When you think your day can't get worse...

[sasywtch]

My kitchen sink and shower were backed up so called a plumber. $20,000!!!!! Our second plumber quoted $25K. It appears houses built prior to 1974 had galvinized pipe. Ours is rusted, crushed and everything between the house and the sidewalk. The kitchen pipe under the foundation is bent, broken and also needs new pipe out to the sidewalk (but they are rerouted it to the other pipe) so they don't have to jackhammer my foundation under my sink. I now have 2 large piles of mud in my yard with the orange fencing and plywood. Of course, it rained tonight. Tomorrow they are cutting a 2 foot wide path out of my driveway to put in the kitchen piping to the other pipe. They couldn't go straight out as the electric, gas and internet are in the way. So I'm also getting a partial new driveway. **I may have the type of pipe wrong but I remember galvanized. They did notice the piping coming from inside the house appeared new so it's possible the previous owner replaced the inside and not the outside. So new roof, new pipes, new outflow for the AC, new bathrooms so hoping this is it for quite sometime.

 

[NYCgrrl]

Wow! Just wow. On the bright side assuming they are replacing with copper piping there will be no need to redo the job in your lifetime.

 

[LoveDaisy]

I am sorry to hear this. I had to replace several pipes in my house last year for the same reason. My house was built in 1956 and my plumber told me it’s common in houses this age. I am hoping this solves your issues.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Yikes!

 

[snowwite]

My kitchen sink and shower were backed up so called a plumber. $20,000!!!!! Our second plumber quoted $25K. It appears houses built prior to 1974 had galvinized pipe. Ours is rusted, crushed and everything between the house and the sidewalk. The kitchen pipe under the foundation is bent, broken and also needs new pipe out to the sidewalk (but they are rerouted it to the other pipe) so they don't have to jackhammer my foundation under my sink. I now have 2 large piles of mud in my yard with the orange fencing and plywood. Of course, it rained tonight. Tomorrow they are cutting a 2 foot wide path out of my driveway to put in the kitchen piping to the other pipe. They couldn't go straight out as the electric, gas and internet are in the way. So I'm also getting a partial new driveway. **I may have the type of pipe wrong but I remember galvanized. They did notice the piping coming from inside the house appeared new so it's possible the previous owner replaced the inside and not the outside. So new roof, new pipes, new outflow for the AC, new bathrooms so hoping this is it for quite sometime.

I dread plumbing work. They can pretty much charge up the wazoo cos you either need water or have it somewhere you definitely don’t want it.

 

[QueenIsabella]

The other "fun" thing with plumbing issues is, they're not going to improve with time. Ignoring them only makes it worse!

Sorry for your problems.

 

[fly girl]

Ouch!

I’m with you, no more!

 

[Dan Murphy]

Sorry to read of all these costly issues, @sasywtch. Plumbing can have so many problems. By far, most of our repair type things here in the house we've lived in for almost 53 years have revolved around plumbing. Hopefully these repairs will be your last for many years.

 

[princesscinderella]

My kitchen sink and shower were backed up so called a plumber. $20,000!!!!! Our second plumber quoted $25K. It appears houses built prior to 1974 had galvinized pipe. Ours is rusted, crushed and everything between the house and the sidewalk. The kitchen pipe under the foundation is bent, broken and also needs new pipe out to the sidewalk (but they are rerouted it to the other pipe) so they don't have to jackhammer my foundation under my sink. I now have 2 large piles of mud in my yard with the orange fencing and plywood. Of course, it rained tonight. Tomorrow they are cutting a 2 foot wide path out of my driveway to put in the kitchen piping to the other pipe. They couldn't go straight out as the electric, gas and internet are in the way. So I'm also getting a partial new driveway. **I may have the type of pipe wrong but I remember galvanized. They did notice the piping coming from inside the house appeared new so it's possible the previous owner replaced the inside and not the outside. So new roof, new pipes, new outflow for the AC, new bathrooms so hoping this is it for quite sometime.

I'm sorry you have to go through this its no fun! We too had to do this as our cast iron pipes under the house rotted through on the bottom and looked like horseshoes. Ours too was rerouted around the house without having to jack hammer through the foundation, since all our bathrooms and kitchen sink were on exterior walls. Our neighbors have a different floor plan and decided to do the tunneling under the house method but when it was done and they pumped a ton of concrete under there to reinforce the foundation the next plumbing issue will be even harder to solve. Our entire neighborhood was built this way and we got lucky that ours failed a bit earlier on than other as now they write a 10K maximum into the homeowner's policies for coverage of this issue, we had most of ours covered with the help of an attorney as this provision didn't exist when ours failed. I tell everyone who wants to move to our neighborhood that if they are buying a house if the pipes weren't redone prepare for the cost of it and always have the scoped before buying. If the pipes are mostly intact they have a process which can line them with a new pipe within the existing which is really neat.

 

[Micca]

It's tough, but if there's one bright spot--and you least you don't have to wait several days/weeks for them to begin repairs.

 

[kymom99]

Wow! Just wow. On the bright side assuming they are replacing with copper piping there will be no need to redo the job in your lifetime.

Around here they use pvc

 

[Christine]

Oh boy, sorry to hear this. My coworker's son is going through the EXACT same thing right. Exactly. Their house was built around the early 60s I guess. It was all supposed to be done last week but as they started working in the laundry room area, they noted linoleum from the 70s over the concrete. Asbestos remediation needed to happen which delayed them for another week.

 

[kymom99]

We have had the plumber to snake out our floor pipes twice in the last year. Flushable wipes most likely the culprit. Cast iron pipes get pitted and corroded over time and things don’t flow through like they should. In the 90s, sewer lines were brought through so our septic tank was sealed off and new pipes installed from the house out to the sewer lines. So any issues will likely be inside.

 

[tvguy]

I don't get slab foundations, or HVAC units on the roof. They just make things more expensive to repair.
I had a joint in my main water line come undone, That joint apparently never got glued when the line was put in 40+ years and it finally just came undone. $1,500 to find where the leak was (that was $500 by itself) and $1,000 to go down and glue the connection. Plumber said I was lucky to have a raised foundation. He said if my sewer pipe failed, it would cost about $15,000 more to fix if I had a slab.
And there is no rhyme or reason in my subdivision on where the HVAC is. Same builder, and I am the only one with my floor plan with the HVAC unit on the ground. Everyone else has to pay hundreds more to have their HVAC replaced because they have to have a crane lift it onto the roof. They just used a cart and rolled my new HVAC unit into the backyard.

 

[easyas123]

Flushable wipes most likely the culprit.

Those are the absolute worst - and the 'flushable' ones shouldn't be.

OP - this sounds like headache to have to deal with, hope they get you situated sooner rather than later.

 

[kymom99]

Those are the absolute worst - and the 'flushable' ones shouldn't be.

OP - this sounds like headache to have to deal with, hope they get you situated sooner rather than later.

Yes my plumber said flushable wipes ain’t flushable. I said I assure you I didn’t flush them and whoever did won’t any more.

 

[luvthatduke]

I'm so sorry to hear of your troubles, OP, and the others.
Query to all: Is/Was any of this covered by homeowner's insurance?

I don't know what we'd do if it wasnt!

 

[leebee]

I'm so sorry to hear of your troubles, OP, and the others.
Query to all: Is/Was any of this covered by homeowner's insurance?

I don't know what we'd do if it wasnt!

I was just thinking the same thing. We'd never be able to pay for this. How do you do that? Insurance? Home equity loan? This is terrifying to me. Our house is 115 years old.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

So sorry to hear, that is absolutely awful.

I also wondered if insurance would cover something like this. I pray they would, but I just don't know.

 

[LoveDaisy]

My insurance covered it like siding, they took the depreciation because the pipes were from 1956 and offered an amount that was not worth it with my deductible and then how they would raise my insurance so I paid the $15,000. They offered $3000 before my $1000 deductible so $2000 and I was told what my insurance would go up if I made the claim. The $2000 was not worth it.