the brunt of the issue arose when i contacted a plumber who noted due to the weekend hour, the emergency pricing of $130/hr, and the lack of a jackhammer... i was pretty well screwed. but he was kind enough to tell me, hed rather not charge me to come over, look, and tell me the same exact thing i had exploded to him via phone. so we scheduled an appointment for 7:30am monday morning, with a courtesy call at 7.
the above picture looks worse than it is. that is decades of rust and gunk on the sewer line coupled with dust from the air, the retrofit of my new gas boiler and the sealing of the chimney, and my penchant for using a circular saw in the confines of the basement. the real problem however, was not as bad as i ever could have guessed. the loose circular piece at the end of the outflow pipe was not, as i had guessed, metal rusting away after countless years of contact with raw sewage. no. it was a wood bung, stuffed in the end of an iron pipe.
two friends from school just happen to have experience in plumbing, and ... called back after a frantic voicemail was left by yours truly. we [they] tried snaking the line with a 25 foot snack, and then again after i paid to rent a 100 foot 3/4" electric feed snake. they hit something at the end my basement foundation which at the time we assumed was a weird bend in the line [correct], or absolutely worst case scenario, collapsed line. meaning i [someone else] would have to jackhammer open the entire line which was very neatly poured into the foundation, replace it, and thousands of dollars later, i would have indoor plumbing again.
after 5 hours of playing with the snake, and by playing i mean... getting backspray from whatever was left in the pipes [i stood well back from this operation], the guys were fed pizza and sent on their merry way. i went to a friend's house for the night and consumed some delicious alcohol.
monday 7 rolls around, and im home pacing, waiting for a call. nothing. well shit. i guess they'll just show up then. 7:30. nothing. more pacing. 7:35. nothing. i called and tried very bravely not to flip my absolute shit. i was told by dispatch someone would call back within a few minutes. nothing. 7:40 i called the plumbing/heating/electrical company up the street that has traditionally been unavailable. as i figured, they could schedule me in for wednesday? um no thanks. i called a third company, dispatch had barely hung up with the plumber called to say he was on his way, and showed up 5 minutes later. i called the first company, said thanks for nothing, and tried not to be incredibly rude.
the plumber listens to my tale of woe, opened up the trap in the corner of the basement, flushes it, flushes the rest of the line, calmly explaining the process as an actual shit flood bubbles out the trap, cleans that up, and informs me my friends did a very good job with what they had. he then pointed out the hose fitting he was using can be bought for about $10 at the local parts store, showed me how to use it in the future to avoid disasters, and then apologized for having to bill me a small amount of time for travel.
i gladly whipped out the credit card, and in less than an hour and a half and for under $200, all my [plumbing] problems were fixed!
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