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<\/a><\/p>\nHere’s the old piece of cast iron, along with the part that was in the tank that I replaced:<\/p>\n
So, we called Roto-Rooter, for better or for worse. $315 later we still had the same problem, and the guy figured we needed to have the tank pumped. So, I dug up the tank cover, which was a pain in the ass and a lot of work. In addition, since I work during the day, I dug it up at night. But I didn’t want to open the top.<\/p>\n
The pumpers: Honeybucket Septic. I called the Honeybucket guy and they came out the next day. I could tell because they ran over the edge of my new driveway and broke some pieces off of it, and left marks where they drove right up to the tank. I called them to see what they did. I didn’t get a call back, so I called again the next day. Frustrated that they weren’t calling me back, I decided to open the tank and see if they pumped it. So, I opened it (it wasn’t so bad), and either they pumped it, or it didn’t need to be pumped. <\/p>\n
I called rotorooter back again, since they said they’d come back for free. They came out on Monday, and before the guy got there Honeybucket FINALLY called me back! 4 or 5 days, geeez! He said they did pump it and freed up the clog (which was a lie — it was still blocked). I have yet to get the bill, but I’m sure it will be $400+. Rotorooter poked around and figured it was a broken pipe by the tank or somewhere under the driveway.<\/p>\n
So, the guy left. That night, I started digging. I dug up a TON of dirt. I discovered that the pipe that enters the tank had dropped down about 4 inches, and was full of roots. So I cleaned it up and dug more dirt out to fix the problem.<\/p>\n
The next problem – cast iron steel pipe! I dug enough of it out to where I would need to cut it. The next day, I called around and of the people who I talked to, I got ONE quote (I called five or six places — of which, I left several messages with people or machines and only got one call back the next day). The quote was $700..screw that, as I already am in the hole $700 and nothing was fixed. <\/p>\n
So, what to do? I rent a pipe cutter the next day, at lunch, for $20. I start the process of cutting it, and the damn pipe just falls out of the dirt! Apparently, it was already broken about two more inches into the ground. If i had only dug a little further! So, I didn’t need the cutter, and dig out the rest of the stuff.<\/p>\n
the rest of the story: I bought pipes, lego’ed it together, stuck my arm in the tank to remove old parts, and now it all works!<\/p>\n
Here is the piece of pipe that I replaced with some black ABS 4\u00e2\u20ac\u0153. You can’t tell, but the whole is deep. It is like 3-4 feet in some spots! It took hours to dig it out. I still need to finish tossing the dirt back on.<\/p>\n
Here’s the old piece of cast iron, along with the part that was in the tank that I replaced:<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n