After waiting three days for the 24-hour rapid-response emergency sewer backup cleaning guy to call me back, I starting getting impatient. The only other guy in the yellow pages had one of those generic-sounding outgoing messages that I don't trust. So I let my fingers do the walking and came to a whole section of cleaning services that specialize in floods, fire and smoke damage, soot removal, and yes, even sewer backups. The guy we got apparently even does "fatality" cleaning, so I was half expecting Harvey Keitel to show up, but it was just a nice guy named Ken. Who disinfected the floor, applied some EPA-required goo, and then laid down an anti-mildew layer. All for the low-low price of $293.20! That included an added cost for coming on a Sunday, but I wasn't keen on waiting even one more day.
Now a friend tells me that the city is so used to everyone complaining about all the big old trees rooting their way into our sewer lines that they will come out and ream your line (ouch!) for $25. She has them come every three months, just as a preventive measure. Andy pointed out that for the $600 we just shelled out to Roto-Rooter and the cleaning guy, we could just flush all our trash down the toilets and have the city come every other week!
Our city has a program like that only they will only go from the edge of your house to the sewer. Everything under your house they will not touch. Because all the houses in my area do do not have a "clean out" cap in front of the house the whole service is a joke.
Posted by: Mquest | March 14, 2005 at 08:21 PM
You're sending the wolf? that's all you got to say...
My old house had that same problem with the sewer line. I wish my city did a $25 deal like that. I think I ended up buying the roto rooter guy a new truck with all the cash I paid him over the years
Posted by: al | June 09, 2006 at 03:11 AM