a low flush toilet? That can be caused in low flush toilets by using a flapper for an older toilet.

I did a little something different for the stop valve. Instead of taking the valve apart I disconnected it from the toilet and I didn't have any water coming out of the stop valve. I didn't really think about this being a problem and I was really hoping that it was the problem.

I did notice something strange when my girlfriend was taking a shower this morning, the toilet was gurgling. I did try after I got off work to make it happen again, but when I ran the water in the tub for 5 minutes I did not hear any gurgling. We have had problems with the basement drain backing up when taking a shower and we had a plumber come out and got some roots out of the sewer. Is it possible that the sewer could be clogging again and that is sewer water coming back up the toilet instead of coming up the basement drain? The toilet gets to the main sewer line by going to the drain. At least that is what I've been told from the previous owner.

I did go and get some of that flushable root killer and flushed that to see if it would help, but I'm not sure when I will be able to find out if it works.

Walked
Apr 14, 2003

Jadunk posted:

First off, the stuff they couldn't identify worries me as any service plumber that has worked in an area with old cast iron should recognize scale. Did one of the people jet the line after it clogged? That amount of scale that's flaked off looks to me like either the line was jetted, a blade that barely fit was run down or the line sat for some time without any use. Whenever old cast iron with scale buildup on the walls sits for long enough to fully dry out you will have scale crack and fall into the bottom of the pipe. Can't tell you how many times I've gone to restaurants that sat for awhile before the new tenant moved in and discovered all their floor drains were clogged.

I guess technically you have a couple options, one of them is gonna be kinda expensive and might fix it the other is a new sewer which will fix it. Either the whole line needs to be replaced or relined (do not do relining if you're in CA or somewhere that gets lots of earthquakes, we have been seeing tons and tons of 3-5 year old liners falling apart from even small earthquakes) OR someone needs to add a cleanout at the end of the line and thoroughly jet the line with a good jetter head that rotates. Basically if you are using 4k PSI water with a rotating head you can work it in then slowly pull the scale out into your hole, then work it a little farther, slowly pull it back etc.

What was the scope of work on their bid / what area of the world are you in? Are you on septic or city sewer? (I didn't see the camera drop into the city sewer OR a septic tank) Also hassle them and find out why they stopped the inspection at that length out? Does your muncipality take ownership of the pipe off your property line, were they not able to push the camera in any further, or were they just lazy and stopped for "reasons"?

Thanks. They ran out of camera / it was well into the city domain at that point.

Jetting is my first thought, but the worry is that'll potentially damage the pipe as it's old as hell. (1925 is the build date)

New sewer pipe to the curb was bid at $7200 (about 20' of open trench) plus replacing the main water line as it's also original and in the same spot. But that's also the plumber who failed to identify the sludge... Soooo... Second bid was $8700 but I didn't really trust that guy.

Basically jetting seems like an [expensive] stopgap with a possibility of leading to replacement and replacement is expensive as hell (though I'm still getting bids).

I feel like babying the sewer for a few months and saving some spare coin for an early fall replacement is my ideal plan, but I'm not sure if that's realistic.

tater_salad
Sep 15, 2007


I was going to say before that of the toilets filling you probably have a plugged line. The toilet is probably one of the lowest drains. Id say have someone root it again and use root killer regularly.

Jadunk
Feb 27, 2013

Walked posted:

Thanks. They ran out of camera / it was well into the city domain at that point.

Jetting is my first thought, but the worry is that'll potentially damage the pipe as it's old as hell. (1925 is the build date)

New sewer pipe to the curb was bid at $7200 (about 20' of open trench) plus replacing the main water line as it's also original and in the same spot. But that's also the plumber who failed to identify the sludge... Soooo... Second bid was $8700 but I didn't really trust that guy.

Basically jetting seems like an [expensive] stopgap with a possibility of leading to replacement and replacement is expensive as hell (though I'm still getting bids).

I feel like babying the sewer for a few months and saving some spare coin for an early fall replacement is my ideal plan, but I'm not sure if that's realistic.

You're pretty much right on point with your thoughts on the options. 7200 seems high depending on where you're at and how deep / what kind of access they have. If they've got their poo poo together they could potentially do it in a day if the access is right. (fully open to use a backhoe and a place to put the spoil, not too deep) Is there any particular reason why they have to trench it instead of doing tenchless pipebursting? Usually a fair bit cheaper to not trench it assuming it's an option. (from what I saw trenchless is an option, the line doesn't appear to have any bellys and only holds that water on the bottom because the bottom of the pipe is mostly gone)

Walked
Apr 14, 2003

Jadunk posted:

You're pretty much right on point with your thoughts on the options. 7200 seems high depending on where you're at and how deep / what kind of access they have. If they've got their poo poo together they could potentially do it in a day if the access is right. (fully open to use a backhoe and a place to put the spoil, not too deep) Is there any particular reason why they have to trench it instead of doing tenchless pipebursting? Usually a fair bit cheaper to not trench it assuming it's an option. (from what I saw trenchless is an option, the line doesn't appear to have any bellys and only holds that water on the bottom because the bottom of the pipe is mostly gone)

I called a trench less group and after video review they agreed open trenching is the way to go, don't recall why.

Pricing is probably because we're in DC proper, so city permitting and high cost of living area. We do have full open access and space for dirt on our property though.

I'm switching us to single ply, watching craigslist for a snake, and budgeting for full replacement in September or so. Such a pain, but with 100 year old cast iron it's to be expected!

Jadunk
Feb 27, 2013
Strange. I've done a couple hundred trenchless replacements and nothing I see in the video would indicate to me that it isn't a good candidate. Even if it is flat a trenched sewer isn't going to fix that either unless they're going to replace everything below ground and raise it up where it's above ground. Maybe the inspectors in your area are more hassle than they're worth, we've got a couple areas like that here in the SF bay area. Just aren't worth working in unless the job is way overbid.

WeaselWeaz
Apr 11, 2004

Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Biscuits and Gravy.
I replaced my 1.6gpf toilet's flush valve with a 3.5gpf, when fixing a leak, not knowing any better and having a limited selection at the hardware store that day. Any problems that can happen due to this, other than using more water? I have the double flush mostly solved by adjusting the fill valve. I'd really enjoy not having to take it apart again, since getting the bolts tight enough to not leak, but not enough to crack the porcelain, was a bitch.

Jadunk
Feb 27, 2013

WeaselWeaz posted:

I replaced my 1.6gpf toilet's flush valve with a 3.5gpf, when fixing a leak, not knowing any better and having a limited selection at the hardware store that day. Any problems that can happen due to this, other than using more water? I have the double flush mostly solved by adjusting the fill valve. I'd really enjoy not having to take it apart again, since getting the bolts tight enough to not leak, but not enough to crack the porcelain, was a bitch.


You should be fine, the double flush / water wasting is the biggest problem. If you can flush it, have a normal flush cycle then the water spot in the toilet is at the normal level after it's done filling you are all set.

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Farside
Aug 11, 2002
I love my Commodore 64
With out fail, for the last 3 springs my sewer has backed up and flooded my basement. My city's sewer department stops by and plunges the main line from the vent pipe in my front yard. Everything will be fine until next spring. I have a partially finished basement and luckily they have been caught before it spread.

I want to get a camera into the line but I am having a few problems.

1. The house is 160+ years old with what I assume is the original sewer lines.
2. My clean out in the basement is 3" and tees into the mainline. It's not a wye connection.
3. I had a plumber attempt to get a camera into this clean out. This is not an an original clean out but was added sometime before I owned the house. The camera kept getting hung up on something and he couldn't get it fully into the main line. Only a few inches.

I called around to several local plumbing places to see if they had a smaller camera. All said that they have one standard sized one. This included small local guys and bigger franchise ones.

I know that they used to make smaller ones. About 8 years ago on another property I own that is 100+ years old, they put a camera through a floor drain to get into the sewer line.

Is there a smaller type of camera? Does it have a specific name that I should be asking for? Any other options I should try to get a video inspection?

Other random info.

The line in my house is cast iron. The plumber seems to think it transitions to clay somewhere outside the house. He said he thinks this because looking down the vent in the front yard he sees what looks like a transition from cast iron to something reddish and smooth. I looked at it and all I really saw was what looked like a crack in the vent line.

There is a medium sized tree 3 feet from where the vent is. If the lines are clay it could be roots.

However, our first year in the house and after the first time it backed up my daughter flushed an entire pack of baby wipes and we had the line augured out. The plumber didn't get any roots, only wipes.

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