Plumbing Saga: Part the Second, Enter the Excavators

The plumbers excavated just a little over a week ago and we have drainage!

I mean, we had drainage prior to the dig but the plumbers were confused as to how because apparently pipes are supposed to be "jetted" and maintained once a year. Ours had been maintained...
never as we had no maintneance history to give them. Our problem was bad enough that they felt we

Commence digging!

should have been dealing with indoor standing water type issues from the first day we moved in. We certainly showed them! We've been living comfortably with poor drainage for years! Suckers!


Since the plumbers were going to dig the city and the gas company had to be notified. That process takes about 48 hours and I spent that time panicking. I was convinced the house was going to fall into a sinkhole. Perhaps they would find more and more problems down the line and they would destroy the entire yard as we frantically tossed dollar bills into the hole.

After I worked through my anxiety I was able to greet the plumbers with a smile and calmly answer their questions. The first was: "Has the gas company been out yet to mark the lines?" 

I responded gleefully, "That's funny I was just about to ask you guys that question!" 

This was not funny at all because if the gas company had neglected to send someone out to mark the gas lines with flags there would be no digging.  And it was really not funny because now the whole neighborhood was in danger of being blown up if the plumbers decided to go ahead with the job- which they didn't. We waited together until the gas company arrived and everything was appropriately marked.


While the plumbers set up their equipment I had a nice chat with the gas company man. He told me

The dirt pile!

lots of useful information about our home's gas line and shut off valve most of which I have now forgotten. Then after he left I signed a waiver because the plumbers were going to rip up shrubbery.

At first they were apologetic as they mournfully pointed to the shrubbery we would lose. But after I told them to rip up as many plants (even the never used sprinkler system if need be) as they wanted they seemed to understand there was nothing in the yard I cared about. There were no prized petunias or heirloom tomatoes or whatever it is people with green thumbs grow in yards.

The problem indeed ending up being tree root. They called it a "root ball." After they took care of that root ball, replaced the pipe, and added a cap point (from now on that will be the easy access point for future work). They used their camera to inspect and then jetted the rest of the pipes obliterating more root balls all the way down to the city's main line.

Root ball with bonus view of a foot!

Then the city came and blessed the work so we are all on the up-and-up. Well, except for the fact that the city once reprimanded us for not mowing our lawn.

The dirt pile and cap point after it had been blessed!