Not my personal plumbing, mind you, the house plumbing. Where do I begin?Our house was built in the early 1920s. I love old houses for their charm and quirks, but there are some things that just cry out for modernity, and plumbing is one of them It's been a problem since we moved in.
The first week we owned the house a cesspool collapsed. That was an omen. Since that day in 1979 we've added two cesspools and spent thousand and thousands of dollars on our plumbing system. And we need to spend more. The old pipes combined with a very high water table right here in our neighborhood have not been kind to us. Talk about a money pit!
The latest news, after many problems and many emergency calls to the cesspool people, is that we need to pull up the line from the house to the cesspool and replace it due to a"pitch" problem. If we don't, it will continue to cause back-ups into the house. Believe me when I say its not pretty.Sounds simple enough but here's what it entails: pulling up the newly built deck, which was not only nailed down but glued last year when it was put in, digging up the walkway which is made of pavers, and possibly into my garden, which is where the cesspool sits. It will be a mess and most likely very costly.
Now this work should have been done earlier but with us, its all about choices and we needed to spend the money on other things first. But this past weekend the whole issue reared its ugly head again and now we're in crisis mode.
Is this really the American dream?
2 comments:
Consider installing a back flow preventer and a pump to force the sewage out to the main. Not sure about cost but would solve some of the tearing up process. You may have to install a small "holding tank " but it is an option to digging up everything as long as the pipe going to the main is in tact.
Depending on how long the distance is, you might talk to the contractors about the possibility of horizontal boring. They are using that by me, to install sewer lines under the streets without digging them up. One of the well drillers in EH used that when my dad had a new well put in a few years ago. One hole in the front yard, drilled under the sidewalk, flower beds etc, right into his basement. still a mess, but not as bad as digging a trench. sounds to me like you might get by with one hole near the cesspool and one somewhere in between. I can sympathize, had mine back up a few months ago. Good luck
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