TIL my 20 year old sewer line was the real problem, not my drains

Had slow drains all over the house for like 6 months, tried every snake and chemical in the book from Home Depot in Edmonton, nothing worked. Finally called a plumber in St. Albert and he ran a camera down the main line, found tree roots had cracked the old clay pipe near the back fence. He quoted me $4,800 to replace it with PVC versus $700 to just keep clearing it every year. I went with the replacement, and honestly the difference is night and day, water drains faster than my brand new shower head flow. Has anyone else dealt with older clay or Orangeburg pipes on their property? How did you handle the cost?

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evahenderson1mo ago

Three hundred bucks and a full Saturday of my life gone on a rented auger from Home Depot before I finally admitted defeat, so I feel your pain on a personal level. My place in Sherwood Park had the same clay pipe situation and the camera showed roots that looked like they were hosting their own underground rave in there. I cheaped out and did the annual $700 cleaning for two years, but then my basement flooded during a spring thaw and I ended up paying way more for the cleanup than the original repair would have cost. Honestly, the PVC replacement is one of those things where you kick yourself for not doing it sooner, kinda like when I finally bought a proper leaf blower instead of pretending my old rake was fine. Good call on going with the fix, and now you can brag to every neighbour about your fancy new sewer like it's a sports car.

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