BIG BELLIES BAD NEWS FOR SEWER LINES

Posted by Tom Martino at 10:06 am 50 Comments Print

Huge bellies are never healthy especially when the “belly” is in your sewer pipe. By the way, “bellies” are low spots in sewer lines often causing clogs and back-ups. Andy, from Northglenn, had such a sewer belly.

Andy hired Pipeline Specialist to replace the 10-foot section of pipe that had settled (the belly). They agreed on a price of $2750.00.

Shortly after starting the job, Pipeline Specialist informed Andy there was more damaged pipe roughly 5 feet down the line from the “bellied” section. They told Andy it would be an additional $4400.00 to fix that additional damage because they had to dig under the street.!

Andy asked,” If it was not broken before, why is it broken now?”

In the original sewer video of his pipe, Andy saw only one belly that needed to be fixed and no other damage. Andy believed Pipeline Specialists caused the additional damage with their backhoe and therefore should do the repair free of charge.

Pipeline Specialists says they could not have caused that damage and are not liable.

I put Marc on the case and he called our friends at Plumbline Services (a member of our Referral List @ Referralist.com). Lee from Plumline investigate the scene.

Plumbline found that, indeed, there was additional damage. While Lee could not say for an absolute certainty, he believed that the additional damage was probably caused when the contractor yanked out the old pipe.

Without the 100% conclusive report from Plumbline, and along with the ”disclaimer’ in the original signed contract, We thought the best bet was to negotiate the price of the additional repair down as low as possible. Ultimately Andy ended up with the settling with Pipeline Specialists for only 50% of the additional repair bill, which was a savings of $2,500!

AROUND THE HOUSE BLOG READY TROUBLESHOOTING belly, drain line, pipe belly, pipeline specialists, plumbline, plumbline services, sewer line, sewer line repair