Plumbing advice: No water in shower

[Fuzz]

The trick is to call the city. If it's on city property, then it's free. If not, you just pay the city, and I think the price was pretty reasonable, but you might want to check before booking the call.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by blankall

I can't tell if this is still a sex metaphor anymore....but we had to hire two different drain guys to clean out our main drain line. The cost they charged was absurd. It was $600-700 each for a guy to come down for a couple of hours and clear out the drain with a mechanized snake.

That's hardly an outrageous cost.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by blankall

I can't tell if this is still a sex metaphor anymore....but we had to hire two different drain guys to clean out our main drain line. The cost they charged was absurd. It was $600-700 each for a guy to come down for a couple of hours and clear out the drain with a mechanized snake.

It's an absolute racket.

Afterwards, I used an organic drain cleaner of some kind that is supposed to deal with roots, but I doubt it did anything.

Its not really a 'sex metaphor' not entirely sure where thats coming from...but girls tend to have long hair. It gets in drains and clogs them up waaaay down the line.

And that price seems pretty standard. Yeah, its a little high, I think I paid in the $500 range the couple times I had to do it, but its not crazy.

[timun]

Originally Posted by blankall

[...] we had to hire two different drain guys to clean out our main drain line. The cost they charged was absurd. It was $600-700 each for a guy to come down for a couple of hours and clear out the drain with a mechanized snake.

It's an absolute racket.

If it's such an obvious racket, why didn't you do it yourself?


You were paying for the guy's time at your house, his time to get to your house, his expertise, the cost and depreciation of the tools, the cost and depreciation of a truck or van, cost of gas, overhead costs for booking the job and invoicing...

[blankall]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

The trick is to call the city. If it's on city property, then it's free. If not, you just pay the city, and I think the price was pretty reasonable, but you might want to check before booking the call.

I tried that. They not only didn't clean the clog, but then they charged me a $300 fine after they said my toilet was leaking.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by blankall

I tried that. They not only didn't clean the clog, but then they charged me a $300 fine after they said my toilet was leaking.

LOL, whoops. Maybe they were better 15 years ago when I needed them...

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Locke

Its not really a 'sex metaphor' not entirely sure where thats coming from...but girls tend to have long hair. It gets in drains and clogs them up waaaay down the line.

And that price seems pretty standard. Yeah, its a little high, I think I paid in the $500 range the couple times I had to do it, but its not crazy.

I think they make a fine mesh filters you can put under the drain cover to help with that.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by blankall

I tried that. They not only didn't clean the clog, but then they charged me a $300 fine after they said my toilet was leaking.

Next time heel it down the drain.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Wormius

I think they make a fine mesh filters you can put under the drain cover to help with that.

Yes. They do. And they actually work well when the kids dont get annoyed and remove them and/or never clean them and then they clog up.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by timun

If it's such an obvious racket, why didn't you do it yourself?


You were paying for the guy's time at your house, his time to get to your house, his expertise, the cost and depreciation of the tools, the cost and depreciation of a truck or van, cost of gas, overhead costs for booking the job and invoicing...

It was some 20ish year old kid, they had just hired. They used a machine that is just slightly too expensive and too large to store so I don't have my own.

The same service used to cost $200-300 about 5 years ago. They advertise it at about $70/hr but then charge the 4 hour minimum, transportation cost, setup fees, emergency fees, etc...They have total availability but consider anything within 3 days an emergency. So if anyone plans ahead a week to have their drain back up I guess it's not an emergency?

As stated, they didn't even properly clear the line, and I had to have another company come in a month later.

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by Shazam

That's hardly an outrageous cost.

I had a company come to auger my line over the holidays for $350. $600 feels excessive.

Side note - I had the city come by afterwards to check their sewer line and they also told me the "call us instead" thing. No idea what their charges are.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

I had a company come to auger my line over the holidays for $350. $600 feels excessive.

Side note - I had the city come by afterwards to check their sewer line and they also told me the "call us instead" thing. No idea what their charges are.

I think the prices are actually dropping now. The $6-700 was in Vancouver about 1.5 years ago...when all trades work just cost double the price....just because.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by blankall

I think the prices are actually dropping now. The $6-700 was in Vancouver about 1.5 years ago...when all trades work just cost double the price....just because.

What are you complaining about, you can sell your home for $43 million when the time comes to a Chinese money launderer.

[Reggie28]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

I had a company come to auger my line over the holidays for $350. $600 feels excessive.

Side note - I had the city come by afterwards to check their sewer line and they also told me the "call us instead" thing. No idea what their charges are.

This summer, my sewer was backing up a little bit when I would flush or use lots of water. I called the city, they came in under an hour and ran a snake from my basement out to the main sewer line. No charge.

I think the guy had the attitude of “I don’t know where the clog is, but I have to run my snake through “your” pipe to get to the “city” pipe.