Installation of New Sewer Pipe --- Question About Contract

Chi42 · Mar 15, 2017

Hello.

I live in a single-family home in Chicago. Recently, some plumbers examined our very old sewer pipe with a camera, and determine that our sewer pipe was broken in 3 or 4 places.

They want to install a brand new sewer pipe, bypassing the old one. The old pipe will still be underground, but the pipe will not be functioning. This will be similar to a heart-bypass operation.

One plumber will dig out a hole in the front yard, and another plumber will dig out a hole in our crawl space. These two plumbers will "meet" and create a tunnel. The new pipe would be inserted into the front-yard hole, and would go through the tunnel to the crawl space.

The contract presented by the plumber, has the following provision: "Contractor is not responsible for any damage caused to floors, walls, or landscaping."

We are concerned that the plumber may cause damage to the walls of our crawl space.

My questions are as follows:

1) Is this provision common in plumbing contracts?

2) If the plumber is insured/bonded, why can't his insurance company pay for any damages caused to our walls?

Thanks for any information.

frodo · Mar 16, 2017

sounds like a typical disclaimer

what he is doing is typical every day plumbing, if you are concerned i would request,,or rather write into the contact, and have all parties sign

both copies, that you want 100% compaction on the excavation .

Chi42 · Mar 16, 2017

frodo said:
sounds like a typical disclaimer

what he is doing is typical every day plumbing, if you are concerned i would request,,or rather write into the contact, and have all parties sign

both copies, that you want 100% compaction on the excavation .

Thank you for your response.

What does "100% compaction on the excavation" mean?

frodo · Mar 16, 2017

instead of just filling up the hole with dirt you compact the dirt back to the density it was

using a wacker packer. If the soll is compacted, then it can not move, If it does not move neither will the foundation

We have an Admin. on here named Chris that can tell you more than you want to know about compaction.
His workers do it every day, sometimes all day.

spray just a misting of water and wack wack wack

Chi42 · Mar 16, 2017

frodo said:
instead of just filling up the hole with dirt you compact the dirt back to the density it was

using a wacker packer. If the soll is compacted, then it can not move, If it does not move neither will the foundation

We have an Admin. on here named Chris that can tell you more than you want to know about compaction.
His workers do it every day, sometimes all day.

spray just a misting of water and wack wack wack

I just talked to the plumber. He said that he does not do soil compaction. He never has, and he never will. He said that he will not be doing anything to mess with our foundation. He said that foundation-related work would require a different type of permit.

As for walls, he said that the new sewer pipe may go through one of the walls of the crawl space, and that does cause some concern. But he assures us that installation of a new sewer pipe is a simple procedure.