How much should this sewer line repair cost

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Topic Author
BernardShakey
Posts: 1149
Joined: Tue Jun 25, 2019 10:52 pm

How much should this sewer line repair cost

Post by BernardShakey »

Broken 4-inch diameter sewer lateral that runs from my house all the way to the center of the alley where it meets with the city sewer main. Cause of break was tree roots. The block / break is in the alley which makes excavating and repairing, resurfacing asphalt very expensive due to city permits and city requirements. Alternative is to excavate in my yard, cut out a short section of pipe, shoot a "sleeve" inside the existing pipe about 35' all the way past the break to where my line meets the city sewer main in the alley, and install a 4" diameter bullhorn clean-out where the short section of pipe was removed. This allows easy snaking in the future in both upstream and downstream directions. No concrete demo required. Question: about how much should this cost in a VHCOL area?
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rebellovw
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Re: How much should this sewer line repair cost

Post by rebellovw »

BernardShakey wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 3:49 pm Broken 4-inch diameter sewer lateral that runs from my house all the way to the center of the alley where it meets with the city sewer main. Cause of break was tree roots. The block / break is in the alley which makes excavating and repairing, resurfacing asphalt very expensive due to city permits and city requirements. Alternative is to excavate in my yard, cut out a short section of pipe, shoot a "sleeve" inside the existing pipe about 35' all the way past the break to where my line meets the city sewer main in the alley, and install a 4" diameter bullhorn clean-out where the short section of pipe was removed. This allows easy snaking in the future in both upstream and downstream directions. No concrete demo required. Question: about how much should this cost in a VHCOL area?
Fun! I have no idea - but I had the same situation - cost me a little over 16K all said and done - permits etc (5 ft into the street). LCOL area - Prescott AZ.

I originally was quoted 10K from one plumber - then went with a very good plumber with a great rep. He wanted to dig at the street to access - and found from the street to the sewer contact point - there was a belly - only about 3 ft in - could have been much worse - so that he advised to fix which I did.

I wasn't happy - but in the end it could have been really bad and it wasn't.
Northern Flicker
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Re: How much should this sewer line repair cost

Post by Northern Flicker »

BernardShakey wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 3:49 pm Broken 4-inch diameter sewer lateral that runs from my house all the way to the center of the alley where it meets with the city sewer main. Cause of break was tree roots. The block / break is in the alley which makes excavating and repairing, resurfacing asphalt very expensive due to city permits and city requirements. Alternative is to excavate in my yard, cut out a short section of pipe, shoot a "sleeve" inside the existing pipe about 35' all the way past the break to where my line meets the city sewer main in the alley, and install a 4" diameter bullhorn clean-out where the short section of pipe was removed. This allows easy snaking in the future in both upstream and downstream directions. No concrete demo required. Question: about how much should this cost in a VHCOL area?
The cost will be the amount from the lowest bid you get from a reliable sewer contractor. Your best course of action is to be sure you are dealing with honest, competent sewer contractors. However, I don't think even a professional sewer contractor could estimate the job from the info available in your posting (example: how deep is it at the sewer main branch for your property?)

I personally would be leery of a sleeve based on my understanding of their failure rates, but if the cost difference is large it still would be something I would consider.
Last edited by Northern Flicker on Mon Nov 29, 2021 5:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
hotscot
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Re: How much should this sewer line repair cost

Post by hotscot »

If I was going to stay there I'd get the best possible repair.
They probably give free estimates. It should be a engineer/estimator who visits.
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ResearchMed
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Re: How much should this sewer line repair cost

Post by ResearchMed »

rebellovw wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 4:05 pm
BernardShakey wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 3:49 pm Broken 4-inch diameter sewer lateral that runs from my house all the way to the center of the alley where it meets with the city sewer main. Cause of break was tree roots. The block / break is in the alley which makes excavating and repairing, resurfacing asphalt very expensive due to city permits and city requirements. Alternative is to excavate in my yard, cut out a short section of pipe, shoot a "sleeve" inside the existing pipe about 35' all the way past the break to where my line meets the city sewer main in the alley, and install a 4" diameter bullhorn clean-out where the short section of pipe was removed. This allows easy snaking in the future in both upstream and downstream directions. No concrete demo required. Question: about how much should this cost in a VHCOL area?
Fun! I have no idea - but I had the same situation - cost me a little over 16K all said and done - permits etc (5 ft into the street). LCOL area - Prescott AZ.

I originally was quoted 10K from one plumber - then went with a very good plumber with a great rep. He wanted to dig at the street to access - and found from the street to the sewer contact point - there was a belly - only about 3 ft in - could have been much worse - so that he advised to fix which I did.

I wasn't happy - but in the end it could have been really bad and it wasn't.
Whew... seems that we dodged a bullet a few years after moving in here.

We started having backups, had it cleared out twice, then a sewer pipe colonoscopy.
It showed some roots remaining inside, but worse, apparently there were roots outside the piping, slowly strangling/twisting it.
It was at risk of cracking/breaking.

We had the very large but not healthy tree near that sewer line removed, with some regret as it wasn't dead. Yet.
We then put in a rather large cherry tree, further from the sewer line.
We now have a huge cherry tree with lovely blossoms every spring.
And a clear sewer line.

Seems like we could have paid more than that relatively large cherry tree (it was interesting to watch it arrive and be "planted"!), just to get the pipe fixed, had we waited until it was too late.
And then needed to remove the old tree anyway.

We were told it would be expensive, but we didn't know if that was just vendors preparing us for $$$$ estimates, etc.

RM
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Topic Author
BernardShakey
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Joined: Tue Jun 25, 2019 10:52 pm

Re: How much should this sewer line repair cost

Post by BernardShakey »

Northern Flicker wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 4:34 pm
BernardShakey wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 3:49 pm Broken 4-inch diameter sewer lateral that runs from my house all the way to the center of the alley where it meets with the city sewer main. Cause of break was tree roots. The block / break is in the alley which makes excavating and repairing, resurfacing asphalt very expensive due to city permits and city requirements. Alternative is to excavate in my yard, cut out a short section of pipe, shoot a "sleeve" inside the existing pipe about 35' all the way past the break to where my line meets the city sewer main in the alley, and install a 4" diameter bullhorn clean-out where the short section of pipe was removed. This allows easy snaking in the future in both upstream and downstream directions. No concrete demo required. Question: about how much should this cost in a VHCOL area?
The cost will be the amount from the lowest bid you get from a reliable sewer contractor. Your best course of action is to be sure you are dealing with honest, competent sewer contractors. However, I don't think even a professional sewer contractor could estimate the job from the info available in your posting (example: how deep is it at the sewer main branch for your property?)

I personally would be leery of a sleeve based on my understanding of their failure rates, but if the cost difference is large it still would be something I would consider.
Thanks. My sewer lateral is about 4 feet under the grass in my yard, sloping to about 6 feet under the alley at the city's main. I got a couple quotes, fairly wide range. Digging up the alley and replacing pipe, and adding in the clean-out in my yard ranged from 17k to nearly 25k. The sleeve option described in my post, with new clean-out but no alley work was quoted from 9k to 11k.

The reason I posted is that I have a HO policy with some optional coverages that costs me about $150/year. One of those coverages is for "service lines." I thought I might get into it with the insurance company as to the "should cost" versus what I actually paid for the repair. Was looking for some data points. With a 10k policy limit, I opted for the sleeve option with a total cost of just under 11k. Turns out the insurance company (today, after I posted) paid out the claim for the full $10k policy limit.
An important key to investing is having a well-calibrated sense of your future regret.
Northern Flicker
Posts: 15371
Joined: Fri Apr 10, 2015 12:29 am

Re: How much should this sewer line repair cost

Post by Northern Flicker »

Nice outcome. Where we live, sewer scopes are routinely done when houses change ownership, and full replacements are moderately common, often for around $6500 unless the sewer main is very deep.
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