Drain Works Plumbing

I moved into an older home back in July and noticed small symptoms of a problem that became worse over the next couple of weeks.

I first noticed a small sewer/sewage smell near the rear laundry floor drain when I was leveling the washer and dryer and tried flushing with water and javex bleach.

Then while testing a toilet upstairs I had flushed a number of times in a row to make sure it was flushing properly and shutting off. I went downstairs a little bit later and noticed some waste on the floor near the laundry and clear water in the drain in the front. This was the first sign of a problem.

I noticed that the basement toilet was only flushing 2-3 times max and then would partially flush. In hindsight, I later figured out that there was too much water in the floor drains to allow the toilet to push the bowl water through (I didn't know the level of the water in the floor drain traps).

I thought perhaps a minor clog so I tried some chemicals down the floor drains and basement toilet (toilet safe - won't damage wax ring/porcelin).

Anyway, I noticed the water levels in the floor drains was rising and lowering over a 24 hour period after heavy use (washing machine, dishwasher) and thought it was a partial clog.

I continued to endure sewer/sewage smell way too long trying to exhaust home remedies (drain cleaners, baking soda and vinegar, etc) before I was going to call in the pros.

Over this time period I was researching/investigating possible solutions and asking for recommendations from pros and so I looked in the Yellow Pages and online for various plumbing companies that did all services (plumbing, drain work, snaking, scoping, etc) at a reasonable price.

I had first seen Drainworks in the Yellow Pages but held off until I could get in touch with a friendly neighbour for recommendations but they were away for a good week or so when I really needed someone and was fed up with the smell. I was new to the neighborhood and figured word of mouth was good.

I was in the local blue big box hardware store and was describing my problem to the guy in plumbing and they suggested a clog in the main line which was similar to advice on some plumbing forums. I asked for a recommendation and he said they can't really give them out. Anyway I got to the checkout and asked for a personal recommendation and one suggested Drainworks. That recommendation that "I call Drainworks when I have a problem" and all of the glowing reviews on homestars.com I thought I would give them a shot to at least try clearing the line.

I know there is another couple of recommended plumbers that are used frequently by a well know contractor on a TV show and I was considering them as well but wasn't sure if they would charge more and they didn't have as many favorable reviews on homestars.com for example.

I should have called DrainWorks sooner to get resolution to the problem instead of living with it so long!!! (smell, troubleshooting, agony, etc)

I called on a Sunday night to schedule them to come out on the Monday to look at the problem as I figured that they would charge more on the weekend, etc.

William answered the phone when I asked about scheduling for them to come out in the morning and he asked me "what's your schedule like tonight" and he explained that "we never charge more for weekend or holiday work" so I said sure come out to snake the line.

Jeremy showed up at the door within the time frame given and was already looking down the breather (fresh air inlet) when I came outside!

Jeremy brought in the snaking equipment (Ridgid Power Snake/Auger) through the sidedoor (with booties on!) into the basement and proceeded to try and snake the drain ($195+gst) through the front floor drain.

He couldn't access the sewer through the breather as the previous owners put stone and other debris in the fresh air inlet (and the downspout too) for some reason. (We later found a wooden stake stuck in the downspout / drain primer hole leading to the floor drain and removed it :( )

Jeremy tried for a good 5-10 minutes to feed the power auger into the floor drain, through the trap and out to the mainline but could only get so far. He then pulled it out and put a smaller bit on and fed it down again and again got stuck but this time when he pulled it out he hit mud as the auger bit was full of mud.

He figured there was a broken house trap (typical in older houses) and that it was full of mud and that's why water was draining so slowly out of the house (and the sewage was backing up in the house causing smell (and basement toilet was not flushing)).

He then put the see snake (scope) ($180+gst - ouch!) down the floor drain to use more to find the location of the snake in the mainline using an above ground locator device (X marks the spot where it stopped).

I think this was a bit expensive to charge me this much to just use as locator rather than scoping entire drain considering that I had already paid for the snaking and hadn't gotten anywhere with that but they did give me a break on the excavation work apparently. :)

He recommended an exploratory excavation to investigate the problem and I asked if they could do it as soon as possible.

They set up their schedule to come out at 8:30 the next morning to start digging a 2'x5' trench beside the house and recommended replacing the floor trap with straight PVC section and cleanouts to city/house (house traps are redundant now as all fixtures must have traps by code now).

I knew that I couldn't leave it this way for long, couldn't sell the house this way later. I suppose I could/should have called other contractors out but they would have had to scope the line as well probably and their costs may have been more expensive so I decided to proceed with the job. The cost seemed reasonable for the work and was inline with price of a job that a family member had done for entire house to street section.

The only red flag that perhaps stuck out was that they could do this next day (good contractors are usually really busy) but it worked out and they treated this like the emergency I viewed it as!! :)

Next morning, Andre and Frank show up and explain what they are going to do (dig 2'x5' trench, scope drain both ways and put in 5' PVC section between house and street) and that later there would be someone else (Alex) by to help out.

Andre proceeded to jackhammer a 2'x5' area and then dug down for 4-5 hours with a manual hand excavation. Amazing! I'm glad they don't use a machine as it was so close to the house and would have meant more damage to the driveway. Also, the fact that they could get all the work done in such a small space!

Alex showed up later to help with the removal of soil too far down to shovel out and they loaded out buckets until they got down to the broken house trap pipe.

Andre and Alex explained their findings such as the fresh air inlet was misaligned with the connection to pipe connecting before the house trap (perhaps from shifting in the property or when the driveway was paved?).

Once they had excavated down far enough they exposed the clay pipe and broken house trap which was removed. Frank showed up shortly afterwards and they put the see snake down the sewer lines towards the street and the house to check things out. No problems found so they put the new 5' section in which included the cleanouts for inside the house and towards the street.

After doing the final inspection, Andre and Alex proceeded to put soil back in to the hole. My only major complaint with the job was they were going to leave garbage such as used work gloves, pvc pipe and old clay reminants in the hole and cover it up. Who does this? I insisted several times that this be removed. I wouldn't bury stuff that was clearly garbage.

I'm posting now after about 2.5 weeks since the job was done since I wanted to make sure it was completely resolved as I wanted to make sure the sewer/sewage smell went away and no other issues discovered.

At this point, I'm just trying to get rid of a musty smell in the basement (which basements typically have)! :)

Frank did indicate that there is clay pipes under the basement floor and the wye connection with the neighbor (shared connection under mutual driveway) towards the street (city). At this point I don't have the money to replace this and don't think it is warranted at this time. I don't see any major problems with these pipes happening anytime soon since they are mostly straight sections (no curves where joints would deteriorate more quickly besides the one original floor drain trap (the other floor drain is ABS)). Also, there would be no guarantee the city would replace their clay pipes. Plus having to dig up the whole (mutual) driveway! :(

I'm just waiting for the soil to settle a bit more before I ask DrainWorks to come back and put some more gravel down as discussed with Frank. Too bad DrainWorks doesn't repatch the driveway later, but I guess they want to stick to plumbing.

The job by DrainWorks overall exceeded expectations and it amazes me they were able to do the job in such a tiny space!

I have no issues with calling DrainWorks again for plumbing or drain work or recommending them to others that had no previous use/recommendations. A bit pricey of a job but I guess this is the going rate for these sort of sewer fixes.

The other thing I was a bit disappointed with was that the deferred financing option was not available because I called them after hours on the original call and when I further asked for it at the end for the balance of payment I was told "sorry it's not available". I'm in a bit of a financial bind right now having moved in recently so having spare cash on hand would be good.

Great job DrainWorks. You got my drains working! :)