On October 16, 2003 we called Drain Patrol out to unstop a couple of backed up drains. It cost us $450.00 to have them snake it and degrease them. He ran into a slight snag when he couldn't pull the snake back out of the pipe because it was caught on something. It turned out to be a huge clump of hair but he was concerned because it had dirt and some small roots in it as well. Eeew! That was just the beginning of the nightmare. He also told us that we needed to replace a gate valve - whatever that was - because it was worn out and leaking, and on top of that we needed to have some repairs done under both sinks. Repairing the bathroom sink resulted in him cutting a hole in the wall. Thankfully it was under the sink and you couldn't see it now it's covered with a piece of drywall. When we told him that the toilet wasn't flushing properly as well as the problems we were having with the sinks, he reccomended that we have the main line looked at with a camera to see what the 
problem was. It was a special kind of camera that could snake down the pipes and you could see what was going on. At one point he couldn't get the camera to go forward any more 
because there was a blockage, and he said they'd have to dig out to where the pipe connected to the holding tank to find out what was blocking the line. It cost us 825.00 for the camera thingy. 
While they were here I asked him to check out the plumbing to the washer as well because there wasn't any cold water coming out of it. That's when he told us that we needed the cold water line connected to the faucet for the washing machine. What was happening was that every time I did the laundry it was using up all the hot water in our tank, which explains why we couldn't get any hot water for showers after I did the laundry. Evidently it was never plumbed over to the cold water line that was under the house, and when he went under to do this repair that was when he discovered that the drain in the laundry room wasn't connected to anything and just ran out under the house. It cost us $250.00 to connect the line, and on top of that the shower stems in the shower needed to be replaced, and that cost us another $150.00, and left us with bill to repair the tile that was broken out in order for him get to the shower stems. So up to that point the total was $1225.00. While they (I say they because now we had a "team" of plumbers working on our house) were replacing the stems in the shower they discovered that the shower head still leaked and that led to them discovering that the body needed to be replaced, and that cost $450.00, and resulted in more broken tile. All during that time we couldn't take showers because there was no place for the gray 
water to drain because the pipe that connected to the holding tank was completely broken off. Fortunately our neighbors, Derran and Linda, opened their house to us and we took showers over there. After the plumbers used their camera thing they discovered that 30 feet of the mainline was damaged and needed to be replaced, (that is the skinny pipe in the picture to your right.) It was at this point that they stopped calling it a job and now referred to it as a "house package" because there was so much wrong with the system it needed a complete overhaul. The repair for the main line cost $950.00. The final blow came when they told us that besides the recent repairs the leach line and leach field needed to be replaced as well, and that cost us $1280.00 more. The crew told us that the septic tank needed to be pumped out before they could make the repairs. I was furious about that because the tank should have been pumped out before we closed escrow, and that was only a year ago. Normally you wouldn't have to have it pumped out for at least 5 years, ten with only two people using it. So, I went to my real estate agent and told him of our problems and after doing some footwork he discovered that the guy who was supposed to pump out the septic tank lied . He didn't do the work and charged us for it just the same. Naturally, the septic guy wasn't expecting us to have to do all this plumbing work, so he offered to do it for free this time! So all total the plumbing repairs came to $5580.00 plus tax. The whole mess took over three weeks to complete. Because they had to bring in a backhoe to dig out the pit for the leach field they killed every plant in the yard when they did it, and when they were through they used a dump truck to back fill the hole which left me with this huge slope in the yard. Great...now I have a landscaping nightmare to deal with too. Later we got an estimate on what it would cost to replace the broken tile in the shower...$750.00 plus the cost of the tile.
problem was. It was a special kind of camera that could snake down the pipes and you could see what was going on. At one point he couldn't get the camera to go forward any more 
because there was a blockage, and he said they'd have to dig out to where the pipe connected to the holding tank to find out what was blocking the line. It cost us 825.00 for the camera thingy. 
While they were here I asked him to check out the plumbing to the washer as well because there wasn't any cold water coming out of it. That's when he told us that we needed the cold water line connected to the faucet for the washing machine. What was happening was that every time I did the laundry it was using up all the hot water in our tank, which explains why we couldn't get any hot water for showers after I did the laundry. Evidently it was never plumbed over to the cold water line that was under the house, and when he went under to do this repair that was when he discovered that the drain in the laundry room wasn't connected to anything and just ran out under the house. It cost us $250.00 to connect the line, and on top of that the shower stems in the shower needed to be replaced, and that cost us another $150.00, and left us with bill to repair the tile that was broken out in order for him get to the shower stems. So up to that point the total was $1225.00. While they (I say they because now we had a "team" of plumbers working on our house) were replacing the stems in the shower they discovered that the shower head still leaked and that led to them discovering that the body needed to be replaced, and that cost $450.00, and resulted in more broken tile. All during that time we couldn't take showers because there was no place for the gray 
water to drain because the pipe that connected to the holding tank was completely broken off. Fortunately our neighbors, Derran and Linda, opened their house to us and we took showers over there. After the plumbers used their camera thing they discovered that 30 feet of the mainline was damaged and needed to be replaced, (that is the skinny pipe in the picture to your right.) It was at this point that they stopped calling it a job and now referred to it as a "house package" because there was so much wrong with the system it needed a complete overhaul. The repair for the main line cost $950.00. The final blow came when they told us that besides the recent repairs the leach line and leach field needed to be replaced as well, and that cost us $1280.00 more. The crew told us that the septic tank needed to be pumped out before they could make the repairs. I was furious about that because the tank should have been pumped out before we closed escrow, and that was only a year ago. Normally you wouldn't have to have it pumped out for at least 5 years, ten with only two people using it. So, I went to my real estate agent and told him of our problems and after doing some footwork he discovered that the guy who was supposed to pump out the septic tank lied . He didn't do the work and charged us for it just the same. Naturally, the septic guy wasn't expecting us to have to do all this plumbing work, so he offered to do it for free this time! So all total the plumbing repairs came to $5580.00 plus tax. The whole mess took over three weeks to complete. Because they had to bring in a backhoe to dig out the pit for the leach field they killed every plant in the yard when they did it, and when they were through they used a dump truck to back fill the hole which left me with this huge slope in the yard. Great...now I have a landscaping nightmare to deal with too. Later we got an estimate on what it would cost to replace the broken tile in the shower...$750.00 plus the cost of the tile.Obviously there were problems with the septic system before we bought the house, and that was never disclosed to us that might explain why they wanted to sell the house as is, because they knew about all these problems when they sold it to us. So we ended up biting the bullet and had to put it on a credit. Rather than paying the sky rocketing interest on the credit card we refinanced the house and got out enough money to pay all the credit cards off and put up a chain link fence. So much for our move in ready house, huh?
