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Plumbing help

stokerwhore

aka bordsmnj
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The "plumber" is here installing a 4" cleanout on the front of my house. They guy who sold me on the job last night while clearing my sewer main isnt here today like i was led to believe. anyway the guy that is here broke my old 3/4 galvinized water main right at the entrence where it comes out of the ground. line is in fairly bad shape so not entirely their fualt. Luckily i was here to turn the water off at the street. the guy digging appearantly didnt know where to look. the water meter is a 50' run out toward the street. 20' of it is under my drive way. this happened 4 hours ago and a guy who isnt just a trench digger just showed up. he's going to get a temporary sleeve to put on. I'm doing my damndest not to stay calm. doesnt seem to think its a big deal that i dont have water and "the guy will come tomorrow to talk about price." i told him i want that guy here 4 hours ago. i'm paying 3k for the cleaning, jetting some roots out of the sewer main to the street and a rv dump -
"Cost to excavate a 3x3x3 section on dirt area in front of house area to expose damage cast to clay connection of main sewer line. Remove damage section and install proper 4inch dual sweep clean out access for main sewer with p-trap for rv dump. Once clean out access is installed will hydro jet to flush out build up and roots. Will re camera sewer line after to verify rest of condition of pipe. "

question 1- I'm i getting hosed
question 2- how much should i be paying to redo the water main in copper
thanks for looking
 
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bagged97taco

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All I can say is this. I just had to repipe my entire house. I mean, main from street, all fresh water inside house and all sewer under foundation to septic tank. The bill was very hefty and literally money down the drain. I can look at my invoice to see what I paid for the 100ft run from meter to house. Only bonus is that the company I used hooked it up with adding an rv dump outside my wall for free. I just dug the trench for them.
 

NicPaus

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Not to bad of price on the rv dump.

Where you located? Pm if you like.

A member here I work with and a good buddy of mine just bought a new jetter. Should be delivered next week. Located in Torrance if anyone needs help in future. He also bought a new sewer camera setup for sewer inspections. I let him borrow mine for now along with a few other plumbing snakes.
 

CSmith

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I would say the cost for the work being performed if he actually is truly camera-ing the lines, snaking them, 2 way cleanout, etc. Thats in the ballpark.
However the main coming from the street to the house I would do in like a schedule 80 PVC, or you can do pex if it is allowed in your area per city code and it would be the same if not better than copper in my eyes. Copper doesn't do well underground unless it is in a sleeve. However if you were dead set on copper to redo the 50' from the meter to the house, trenching, perform the work and supply the material would be upwards of $1,500 to $2,000.
 

stokerwhore

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i was thinking pvc and not cut the driveway slab open. the guy saying it should be copper seems a little on the not so sharp side.
 

TITTIES AND BEER

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You hit you fix it , should have pot holed it , have him fix it then get some bids to replace it
 

DirtyWhiteDog

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If existing water line is copper, it's most likely the main the grounding electrode of your house. If you replace it with something different, then please hire an electrician to install ground rod's or verify a ufer
 

rrrr

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All I can say is this. I just had to repipe my entire house. I mean, main from street, all fresh water inside house and all sewer under foundation to septic tank. The bill was very hefty and literally money down the drain. I can look at my invoice to see what I paid for the 100ft run from meter to house. Only bonus is that the company I used hooked it up with adding an rv dump outside my wall for free. I just dug the trench for them.

We are having to 100% repipe our sewer under the house and the service lateral too. The foundation piers we just did displaced some pipes and only one bathroom is still working.

Paying for the piers, plumbing, drywall repairs, and paint is gonna cost about $50K. I should have installed piers when we bought the house in 1997, before I stripped all of the interior drywall and replaced it.

Just like always, my hindsight is 20/20.
 

wishiknew

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If existing water line is copper, it's most likely the main the grounding electrode of your house. If you replace it with something different, then please hire an electrician to install ground rod's or verify a ufer
I think he is a electrician
 

DirtyWhiteDog

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If existing water line is copper, it's most likely the main the grounding electrode of your house. If you replace it with something different, then please hire an electrician to install ground rod's or verify a ufer
 

Riverbound

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Should’ve called me, I could’ve sent one of my guys out and made sure you didn’t get hosed. 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️
 

lbhsbz

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Keep in mind, the replacement main doesn’t have to follow the existing main. I don’t know how your place is layed out, but mine used to go across my front yard at a 45 under about 5 different walkways/planters/concrete things...I ran a new one straight up the side and tied it into the sprinkler feed. Shortened the run by about 25 feet and only had to jet under the sidewalk. Much cheaper than following the original.
 
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