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I Gots Plumbing Problems
By JLP | April 2, 2008
Ah the joys of living in a house built on a concrete slab…
For a while now, my wife and I have noticed that water comes up from under the sidewalk everytime we run the washing machine. The sidewalk butts up against the back of the house and the water flows up through the little holes that were drilled to treat termites. I called a guy I know to come out and look at it and his theory was that the termite man drilled into the pipe that comes out of the back of the house.
So, yesterday he came out and busted up the sidewalk and dug down to check out the pipe. Guess what? There was no hole in the pipe! The water was coming out from under the house. He then told me that I would most likely have to tunnel under the slab and replace the line.
“How much is this going to cost me?” I asked.
“Three to four THOUSAND dollars,” was his reponse.
“Crap, crap, and TRIPLE CRAP!” I thought to myself.
Anyway, he couldn’t do the job himself because he doesn’t have the manpower to do it. He told me to call around and get some estimates.
I did a little research on tunneling and didn’t find much information. I did call a couple of plumbers today and I’ll let you know what I find out. I really don’t want to spend that kind of money. There’s still the possibility that the line is clogged. I don’t know. All I know is that there are lots of other ways I’d rather spend three or four thousand dollars.
Topics: Miscellaneous | 18 Comments »
April 2nd, 2008 at 12:34 pm
That stinks. You might feel better about the whole thing if you started keeping track of all household repair costs you have & divided that by the number of months you’ve lived in your house. That monthly maintenance number might not be so big and probably compares very favorably with the automatic monthly maintenance charges people who own an apartment unit (like me) have to pay.
Or maybe it just stinks & there’s no trying to see the brigher side of things.
April 2nd, 2008 at 1:24 pm
It’s hard to imagine paying less than a few thousand dollars, to dig a tunnel underneath your house. Would you do it for less than that, yourself?
Here’s a tip, since the real cost involved is paying someone to actually dig the hole, try asking a lawn mowing service/landscaper if they know someone that would be willing to do the labor, and for how much? It may cost you half as much. Good Luck!
April 2nd, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Sounds like the leak is coming from the return line of the washer, not the inlet where the water would be constantly leaking whether or not you use the washer (constant pressure). If you want an easy fix tap into the main drain where you dug it up and run new outlet plumbing to the washer through the siding. problem solved. plug up the old line and you’re good to go.
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Something similar happened to my parents’ house which is also built on a concrete slab. They didn’t have the visual clue of water coming up from the sidewalk, instead they saw a massive water bill one month
Anyhow to get to the point. Instead of breaking the slab or tunneling underneath they instead were able to tap into the waterline before the leak and hook up all the downstream water after the leak.
April 2nd, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Thats terrible. Plumbling issues is probably the greatest setback of owing a home. Pricetag is scary for even a small repair. We missed our apartment days where we just have to call in and apartment maintenance fixes it in a day. Guess what, we sold our house at the first opportunity. To read more about it visit http://www.wealth-ways.com/wealthblog
April 2nd, 2008 at 4:58 pm
You might think of just putting in a new sewer line. You don’t really need to know where the leak is located or to fix it. Searching for it might be more expensive than just putting in a new line.
Good luck.
Evan
April 2nd, 2008 at 5:29 pm
For a fraction of that price you can have a camera inserted into the pipe to pinpoint the damaged portion. Once the hole is located the cost associated with the repair will depend on where the damage is located. If it is under your house your can have the section of slab above it jackhammered out, the pipe repaired, and the slab patched. Best case scenario is that the pipe damage is outside the house, that would require less work, which = cheaper. Please have this addressed asap because the water seepage can jeopardize your foundation. That repair is 10’s of thousands! I work with these types of forensic issues as part of my job in geotechnical engineering. Feel free to email me with any questions.
April 2nd, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Sorry about your plumbing problem. I know at least for larger sewer pipes there are ways to coat the inside of the pipe with a substance that will seal the leak – sort of a robotic thing. Your drains may be too small for that, though.
April 2nd, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Sounds like Chris has a darn good idea. But I’m not a plumber.
That does scare the crap out of me though — we have a slab house, too. Ours is brand new though. How old is your house?
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:45 pm
I hear your frustration.
Plumbing is one of those “dark arts” that you just have to sit back and let someone else tell you what to do. I hate being in that situation, but it’s inevitable these days as things just get more complicated and we rely more and more on specialists rather than jack of all trades.
-mr. stupid
April 3rd, 2008 at 11:39 am
Any major repairs will drill a hole in your pockets. I had a leaking kitchen sink and I googled for a plumbing service. The first result was for Roto-Rooter Plumbing… I called them and they promptly landed at my house. They gave me a quick quote for $650 + tax etc and were ready to get it fixed in a day. I then used ServiceMagic.com to find more local plumbing services and was able to get the same job fixed for $100.
April 3rd, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Be sure you get a number of opinions. Since the 1st plumber doesn’t appear to have much experience with this type of repair, he’s probably thinking about it in the most direct (translate: most expensive, non-creative method) way. Like Chris said, once you’re talking several thousand dollars, you might be better off rerouting that line in some way. Of course, as somebody above stated, you’ll need to assess whether your foundation has incurred any damage from the problem too.
I feel your pain. My home is a +100 year-old brownstone(translate: ever constant maintenance surprises).
April 3rd, 2008 at 3:10 pm
was the termite guy bonded? why don’t you have him pay for it?
April 3rd, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Bill,
It wasn’t the termite guy’s fault.
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June 2nd, 2008 at 9:23 pm
I’ve got a similar plumbing problem. We live in slab foundation house. I can’t run a large load of laundry without the water coming back out of the wall where the washing machine pipe goes to run the water out. When the water leaving the washing machine drains out and hits whatever it hits under the house it returns back out, runs down my wall and onto my floor. I’m also not able to use my garbage disposal to keep the problem from getting any worse. Every 6-8 months I have the same plumber come out to clean out the lines. He tells me it’s the way the plumbing was connected under the house and there is nothing I can do. Any suggestions?
June 10th, 2008 at 9:33 am
similar to sb. The laundry drain line is leaking water just above a joint in the galvanized p trap assembly that is in a laundry room slab, although the house is on a crawlspace. In theory, the water level should never reach as high in the assembly where the leak is coming from, I think I need to try clearing the line. Thinking I will begin with taking the hose up on the roof and clearing the associated air vent. any other suggestions? thx
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