$1000 down the drain, very incompetent plumbers
Flooding basement on a rain storm from a drain backing up, at the bottom of a stairwell outside the basement. Called Milano. First plumber (Bob?) came, through the drain, he snaked out a bit of tree roots, but would not do more even if he agreed to try again as we asked him. The drain was still blocked. To his credit, he left us a pump to use but warned us not to let it run dry, it is not automatic. so we had to stay up all night to watch the pump. He billed $500+ , we got the benefit of using the pump we had to watch all night.
2nd plumber Eric showed up Monday morning. Convinced me to do a camera check, but he could not get it in the drain Pipe where the real problem was. Instead of addressing it,he spent most of his time locating a spot in the yard where our pipe from the sump joins the city’s, 8 feet down. Uneven union, small potential problem in future, but not worth correcting it. Then he checked my sump pit in my basement, again, the camera can not go through the gravel, I understand that. Then he proposed that he’ll need to break the cement in my basement (that is all along inside my walls) to check my perimeter drains, and that’s going to be very costly.
The net benefit of Eric’s visit: zero. Not a single problem identified or solved. He still left a bill for $400
We were left with no options, so we rented a snake from Home Depot, and were able to pull out more roots out from the same pipe the first plumber dealt with, the moment I pulled back the snake, my drain instantly cleared up!
The thing is that the pipes outside the house handling the storm water have nothing to do with the premeter drain inside my house other than that they all joined the city pipe later down. Digging up my basement and replace the pipes inside will not solve the problem at all, and at what cost?! Is that not a nightmare of any home owner?
I am not saying more, the readers you be the judge.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $1,000.00