Plumber Cost???

[2disneyboys]

DH & I have owned our house since for 11 years and have never had to have a plumbing call... the very occasional clog, we were able to clear ourselves.. well, long story short, , we (obviously) have a clog that we have worked on for days..we have exhausted our bag of tricks (plunger, augers, snakes etc) and are ready to call in the professionals....thankfully, only part of the house plumbing is clogged, so we can still function and don't have to place an emergency service call. my question is this... can anyone give me an *ideal* of the approx cost of a service call?? I know it would be a very rough estimate, I just don't know what to even expect for a reasonable cost... are we talking a few hundred? up to a grand? more??? I know if we get into having to rip out walls or replace major pipes we are talking major money, but assuming that its just a few hours, and he gets the clog out without a major upheaveal, anyone got an approximate cost??

we are actually pretty sure we know where the clog is, we just can't get to it and I've heard that some professionals have cameras and guided augers/snakes that can get into places the typical homeowner can't get to. This is the route we are hoping to end up taking. any responses or suggestions? Thanks

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I don't have an estimate for you. I know our basic clogs were between $100-$200, while a clog a tad more significant costs $200-$300.

What I do know is--if the camera is required, it could go well past $300. None of our clogs ever involved the camera.

A clog or two of ours was "fixable" from a roof access...he exposed pipe in the roof. Our worst fix was a busted kitchen pipe after my husband used a snake and a brittle metal pipe gave way.

It is hard to say how much it might be since costs depend on the area and the plumber.

 

[poohbear22]

I've heard about $80/hour + expenses. One of my buddies at work had a worse case scenario where the pipes in the foundation were falling apart so they had to tear the flooring up and cut into the foundation all over the house; ended up costing him around $15,000 between the plumber and contractors.

 

[2disneyboys]

I've heard about $80/hour + expenses. One of my buddies at work had a worse case scenario where the pipes in the foundation were falling apart so they had to tear the flooring up and cut into the foundation all over the house; ended up costing him around $15,000 between the plumber and contractors.

gulp...

thankfully, we are on a high crawl space, so I'd at least save on the ripping out the floors aspect of the worst case scenario LOL

 

[ptcruisermom]

Not sure on the cost-but I had a problem last weekend also. Started on friday when DD went to do laundry backed up into kitchen sink and washer. In the past I have used dawn dish washing liquid and boiling water and have cleared clogs-tried this and it did not work. I presumed the clog was somewhere where the utility room met up with the kitchen, as bathtub toilet and bathroom sinks worked just fine. Later I tried some of the liquid plumber get and boiling water and plunged. Didn't think it worked but it was late and since the bathroom was ok, decided to go to bed and work on it after work on Saturday. Well at 1115 DD woke me up now water backing up into bathroom sink(I have double sinks) so off to the only store open we went , didn't have the gel so used regular liquid plumber well that didn't seem to work, was up until 115 and had to be at work at 6, so tried the dawn and boiling water and went to bed. Figured the clog had progressed down the line. Saturday after work got the gel liquid plumber and used a bottle in each sink , still didn't seem to be opening(didn't want to call a plumber on weekend, and wasn't in dire need as still had tub and toilet) rented an electric eel but rattled the pipes so bad i was afraid they would burst, so poured another liquid plumber gel into one of the sinks followed 20minutes later by boiling water and decided just to let it sit. Sunday didn't bother with it but sunday night I did run the dw and everything drained just fine, I ran around each time checking drains, and sinks. Monday DS wanted to do some laundry so told him just do a very small load and keep eyes on the drains, everything fine there also. I got home from work and decided to try a larger load, again everything fine, did two more loads, no problems. Then poured boiling water down each sink, and it drained just fine. All drains are working great, in fact better than when I moved in here 4 years ago, they all have swirling action. My pipes must have had sludge in them cause we did clean out some of the u traps and they were gross. I know the chemicals aren't the best, but I probably put out about 60 bucks and got them working. I figured my clog was at a place where I would never get it cleared.

 

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

We're in the Raleigh area and I remember seeing recently an ad for a plumber that said (something like) "any clog cleared for $x" it was less than $100 ($89 or $99 I think).

We had a toilet clogged. Nothing worked until we took a chance and bought one of those gun type things that shoots an air pellet (got it from Home Depot or Wal-Mart). That cleared the clog.

Good luck!

 

[StephMK]

We had a clog involving the dishwasher & laundry sink that could not be cleared w/Draino or a 20 ft snake. I think the plumber was about $150 and he was able to clear it. It was about 70' into the pipes because he was almost out of line before it cleared out. No problems since then.

 

[jen22984]

We just got a plumbing bill for our rental house in GA. There was a clog in the pipes that was backing up into the laundry room. For the service call, clearing the clog, and replacing some pipes (I'm not exactly sure what pipes), it was $275.

 

[undertheradar]

In our part of SoCal, plumbers start around $95 per hour.

 

[2disneyboys]

Thanks for all the replies... I called several plumbers this morning and now know (FWIW) that in our area to clear clogs, it's about $80 an hour... I'm actually having some pipes replaced instead of cleaning out (to eleminate future problmes) and am happy with the price... If we just wanted to get it cleared out & all flowing again it would have been around $150-200, but for $570 (Labor & Materials ) to replace about 2/3rds (if not a little more) of the pipework under my house and put in 2 drain cleaning values @ either end of the house)

Thanks for relieving my anxities over the weekend until I could talk to a local plumbing guy...