Sewer line camera inspection and repair

[Curt Bixel]

Just sat with a service tech from a plumbing company and watched the video from the camera they pushed down the sewer line in a 4 family property.  It is a 4 inch pipe, and there seemed to be a fair amount of what they called scale.  The bottom quarter of the pipe is mostly filled with scale with a small trench running down the middle.  The full length of the pipe they said needs to be addressed is about 60 feet.  

The suggestion was to clean it with a combination of hydrojetting and some sort of spinning chains with carbide tips to break down the scale.  They will need to dig a 8 foot by 4 foot trench just in front of the house to a point in the line 9 feet below the surface, and unfortunately, under the sidewalk and front stoop of one of the units.  

The estimate for the hydrojetting and spinning chain treatment is about $10,000, and if the line ends up being replaced, the estimate was between $30,000 and $40,000.  

I curious if this seems like a normal cost for this service and what other options their might be.  The line most definitely has a problem with clogging every few years.  

[Marci Stein]

Jetting is Usually about $800-$1000      ..   that estimate seems excessive. I will get several more estimates

[Chris Seveney]

@Curt Bixel

Price is outrageous.

[Sergey A. Petrov]

Depends on what market you are in I suppose. One of mine needed that hydro jet / deep clean plus a dig out to install a clean out. Was just under $10k (verified via multiple trusted relationships with several other providers in the field). Now it seems a part of it has in fact collapsed or nearly collapsed or something else has made it a bigger project (second hand info from my manager to me; haven’t viewed the video yet). The cost to repair / replace is just shy of $75k. I was expecting under $50k. Will be working on getting the video and the reports and doing my due diligence to keep the contractor my manager brought honest and maybe exploring some other options…the numbers overall aren’t too out of the norm for urban Seattle…

[Jill F.]

I just got a clean out installed because the hydrojet head wouldn't fit through the angles of the pipe and then had the old cast iron drains that ran under a basement floor and under the furnaces in a 1900 building done for $900 for clean out install and $500 for jetting. They had some kind of cutting tip on the jet head. They said it would be like a fresh start-over for my drains. (Akron Ohio)

[Lorenzo Prieto]

I'd certainly recommend getting other quotes just to be on the safe side. I recently had an inspection done on a property that I'm purchasing and found a cracked pipe that runs under the driveway. It will require concrete removal to dig down and replace the pipe and the quote from Roto-Rooter was $7,250. We decided to get another quote who will be charging $5,200 so about a 2k difference. Mine certainly issue certainly seem to be minor compared to yours however bottom line is it's worthwhile to get other quotes. 

[Karl Denton]

Get a couple more quotes for sure, seems very high. I would also see if the town could be responsible for any of it, on a duplex I have the town installed new piping up to the porch from the street due to its age. I had scale build up which was causing clogs, however the tenants were flushing diapers and wipes down the drain so I addressed that and just cleaned it out for a number of years to avoid the large costs of repairing the entire pipe. 

[Andrew Syrios]

That price for hydro jetting sounds way too high. And the replacement sounds really high too, even going under the sidewalk. I don't think we've ever paid more than $10k and had some nasty ones. Get some more bids.

[Isaac Lane]

I'd recommend getting multiple quotes. Seems like a high price

[Curt Bixel]

After doing some research, it seems like the company that gave me this estimate might not be one I use in the future.  They offer a "$93 or free" sewer line snaking service that seems to be a good deal.  I was not sure how they could make much profit by offering that sort of deal.  

It seems, however, that the "$93 or free" deal may just be a way for them to get in the front door and then upgrade people to more services at some pretty high prices.  I was first concerned when they showed me an estimate that included $238 for the replacement of the blade on the concrete saw they were going to use.  I do know that some concrete blades do cost that much, but the idea that you would have to replace the blade making two cuts across a sidewalk seemed unreasonable.  I would suspect that it would take less than 3 minutes to cut through the sidewalk, and I expect that a good diamond blade would be able to cut for many hours before needing replaced.  

I have another company coming out that feels confident they can clear the lines with hydrojetting for less than $1000.  

[Bruce Woodruff]

Sounds way high.....

[Marci Stein]

I just had a pipe jetted by the plumber for $900