The Day After.
Today is Saturday, February 19, 2005, and it is day 2 of our sewer issue. One of the joys of this as some of you have experienced, is the complete trashing of the basement. In my case though, there was no loss of possessions, just the destruction of the raised floor and the vile stench of fermenting sewage.
Yesterday, I had a plumber come out and snake the line from the cleanout to the main line out to the sewer. It seemed to go well, but after he completed his task, he mentioned to me that the pipe itself may be rotted and have to be replaced. This is no small task mind you, as it requires digging up the basement floor to remove the old pipe, then putting in a new pipe. To validate this, the plumber, Scott, offered to use his high-tech video camera to check the line for only $250. Now, I know this is sewage and in reality $250 is not much, but he was way to eager to sell me this service. On top of this, he proceeded to tell me all the faults of the plumbing design in my house, and how he would fix them. Needless to say, I sent him on his way after paying him $125 for the work he had already performed. I don’t trust anyone who points out all the issues with ones house, especially when they are in an unsettling predicament.
With the plumber gone, I proceeded to contact the insurance adjuster to find out the next steps to deal with the sewage under the raised floor. After 4 calls and a lot of confusion, I was told to contact a company called Service Master. They are supposedly experts in dealing with situations such as this. So, I did, and scheduled them to come out a 2 PM – with Barbra bing the one to meet them at the house.
Barbra arrived home at 2PM to find Service Master already in the driveway waiting. I had high hopes for this company, but they were immediately dashed when they tried to only tear up the floor by the cleanout. They said that this was where the sewage was as they could see about a cup of water on the floor. Barbra called me and to make a long story short, I set them straight. It seems that they have a special device that detects water – even through floors and walls, yet it could not detect the sewage by the actual drain. I told them that I had seen water on the other side of the floor and that they needed to check further. Guess what? After tearing up the floor, they found a pile of sewage and water on the floor. You would think that the massive stench would have guided them to it initially, but apparently, it must take a high school graduate to figure this out (I don’t think either guy made it past the 6th grade). So these geniuses, continued their removal of debris out of the basement, and supposedly cleaned and disinfected the floor. They then put in fans and a dehumidifier to dry the area out (they claim that they need to run for 3 days to dry the area out). They were gone by 5:30 PM.
Later, Barbra and I joined my best friend John to go see Yankee Doodle Dandy at the Old Redford. It was a great movie – and the black face scene was not deleted as it normally is on TV. After this outing, we retuned home, to the wonderful stench that is sewage. Being too tired and irritated to deal with it I ignored it and went to bed.
Back to Saturday:
I woke up this morning and decide to go see if the stench had dissipated. It had not. Now mind you, this is not being caused by any backups anymore, it must have been just residual. Being the intuitive person that I am, I decided to remove the plastic covering over the affected area so that I could validate the cause for myself. What I found irritated me to no avail. The Service Master geniuses did not bother to really clean up the mess; they just sprayed it with their special disinfectant, creating a joyful mix of lemony fresh sewage. It was like the equivalent of squeezing lemon juice on a on a piece of shit. So, I went outside, got some garden tools and my shop vac and preceded to cleanup the mess myself. This also entailed using bleach and soapy water to disinfect the area. So, as of 3 PM, the stench is much reduced, although there is the nasty smell of their lemon disinfectant lingering in the air. I have also contacted another plumber and for $100 he will check my sewage pipes to see if I need to rip up my floor. He will be out Monday evening and I will also have him give me some quotes on some other plumbing tasks (He came highly recommended so I feel more comfortable).
A plus to this is that it is forcing me to move on my plans for the basement that include new water lines (I still have 50 year old galvanized pipes). I figure that why not since the place is torn up anyway.
One final note: The insurance adjuster will be out on Wednesday to “inspect the damage.” I find it humorous that the insurance companies only have people who only work Monday- Friday 8-4PM. G-d forbid that they want to resolve an issue quickly. Why don’t they have people who work at least on the weekends, and possibly evenings? It is almost like the city, who expects you to wait until you can get a permit to replace a water heater. I guess that this is just how it is.
Till next time…..
Yesterday, I had a plumber come out and snake the line from the cleanout to the main line out to the sewer. It seemed to go well, but after he completed his task, he mentioned to me that the pipe itself may be rotted and have to be replaced. This is no small task mind you, as it requires digging up the basement floor to remove the old pipe, then putting in a new pipe. To validate this, the plumber, Scott, offered to use his high-tech video camera to check the line for only $250. Now, I know this is sewage and in reality $250 is not much, but he was way to eager to sell me this service. On top of this, he proceeded to tell me all the faults of the plumbing design in my house, and how he would fix them. Needless to say, I sent him on his way after paying him $125 for the work he had already performed. I don’t trust anyone who points out all the issues with ones house, especially when they are in an unsettling predicament.
With the plumber gone, I proceeded to contact the insurance adjuster to find out the next steps to deal with the sewage under the raised floor. After 4 calls and a lot of confusion, I was told to contact a company called Service Master. They are supposedly experts in dealing with situations such as this. So, I did, and scheduled them to come out a 2 PM – with Barbra bing the one to meet them at the house.
Barbra arrived home at 2PM to find Service Master already in the driveway waiting. I had high hopes for this company, but they were immediately dashed when they tried to only tear up the floor by the cleanout. They said that this was where the sewage was as they could see about a cup of water on the floor. Barbra called me and to make a long story short, I set them straight. It seems that they have a special device that detects water – even through floors and walls, yet it could not detect the sewage by the actual drain. I told them that I had seen water on the other side of the floor and that they needed to check further. Guess what? After tearing up the floor, they found a pile of sewage and water on the floor. You would think that the massive stench would have guided them to it initially, but apparently, it must take a high school graduate to figure this out (I don’t think either guy made it past the 6th grade). So these geniuses, continued their removal of debris out of the basement, and supposedly cleaned and disinfected the floor. They then put in fans and a dehumidifier to dry the area out (they claim that they need to run for 3 days to dry the area out). They were gone by 5:30 PM.
Later, Barbra and I joined my best friend John to go see Yankee Doodle Dandy at the Old Redford. It was a great movie – and the black face scene was not deleted as it normally is on TV. After this outing, we retuned home, to the wonderful stench that is sewage. Being too tired and irritated to deal with it I ignored it and went to bed.
Back to Saturday:
I woke up this morning and decide to go see if the stench had dissipated. It had not. Now mind you, this is not being caused by any backups anymore, it must have been just residual. Being the intuitive person that I am, I decided to remove the plastic covering over the affected area so that I could validate the cause for myself. What I found irritated me to no avail. The Service Master geniuses did not bother to really clean up the mess; they just sprayed it with their special disinfectant, creating a joyful mix of lemony fresh sewage. It was like the equivalent of squeezing lemon juice on a on a piece of shit. So, I went outside, got some garden tools and my shop vac and preceded to cleanup the mess myself. This also entailed using bleach and soapy water to disinfect the area. So, as of 3 PM, the stench is much reduced, although there is the nasty smell of their lemon disinfectant lingering in the air. I have also contacted another plumber and for $100 he will check my sewage pipes to see if I need to rip up my floor. He will be out Monday evening and I will also have him give me some quotes on some other plumbing tasks (He came highly recommended so I feel more comfortable).
A plus to this is that it is forcing me to move on my plans for the basement that include new water lines (I still have 50 year old galvanized pipes). I figure that why not since the place is torn up anyway.
One final note: The insurance adjuster will be out on Wednesday to “inspect the damage.” I find it humorous that the insurance companies only have people who only work Monday- Friday 8-4PM. G-d forbid that they want to resolve an issue quickly. Why don’t they have people who work at least on the weekends, and possibly evenings? It is almost like the city, who expects you to wait until you can get a permit to replace a water heater. I guess that this is just how it is.
Till next time…..
posted by Brian at 5:29 PM
1 Comments:
As one who has INTIMATE knowledge of drain and sewer backups, let me know if we can be of any assistance. I guess you already did the cleanup but I do have an ass-load of fans...let me know if you need them.
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