My main sewer line in my house is back-pitched, which means I end up calling Roto-Rooter more often than average. I can get some sort of yearly contract with Roto-Rooter which would be cheaper than if I’d pay for every separate service call. However…
Is it possible for me to just buy the machine they use? I see on line a machine that its sellers refer to as a “roto rooter”, but is that the same thing that the Roto-Rooter plumbers use? The same quality? Or is the actual Roto-Rooter machine a proprietary device that non-Roto-Rooter folks can’t get their hands on?
And, assuming that I can get it and the cost is justified, is it something I can use without being trained as a plumber, or does it take a professional to actually use such a tool without damaging the pipes?
For some odd reason, I’ve never seen the winning entries on their website, but even if the tales were few or lame, I bet the contest displays and PR releases alone dissuaded some people from even trying!
I used such home gear to good effect once almost 20 years ago. They are certainly not nearly the equal of some of the largest truck-mounted, diesel-driven Roto-Rooter pumps - and good thing, too, since at pressures of 7000 psi or more the water or hose can kill a person or take off a limb if something blows or gets free. Even the roto-rooter men often use far smaller gear
I’ve never called roto-rooter (though I watched the workers as a boy when my father called them) I was quite happy with the ease and results of a DIY machine the one time I needed it. I moved out of that house after a few years, but kept it as a rental property for over a decade, and never had an issue.
Your mileage may vary.
I am not a plumber. However I am trained in snaking out prostates. (professionally, not recreationally)
I once rented a sewer machine that had what appeared to be a hole saw mounted on a flexible shaft, I had no special training but it did clear the roots from my sewer line.
I would suggest that you go to your local rental emporium and rent a machine the next time you get a clog. If you can do the work then you might consider buying a similar machine.
A little more info on your problem might be helpful. You mention “back-pitch” in your sanitary drain, I assume you mean the line out of your house flows a bit up hill as aposed to down and that is causing an occasional build up of stuff which you periodically call rotto rooter to come over with his motorized snake machine to clean out. If this is the case I’d have a few questions, first where do they enter your pipes with the machine? Is there a “clean out” outside the house near the foundation that they attack the problem from or do they start from somewhere inside the house and possibly need to open something up to gain access. The second question is how far do they feed the snake in the line? If the congestion is close to the house they may just be feeding in 20 some feet of snake to clear things out (as aposed to a root cleaning I did last year which was about 80 feet from the clean out)? And lastly how often do you need to have this done?
If there is an outside clean out (or if there’s easy inside access) and the congestion can be cleared without having to go deep into the line (deeper=more difficult) then I might suggest renting a sewer snake (some Home Depot or Lowes stores rent tools or just check a phone book). I fixed a root clogged drain in an afternoon for about $50 in rental fees and as mentioned, that was 80 feet down stream. It isn’t too tough (just smelly).
Lastly, rotto-rooter™ is a large franchise with a lot of over head. For big jobs this can be a good thing (licensed, bonded and insured) but this does mean they can’t work cheap. For a simple drain cleaning I’m willing to bet there are many people in the phone book who can do the job just as well for much less money.
In my boiler room (which is right at the front of the house), there are two open vertical pipes low to the ground, one of which (the one on the right) is the one he puts his machine over to do the work.
No idea. My property is only a 20 x 100 foot lot, though, so I imagine 100 feet is a maximum it can be…though I’d be willing to bet he goes less far than that.
Varies. This year (well, 2003, that is…not “this year” technincally speaking), I had it done twice, six months apart (April and October), and I’ve now got need for another servicing.
From what I can tell I have the same back-pitch problem you have. I have a little ritual I perform twice a year during the daylight savings time changes.
I open up the clean out pipe and shove an old broomstick down it to dislodge any built up gunk there. Then I turn on every hot water tap in the house and let it run. This tends to melt away any of the grease wads and generally gives the pipes a good cleaning.
As long as we have the attention of the board’s plumbers may I piggy-back a question? Is there a permanent fix to the back-pitch problem?
cmkeller, I’d be willing to bet it’s a standard 4 inch pipe and there’s a “clean out” nipple type cap piece they unscrew to gain access. I don’t know what they charge you for the service but if it were me I’d rent a snake from somewhere and try it myself. Most likely the clog is very near the house and this is something that can be fixed fairly easily and the rental fee will be in the $50-75 dollar range. Having tried it yourself you will have a better idea of what is involved and then you might consider buying a tool, you might not need the big 100 foot 3/4 inch snake machine you might get by with something that will mount on a drill.
bnorton, there most likely is but if a twice a year broom sticking is getting you by you might stand pat. At a minimum you would need to dig down from the outside of the house to expose the sewer pipe and hope the slope issue was caused by some form of shift near the foundation lest you have to trench out along the sanitary line to find the problem. And even if the problem is close to the foundation the repairs needed will require some know how and likely a city permit and inspection, but it is not impossible for a fairly handy person to take care of themselves (I’ve done it).
Joe Mahma, there isn’t too much of an up slope, perhaps an inch or so. This will help stuff accumulate near the foundation causeing a clog but typicaly after a few feet the normal down slope is resumed.
My father-in-law rented one of those flex-snake sewer machines one time, and he ended up breaking the snake in this pipe. Not saying you shouldn’t do this yourself, just beware …
If waste is accumulating at a certain spot due to insufficient pitch I would guess a weekly flush with a huge amount of water should take care of it as the rush will flush everything away. If you have a couple of toilets flushing them simultaneously while pouring a large bucket of water in each one will do a pretty good flush.
If the problem is roots entering the sewer or something else then this won’t help much. If you need to roto-root more than once a year the sewer line is bad and should be inspected/repaired/replaced.
At the risk of stating the obvious, you have to increase the pitch in the correct direction. If the overall height difference is sufficent to have the correct pitch then it should only be a matter of adding or repairing hangers to raise the sagging section that is causing the problem. Probably an easy fix most people.
If the overall height difference is not great enough to have the correct pitch then it probably never should have been installed or passed inspection in the first place, but that does not help you now. Your local plumbing code should specify the minimum pitch but if I remember correctly it is 1/4" per foot for 3" pipe and 1/8" per foot for 4" pipe in Mass. The correct fix would require either raising or lowering one end to allow suffient pitch and adjust the horizontal run so the pitch is constant. Of course this could be very difficult or nearly impossble depending on your situation and probably not a do it yurself job for most people.
If there is not enough height difference for the correct pitch I guess the next best solution would be to have a constant pitch by adjusting the hangers so there are no low spots.
The sewer has a negative pitch? And the uphill section is underground or under concrete? I have one word: Move.
This actually would be a good example of why you’d want to hire a pro. They’ve got cameras that fit in the pipes, so they can see where and what the problem is. Hopefully, it’s something simple like a big tree root has pushed the line up, and a little digging and chopping will get you flowing properly.
Could be worse. I used to live in a concrete slab on grade house, and the entire house had settled and tilted in the wrong direction, so the back of the house (and the toilet) were the low point. No amount of roto-rooting or cursing would fix it - the only cure would have been to raise the back end of the house and hope the whole thing didn’t crack in half.
