Chris Summers
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- Oct 21, 2024
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We live here in Houston and hurricane Beryl blew down part of my son's rear fence. The fence was old so needed replacing. He hired a fence contractor to come replace it. They had a location marking company mark the utilities as the utility easement is on his side of the rear property line. They marked cable, phone, gas and electric. Only 3 posts were snapped but they said they should replace all the posts and other materials.
They got done and the fence looks great. Then the toilets in the house started backing up. A plumber was called and roto-rooted the line from a cleanout in the back yard. Seemed to help but 2 days later same problem. Plumber came back and ran a camera down the sewer line. Apparently the house sewer line runs very close to the property line and towards one end crossed the property line and is in the yard of the neighbor behind him. You can clearly see with the camera where one of the post holes must have hit the sewer line when they dug it and the dirt and a bunch of pebbles that have gotten into the pipe (they pack the bottom of the hole under the post with 3-4" of gravel). The plumber says he thinks the sewer line is 3-4 feet down. We don't have freeze lines here in SE Texas so that might be right.
So I have 4 questions:
1. Should the utility line search have found a PVC sewer line and marked it? I'm thinking no, it's plastic
2. Is the fence company liable? I'm thinking maybe not.
3. The plumber says the post needs to be removed and relocated and he will repair the broken section. Couldn't he just add a slight bend around the post with a pair of 45 degree elbows and a section of straight pipe? This would avoid paying the fence company to remove and replace posts and other materials.
4. He says if my son gets someone to dig a big hole down to the break he will only charge $3000 to fix it. He said he has to pull permits and have inspections so it could take a week or 2 to complete.
I'm not a plumber but a concerned dad so just wondering.
Thanks for any help.
They got done and the fence looks great. Then the toilets in the house started backing up. A plumber was called and roto-rooted the line from a cleanout in the back yard. Seemed to help but 2 days later same problem. Plumber came back and ran a camera down the sewer line. Apparently the house sewer line runs very close to the property line and towards one end crossed the property line and is in the yard of the neighbor behind him. You can clearly see with the camera where one of the post holes must have hit the sewer line when they dug it and the dirt and a bunch of pebbles that have gotten into the pipe (they pack the bottom of the hole under the post with 3-4" of gravel). The plumber says he thinks the sewer line is 3-4 feet down. We don't have freeze lines here in SE Texas so that might be right.
So I have 4 questions:
1. Should the utility line search have found a PVC sewer line and marked it? I'm thinking no, it's plastic
2. Is the fence company liable? I'm thinking maybe not.
3. The plumber says the post needs to be removed and relocated and he will repair the broken section. Couldn't he just add a slight bend around the post with a pair of 45 degree elbows and a section of straight pipe? This would avoid paying the fence company to remove and replace posts and other materials.
4. He says if my son gets someone to dig a big hole down to the break he will only charge $3000 to fix it. He said he has to pull permits and have inspections so it could take a week or 2 to complete.
I'm not a plumber but a concerned dad so just wondering.
Thanks for any help.
