Sewer line investigation

Less than one hour after the door job was complete, our new neighbor to the east came over with a somewhat unfortunate neighbor matter to discuss. They are having bad sewer-line problems over there -- water coming in where it shouldn't, and now sewer gas entering the house. Mostly this has nothing to do with us; the last owner of their house did some weirdo things with the plumbing, etc. But part of the problem is on the shared part of the sewer line. They're going to have to do some fairly invasive work very soon. The reason to talk to us is that part of the problem is along the 23 feet of sewer line that is shared between our houses. Not only is it going to impact our property - they'll have to remove the fence, dig a big ditch, that kind of thing - but also it's our sewer line too. We have consented to the disruption and agreed to share the expense.

We decided that while we're waiting for that work to start, we would invest in having our own sewer lines inspected, in case there's work we should be doing while everything is all torn up (and maybe also to establish the state of the system before it's disrupted). We had a guy out this morning who inspected our sewer line with the underground camera thingy. We got a DVD of what the camera saw -- and popcorn! We haven't watched it yet.

Perhaps not surprisingly, there is bad news: He couldn't get very far before the pipe was obstructed by gravel. There is an erosion hole in the concrete pipe, and after that point, the pipe is full of rocks. They can poke their camera through a fair amount of gravel, and he did so, getting around this bend and that bend, but finally the gravel was just so wedged in there he couldn't get any further even using all his tricks. There's a flag marking the spot he got to; it's in the raised bed nearest the house. There's another 10-20 feet to go before it meets the shared line (I'm not sure where the shared line picks up exactly) so that part has not been inspected but it's probably full of gravel.

The inspector was a little mystified about the source of the rocks; he thought maybe there used to be a storm drain on the back of the house that they removed when the put in the kitchen addition, or something? Then when we went outside together, he found our Mystery Hole. We have this odd hole next to the house that keeps re-opening itself anytime we fill it. We figured it is some animal. Our guy said "AHA!" Quite likely, what we have there is a hole that goes right down to our sewer line. The gravel falls in and the water washes the gravel down the line. So far, it has washed through enough that we're not "under duress," as they say. But we really ought to get that taken care of. Among other things, the erosion is right under the side of the foundation of the kitchen addition, and if the ground washes away there it can cause other problems.

When I said the neighbors are in a big hurry due to their own acute problems and had already lined up a contractor, he said we would definitely be doing well to get in on that; it'll be a lot less work to do it all on the same job. He asked what contractor they were using, and when I told him, he said "Oh that guy is super. You're going to want to have him over for a barbecue when it's all done. He's just a great contractor, does great work, very fair, very easy to communicate with. They picked a good one." That was nice to hear. The other thing that was reassuring to hear is about the disruption to our household -- Dale and I had started having nightmares about what we would do during 5-10 days of no sewer line. Our guy said no no no, the actual time during which your line is off is just short bits here and there, maybe half an hour to a couple of hours at a time. "That's just the part where they say 'Please don't start the laundry while I'm standing in this trench in my boots replacing the pipe,' " he explained. Most of the time is spent moving the dirt. People who have sewer line horror stories are the ones whose line stops working, and then they have to spend all that dirt-moving time with no operative plumbing.

I spoke to the contractor that our neighbors have lined up today, and he'll be glad to include us in the job. The work will start a week from today. Dad will be here visiting so he will get to see the excitement. Thank goodness the service disruptions will be short... we like to be able to offer our guests a flushing toilet at least.

The boys are pretty jazzed about our yard being a worksite. What could be better than diggers in your own yard, digging a trench so deep that if Daddy stood in it it would be over his head? They will have a great view from their bedroom windows. It happens that Jordan is studying the water-permeability of soils in science right now, so the whole question of what blocks water from flowing through pipes is right up his alley. He wants to discuss it with the workers. And of course when I explained that the water going through those pipes is poop water, they couldn't get enough. It's boy heaven over here.