This Stinks

Last weekend we had a little issue with our main sewer line.

One day is started dribbling, then eventually it got pretty bad.

After going through an expensive ordeal at our old house with snaking a line, we decided to do this one ourselves.

We had enough buckets and controlled the back flow enough to keep things relatively clean. When the back flow subsided, we snaked the line and things seemed ok.

A couple of days later I noticed the cap appearing wet again.

Fast forward to today and our neighbor (of our twin) is calling a plumber.

Apparently his side was backed up. Apparently both our sides join and flow into the street sewer as one. Apparently this happened 5 or so years ago. Apparently there’s no clean-out on his side or between the building and the street. The plumber had to use the same clean-out we used in our own basement. He ran 138′ to the street with his snake. The clog is clear.

But he wasn’t or couldn’t be as neat as we were.

For those that don’t know, we have a dirt floor area of our basement. It’s conveniently located under and behind the clean-out. All the grey water poured out and soaked into this dirt. It was nasty. It smelled up the entire basement and first floor of the house. The plumber’s only recommendation was to get a bottle of Simple Green and pour it over top. I got the biggest bottle they sold. It sort of worked, or our noses just stopped smelling the sewer smell.

To make sure this never happens again looks like we’ll be getting an annual plumber service contract. The plumber said they’d come out and snake the line as part of the contract every year. Without a backup, there’s no back flow, so they’d be able to safely snake the line without all the back flow.

We’ll see.

We could also remind ourselves to rent the industrial snake at Home Depot every year and do it ourselves…

– b