It “Sewer” Could Have Been Worse.
Posted: Thursday, September 25, 2008
by Mike Fak
http://mikefak.com
I wrote a while back about the floods I have had in my old basement. Actually our area has had three heavy rains and all three times my basement ended up with three to six inches of water in it. Now in a hundred-year-old house, a basement isn't exactly a place where family gather to watch TV, picking spiders off of pipes to munch on, but it still makes a wet stink.
But something was obviously wrong with my line to the street because water would come in but not a drop of it would go back out.
After this last rain and a pump out of the basement, my sewer went from a crawl to zero drainage and it was time to bring in the pros.
I have from time to time reamed out a sewer but I knew I needed someone with a monster, heavy-duty machine that could just churn and chew through all the *#$#.
I had to wait a few days as the company I chose was busy. It was a little weird. Every time we bathed or washed I would turn on the pump and spit it outside and I knew my wife didn't consider this any type of long term fix.
When the crew arrived, I was ready to help because I am a hands-on guy and I wanted to see if my guess about my sewer problem was right.
At about 60 feet the machine started slowing down and it was obviously chewing something.
Six times the machine went into the hole, six times when it was backed out a mass of tree roots were wrapped around the cutter like a bad wig on Phyllis Diller.
The guys were surprised when we approached the 100-foot-mark since most runs to the city sewer are 40 to 60 feet. My old house set back away from the street had to set a new record for distance of course.
When the machine was thrown into reverse this time, the machine just groaned but the cable wasn't retracting. Then one of the workers, then both and finally the three of us tried to help pull the cable back out and it wouldn't budge.
After an exhausting ten minutes, I heard the words I didn't want to hear.
There were so many tree roots in the line that they would have to dig up the yard to find the problem as well as to find the end of their auger.
The city line is about twelve feet below the street and I sit up on a small hill so the possibility of having to dig twenty feet deep to find my problem made my wallet start to vibrate in my smelly pants pocket.
This was late on a Friday and although the company graciously said they would go get their equipment and get on the job, I told them to wait until Monday.
After all, I had been pumping everything out for a few days already and several loads of soapy laundry water in the basement might help make it smell less like a cow pie recycling plant when we all started back after a weekend's rest.
I came out of the basement, took off my shoes outside and hosed them down. I then threw away my pants and spent Friday and a heavily scheduled Saturday pondering what the odds were enough buried treasure would be found in the dig to pay the thousands I was faced with shelling out.
I felt uncomfortable praying for help. I wasn't sure how often the good Lord got requests for sewer work and was afraid he might take the request as an affront to his official capacity but I did ask for help. And then Saturday night at about 2:00 am an epiphany hit me. I had an idea.
The next morning I finished some writing chores, ate a pound of bacon and put on another pair of pants I wouldn't miss losing.
My idea was simple. I would leave the eel in neutral just spinning and grinding until the machine showed it was freewheeling in place. I would then put it in reverse and see how much slack I could get and then torque it out of the hole.
The first time after a few minutes, I actually got about six inches to come out, the next time maybe a foot. It was obvious my plan might work. It was also obvious at a foot every five minutes I had a long Sunday ahead of me. I was a hundred feet into the sewer line.
I did what I always do in such situations. I went upstairs, grabbed a six pack and told my wife I would see here later that night. After all, what else could I do on a Sunday afternoon that might save me five grand or more? My son, trying to make old dad laugh, asked if I could tell which ones were his down in the hole.
The work was slow and the afternoon dragged on. But I figured if I could get the eel out I would have time to figure out how to pay for a major excavation since it wouldn't be a dire emergency.
Then suddenly on the fifth beer the auger started pulling out rapidly. I had freed myself from the roots. At the tip of the blade only a little bit of fine haired roots were wrapped around it and that made me mad. I had expected to bring back a half ton of root and here on the blade was less hair like roots than are on the floor after the barber gives me a haircut.
Although I had figured out how to extricate the eel, I knew from the water still standing at the top of the drain that the blockage was still there.
So I figured what the heck, what can happen? Get the eel stuck again?
I went in several more times and I got some more root out each time. I thought maybe all the spinning had cut everything into little pieces.
The real problem was I was running out of eel and I still had water standing. Then in a moment the eel spun and the water disappeared in an instant. I had broken through to the street and pushed the remaining roots out of my line.
I looked and saw just how lucky I was. I was within a foot of running out of cable and I was on my last beer. If I had run out of either, I don't know what I would have done.
So for now, my sewer works. Of course the root problem means something is wrong but I have time. And since city water can get into my basement it means I still have a viable connection although it has been broken into by the old tree out front.
One other benefit to this whole story: the area of lawn where I pumped out all this stuff is turning a glorious green, even though it is fall. I'm not sure if that is to my son's credit or mine.
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)Hi Mike.We have our septic tank pumped out from time to time and the smell is...well it's bad. I can't imagine having that in your basement. But cheers for the green lawn!Good thinking, great fix, fun article,DianneThanks Dianne. I hate nice lawns. You have to mow them. My favorite lawn is asphalt.Thanks Mike
hi mike,well, that's a fine mess to wake up to.i'm glad you got all the roots out.now, you'll just have to get a chipper to chop up all the trees that are going to die without their roots :)best regards,sueThanks Sue. I'm sure that tree has plenty left and I haven't gotten to the "root" of the problem yet.Mike
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