Sewer repairs are crappy. Fact is, they require a lot of work, can cost a lot, and mean you don't get to shower or use the facilities in your house until they are fixed.
My wife and I were married at the beginning of this month and all the family and friends who attended strained the system at our mid-century house in Ballard and gave us our first challenge as newlyweds - a sewage back-up in our basement (thankfully, the house-guests had left). We rented a rooter and managed to snake out some roots we knew were a problem about 30' down our lateral line (right under a neighbors tree) but during the process we collapsed about 6' worth of pipe right where the sewer line bends out of our house and heads towards the main. Total block.
My new father-in-law had worked with Jim Dandy before and recommended them (I was a little nervous after reading the so-so reviews here and elsewhere). I called them and they had a plumber, Shawn, come out within the hour. He identified the block, tried a rooter head, confirmed the line was broken, and then used a radio-locator to pinpoint the location, which was luckily not under our concrete slab. He worked really fast, let me pepper him with questions, and was super nice. He was there for an hour and a half but only charged me an hour. He also set up an appointment with an estimator (Chris) early the next morning.
Chris came in and took a look at the location, and gave me a pretty good bid price. He was willing to be flexible on aspects of the job, and after consulting with him, we agreed on a division on labor that saved us quite a lot more. I and some willing friends dug a portion of the excavation that afternoon (4' down x 8' x 4' - we were sore!) and he had a crew come out the next day and dig down another 3' (digging more than 4' down can be dangerous without bracing, which the crew did when they arrived) as well as pull out the broken lateral line, replace it with PVC, completely rebuild a nearby downspout tie-in with PVC, and add a 4" clean-out line to the surface. We did the backfilling.
As soon as the crew was done our second plumber, Jon, came out to scope the new pipes and clean out the remaining roots. He was able to get a 4' rooter tip to the main-line (120' away) and we took a look at the remaining concrete pipes on both sides of the house. They looked pretty good for being 65 years old. He even cleaned out the sand in our downspout p-traps. Despite the late hour, he did not charge us for overtime (which he technically should have). Like Shawn, he worked hard and fast and then billed slightly less time to us than he could have.
I really liked everybody associated with the sewer mess. They were nice, sympathetic, flexible with the estimate, and fast. The project cost me way, way, way less than I thought it would have. It wasn't cheap - but it didn't break the bank. We were pretty lucky with the location of the break and didn't have to worry about city streets or sidewalks, big rocks, or under slab. What could have been a financial nightmare was resolved with only minimal pain and a lot of good learning experience.
I would recommend Jim Dandy to anybody, and would also recommend tackling a sewer break with a willingness to ask questions, a willingness to do some of the grunt-work, and a friendly attitude. I think plumbers are like anyone else - if you get all mad at them for telling you the painful truth about your problem, you might not get the best service. If you can laugh about it a little, get engaged with the problem-solving, and see them as on your side, they really will be.
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