People have been complaining about plumbers' fees since the advent of indoor plumbing! We try to be ultra diligent about preventing clogs....did you find out why you had this problem? What a pain in the wallet, I'm so sorry.

My sister paid $70 for a service call on her dryer today- that doesn't include the cost of the part. $189 total.

Yikes, your poor sister, Pam. The washing machine appears to be leaking, so we'll have to call someone out for that shortly. I hope it will be cheaper than your sister's service call.

Rhizo, I know they have, me included, ha. But it seems like now, we really have reason to complain. We've had clogging problems in this house every 2 or 3 years, have since we bought it over a decade ago. It has a septic tank and no garbage disposal. I try to be really careful about not washing down any food debris and never any oil, fat, etc. The enzymes are more of a preventive measure, so we are going to use those every few months to see if they help.

Maybe you have tree roots getting in the way of the finger system on your septic tank, Petra?

Sue

Marilyn Sue, I've heard tree roots can cause big plumbing problems, but thankfully the pipes are in - and above - the concrete foundation, so no tree roots in our case.

Here's a tip from a plumber. Pour rock salt such as Epson Salt into the main toilet and flush it a couple of times. Don't use the toilets or run the water for hours. Thus, it's best to do this before going to bed. The salt will kill the tree roots and minimize sewage back-up from tree roots.

How much salt and how often: 1 cup or so of salt. Repeat this once a month.

Don't do this too often because salt rust metal. Most of the older homes has galvanize pipes.

Rock salt works best but if not available, table salt would do as well. Use about 1/3 of to the container (Morton Salt container size) each time.

The main toilet is the toilet that is located closest to the main sewage line. For example, if the main sewage line runs in the back of the homes, the toilet closest to the back of your house is the main toilet. Vice versa if the main sewage line runs at the front of the homes.

Good Wednesday morning everyone! I live in Ontario, Canada and just had the plumber to my house yesterday. We had a Moen single lever kitchen faucet installed about 25 years ago and i still love the thing, however it has been dripping a bit off and on. Most of the time, you can wiggle the handle or move the spout a bit and that made the dripping stop but I knew it needed a replacement cartridge. My budget has been pretty tight all winter though and I've delayed getting the plumber in ... silly me!

I broke down and called on Monday afternoon and the nice man was here on Tuesday morning. Because it's a Moen, the replacement cartridge was free and I knew that to be the case however I was afraid that the inside barrel was scored and the entire set of taps would have to be replaced. Not the case. The man changed the cartridge and left a second cartridge so my husband can change it himself if it goes again. That'll never happen, he's not that handy. All I will have to pay for is the service call, which he said will be about $72 (their labour rate for 1 hour). The price we paid for the faucet 25 years ago was expensive for us at that time ... about $115 ... but well worth it when you think about it. The faucet has lasted a LONG time and we've only had the original cartridge and one replacement prior to the one installed yesterday.

Anytime a serviceman comes to my house, count on spending $200. Plumbers, carpenters, cesspool service, etc. Everyone charges a lot.

No one with a septic tank should use rock salt....just a reminder.

IF the choice is pay $200 and have great plumbing, or not pay and suffer the consequences... well, I'll pay. Small price to pay to have indoor plumbing working as it should!

And yes, NO ROCK SALT in septic.

Ntt, thanks for the tip, but we don't have a problem with tree roots, we have a slab foundation and the pipes are enclosed.
jannie, that is true. I guess it pays to be able to DIY.
Smilin, our neighbhor had an issue with his faucet and called a different plumber. They only charged $89, but had to come back several times because the issue was not fixed.
Rhizo, I didn't know that, but it makes sense. The rock salt would probably kill off the beneficial organisms in the tank.

I usually just read KT - very seldom post. But, here goes.

I am a plumber’s wife. Yes, costs are high - we understand and fuss too when we pay the supply bill or purchase new equipment or fill the trucks up with fuel. I had my GE dryer repaired about 2 years ago, and what cost me $75 7 or 8 years ago cost me $287 the last time. This was for the small bearing unit that fits on the spindle in the middle of the back of the dryer drum. You can almost replace the dryer for not much more than that.

Here is part of how our costs are figured. We HAVE to carry a minimum of a million dollar contractor's liability policy and a 1 million dollar vehicle liability policy; figure in the cost of operating 3 trucks (fuel, tires, repair, oil changes, tags, inspection stickers, etc); cost of equipment, and this are just a few pieces of our equipment I’m listing (4 sewer machines of different sizes with the cheapest being nearly $1000 and the biggest and most costly one being nearly $3900; 2 snake cameras - one for sewer lines that costs $1250 and the other one that costs $6750 for isolation tests on water and gas lines within the house); costs for Continuing Education in order to maintain plumbing licenses each year runs about $500 per plumber; fee for state tradesman organization that we belong to in order to get reduced prices on those liability policies we have to carry; bonds for each town we work in; the CPA, even though I do the books up until tax time; office expense - we donated a 15'x15' section of my husband's shop to be used as the office but you still have to have internet, supplies, etc; cell phones - two of the towns we work in have ordinances where you have to use hands-free units or get a ticket, so that added an initial cost to the phones. The phones plans have to have adequate data usage figured in as some of our customers do not call, they prefer to text us and have us respond the same way. Personally I dislike that, but it is what it is; equipment will not last indefinitely so you also have to figure in replacement cost which we do based on past history of usage life of the various pieces of equipment; there are other things that have to be included besides the ones I have listed. All these costs have to be prorated out and they come into bearing when figuring how much per hour a call will cost. You will notice that I have not even addressed the expense of wages, unemployment insurance, workers comp, the company’s share of SS and MC, etc.

Most craft/trade companies are owned by honest, hard working individuals who do not try to make their living off of what is charged to any one person. It is just ridiculously expensive to operate a business where someone else’s health and well-being is in your hands - yes, I mean your plumber - stop and think about who you are trusting to handle your access to potable water and who makes sure you have no cross contamination.

Hope you all understand.

Peta - It does not matter if all your pipes are confined in a slab or not. Tree roots get into sewer lines out in the yard and travel inside the lines because that is where the moisture is. Ask your plumber what they removed from the line. It may also be that your sewer line is separated or even partially collapsed in an area. This is where those cameras we use come into play. Since you are having difficulties with your plumbing as frequently as you are, it would pay to get a plumbing company who can camera your lines to see if the problem can be located and corrected. You really should not be having sewer line problems that frequently - something is wrong somewhere. Also, do you have to have your tank pumped frequently? If so, you quite probably have a leach line problem.

gmatx, thanks much for weighing in on this. :o)

We've lived here about 11 years and have only had to have the septic tank pumped once. So no problem there.

Point taken re. the roots, but we had a slab leak last year and the plumbing co. did use a camera to look at the pipes and it turned out drought-related foundation shifting had caused a coupling to separate. They said everything else was fine and no problems visible on the other side of the house, so they only rerouted one side through the attic. If there had been roots, I am sure they would have mentioned it, or at least I sure hope so.

I know plumbers are expensive, they seem to make hundreds at every call, yet you have to remember they are highly-trained professionals. Would you balk if your doctor cured you of a medical problem and charged you $200? Also, if you know a plumber personally, take a look at his house. He's not living in a mansion, he has the same bills as the rest of us. Just need to "walk a mile in his shoes." Oh, I'm a regular person, not a plumber.

Thanks for explaining the cost of plumbing repair cost and this could be for an electrician or any other good reliable repairman. I am lucky to have a son in law that is very talented, and also even though my husband cannot work on projects due to his heart/cancer/breathing problems, he can walk someone thru it. We had our septic tank pumped out every other year and never had problems. There are products that do help but cannot remember. Check with the people that pump your tanks. I too was careful what to put down and egg shells are not good because they never dissolve. We also kept our leach field clean-that is did not plant anything on it, but then it was under the driveway and pad.

Looks like it might help if you got your favourite mechanic/welder to cut the flexible rod of your snake and wed a few extra feet into the gap.

o j