About 7-8 years ago, my drains (I'm on a sewer)started to back up, so called a rooter type place where a neighbor's son worked & they found that the back-flow preventer on my sewer drain had failed & was stuck partially closed. They dug it up & took the back-flow thing out (they said it was needed in the county bulding codes when my house was built, but now based on the height of the house above the sewer, was no longer required by the building code). About 2 years later, my drains started to back up again & discovered that when they had filled in where they'd dug up, they didn't pack salt around the joints & now, tree roots were clogging the sewer line. It was their mistake & the original fix had a 25 year warranty, so they had to come back & dig it up again & fix it & then , put salt around it. I then had the trees removed. No more drain problems so far (knock wood)
This past Spring, I noticed my neighbor had a rooter type van out in front of their house, but didn't think much about it. I had a plumber here to fix the faucet in my kitchen sink, as the hose where the pull-out sprayer connected to the sprayer had started to leak & he had installed it when I had new kitchen counters & a new sink & faucet installed & he was who the counter guy had subcontracted to do the plumbing part & he was reasonable & trustworthy (I love to hire the subs that the pros use, they know who does good work for a good price). When he got the new sprayer hose installed (he had to go pick one up at the only place in town that sells parts for Hansgrohe faucets) & when he turned the water back on, he noticed that there seemed to be a problem with my water pressure & was outside checking it out (turned out I needed a new pressure valve), so I went over & asked my neighbor about what was going on & she was nearly in tears, because the rooter guys had told her that they needed to dig up her yard & replace the drain & it was going to cost $6K & they were pressuring her to sign a contract on the spot. She told them she needed to talk to her husband when he got home from work before she signed anything. I told my plumber about it & he went over & looked at it for her & told her she didn't need to have anything done & the rooter guys had cleared the clog when they ran their rooter doo-dad down the line & he gave her his card & said to call him if the drains slowed again (so far, they haven't) & didn't charge her anything. She was so grateful that she hugged me, as both she & her husband had had medical expenses & just couldn't afford a big plumbing bill right now. The plumber said those rooter guys aren't really plumbers & are only trained enough to come out & run the cameras down the drain & then, call the sales guy who comes & tries to get you to commit to a big expense & in her case, one she didn't need.
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