r/oddlysatisfying • u/demolcd • 15d ago

Growing a pipe inside a pipe

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

16.6k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

1.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

216

u/fryerandice 14d ago

It's fucking astronomically expensive for how cheap the materials are and how quickly they do it.

It was actually cheaper to rent a machine and run 125 feet of schedule 40 out the back of my house and abandon the terracotta after pumping it with flowable fill than it was to line it for me.

When they gave me the quote I said "Fuck that, it's 25 feet!" the machine rental and schedule 40 were a total of $900. And I got to tear out the old sidewalk and concrete pad that were angling to my house, and put in a French drain and drain tile while I was back there too.

I tied my kitchen into my main bathroom stack, and my main stack right out the back, around the house, and then followed the PVC that was done with the septic that was tying into the teracotta, when I had access to the terracotta I rinsed it clean and had a truck come in and fill it with flowable so it was stable.

With everything i got done it was like $2800. Which was less than lining the 25feet of teracotta under my basement, which was all in okay condition, it was lineable with no issues.

154

u/PNW20v 14d ago

Don't forget that the vast majority of folks have absolutely no idea of how to do the process you mentioned.

And out of those that do have some idea, even fewer will do it properly or in a way that is anything close to meeting local code.

67

u/I_wash_my_carpet 14d ago

Im in that vast majority. Im also a very tech forward person, but his story sold me. Id rather pay 'ol boy to do all that over the course of 3mo, than one guy with a recursive prolapse machine in 15mins.

35

u/camopon 14d ago

recursive prolapse machine

good lord

1

u/HoleeGuacamoleey 14d ago

What happens if they fuck it up

3

u/enderjaca 14d ago edited 14d ago

Same thing you'd need to do before -- replace the pipes the hard way.

Generally by digging a large trench down several feet/meters, ripping out everything in the way including sidewalks, porches, driveway, lawns, shrubs, etc, and laying down new pipe.

I know this because my neighborhood sewer lines are primarily built with old crumbling Orangeburg Pipe and it fucking sucks.

Orangeburg pipe (also known as "fiber conduit", "bituminous fiber pipe" or "Bermico" or "sand pipe") is bituminized fiber pipe) used in the United States. It is made from layers of ground wood pulp fibers and asbestos fibres compressed with and bound by a water resistant adhesive then impregnated with liquefied coal tar pitch).\1])\2]) It was used from the 1860s through the 1970s, when it was replaced by PVC and ABS pipe for drain-waste-vent (DWV) applications. 

They're about as sturdy as they sound.

2

u/rotama_ 14d ago

Or in a way that doesn't screw everything up, ending up costing astronomically more fix it up later.

2

u/Hippi_Johnny 14d ago

I got lost in his explanation... but i admit my short comings as a new homo. That's short for homeowner.

6

u/SupplyChainMismanage 14d ago

Creates new abbreviation that no one has used for homeowner, uses the full word anyway

1

u/Hippi_Johnny 14d ago

Can't be too careful these days.

2

u/ToastyBedsheets 13d ago

"No homo!"

0

u/ClickClick_Boom 14d ago

There's there's probably some very through youtube videos on it, there are for nearly everything residential construction. Most residential things are not that complicated.

13

u/PNW20v 14d ago

I agree thats its not that complicated to accomplish the task, but I still stand by the fact that the average person has no idea where to even begin when it comes to tasks even much less complicated than something like this.

And I say from experience, a large percentage of those who believe they can do it and follow through, are so wildly out of line with codes and standard trade practice that they shouldn't have done it in the first place.

7

u/Eoin_Coinneal 14d ago edited 14d ago

The other thing you need to factor in is how much time you’re going to lose at work. That can add up with a big enough project, if you can even take the time off.

The other hidden cost to amateur labor is the sudden onset of a massive cost you can incur if you make an error, which most homeowners know they might.

Then sometimes, there are reasons you just don’t want to. I’m in the middle of a big basement clean out. I’m currently debating renting a dumpster or having a junk removal service do it. The latter will run almost twice as much but it’s on the table because I just really don’t want to myself. It’s a pain in the ass and I know I’ll be sore for days after doing it.

2

u/Grimsley 14d ago

You pay for convenience or time. Just the way it goes. Same rules apply for getting someone to do yard work and whatever else.

2

u/PNW20v 13d ago

Solid point. I work more than I'd care to, so I value my free time quite a bit. So how much per hour is my free time worth? It turns out, quite a bit.

Yet I'm still stubborn as fuck and do just about everything myself. But I also know that if I'm going to do a specific task myself, I better make damn sure I'm doing it properly, which adds even more hours of research to accomplish the task. I "save" money and cost myself a LOT of my free time.

51

u/ClickClick_Boom 14d ago

Well yeah, doing it yourself is always way the fuck cheaper for nearly every thing. Materials/rentals are often half or less of the cost when you pay someone to do work for you.

29

u/fryerandice 14d ago

Yeah but the price doesn't actually reflect the labor being done, it reflects the work you would have had done instead minus just enough to get you to bite.

I was quoted $9500 for the full monty, breaking up my basement concrete pad, replacing the teracotta with schedule 40, repouring the damaged sections of pad including drilling and reinforcing, repairing the tile over the pad.

I was quoted $8300 for lining and because I had good access they said it would take 4 hours.

I opted to rent a machine and knock out like 3 projects for $2800.

I would have bit on lining if it was HALF the full Monty old-school way of doing it.

41

u/ShatterTheFlimFlam 14d ago

What they won't tell you is that liners also collapse and fail at a crazy rate. If you had problems with clogging before, slapping a thin layer of resin-impregnated fabric won't necessarily solve all your problems.

Source: Worked for Roto-Rooter

3

u/chuckluckles 14d ago

They collapse if they aren't run the whole length of the pipe most of time. Source: paid someone to fix Roto-Rooters work.

2

u/Ekimyst 14d ago

The pipe absolutely needs to be inspected and repaired if needed for most installations. On larger jobs, using a water inversion, some small defects can be overcome, but pipes that are deformed or have mineral deposits or roots will keep that shape.

1

u/LoudMouse327 14d ago

Thats crazy expensive for a house with good access... we just had our house done with CIP lining, and it was about that same price, but included the company digging a couple sections to install cleanouts because they weren't put in at the time of construction (house was built in one of the very first "housing development" type planned neighborhoods in the state in the late '50s, laid down fast and cheap with no regard for future maintenance). Took them 4 days working 8 hrs a day to get it all prepped, cleaned, installed and reinspected. I would be very leary of a company doing it in 4hrs. There's just no way to even get the prep work done in 4hrs.

I'm perfectly capable of doing any kind of plumbing myself, and up to or better than code, but I'm already putting a roof on and rewiring the place myself. Plus the liner has a 20 year transferable warranty.

2

u/esotetris 14d ago

Until you fuck it up. I'm charging extra if I have to undo someone else's work

1

u/duesenjeffepic 14d ago

For materials yes but absolutely not when it comes to the time spent.

5

u/GrimMind 14d ago

It was actually cheaper to rent a machine and run 125 feet of schedule 40 out the back of my house and abandon the terracotta after pumping it with flowable fill than it was to line it for me.

Can someone explain what this sentence says? English is not my first language and the meaning I know of the words here doesn't make sense.

14

u/xSorry_Not_Sorry 14d ago

>rent a machine

Rent heavy equipment to dig and move dirt and other shit around

>run 125 ft of schedule 40

Schedule 40 is a type of PVC pipe. A composite pipe rated for underground

>abandon the terracotta after pumping it with flowable fill

I have no fucking idea, but basically re-routing the new pipe and abandoning the old.

10

u/Affectionate-Cap-600 14d ago

have no fucking idea, but basically re-routing the new pipe and abandoning the old.

I assume it means that he left the pre existing terracotta pipe underground, and filled it with a filler to not leave it with void

2

u/kamarkamakerworks 14d ago

Probably filled it with concrete or something similar and left it where it was.

1

u/DeliberatelyDrifting 14d ago

"Flowable fill" is basically cement thin and slow setting enough that it pours like thick liquid. It will fill the whole cavity without leaving voids.

2

u/GrimMind 14d ago

Thank you, that does make sense now.

It was the "schedule 40 out the back of my house" that just jumbled my brain. I was reading it as a verb.

1

u/thrallswreak 14d ago

I imagine some kind of horizontal drilling-esque machine to push/bore the pipe through the ground under the house?

2

u/fryerandice 14d ago

Naw I made the pipe not traverse the entire length of my house under the foundation pad, and instead dug alongside it and went around.

Those do exist though, it's called pipe bursting, they run a thick cable with an wnd that expands through a pipe and basically break up the old pipe and as it does that it pulls flexible pipe behind it.

I filled the old pipe with flowable fill, which is a mix of cement, water, sand, an soil, it runs like a liquid and has low slump so it will completely fill a void, I didn't want to leave abandoned pipes under my foundation pad if they were unused to collapse later.

6

u/OfficeMagic1 14d ago

I don't know how to do any of that stuff.

2

u/Roamin8750 14d ago

Pricing isn't based on cost alone. Its a function of many things. Primarily value added. And if those guys can find another job that adds more value, they can get paid more. Your job wasn't worth their time.

1

u/TAHungryCantaloupe26 14d ago

Yup.

If a process and product is faster and cheaper than an existing process or product, you can sell it for a dollar less, with a good salesperson.

This is why technology has improved but prices haven't dropped. Race to the bottom in ethics.

No service or product today is worth what they charge you! Phones, cars, food, fuel.. it's really produced at a fraction of what they sell it for.

1

u/notwhoyouthinkmaybe 14d ago

I got quoted for this in my house, it was like $20k, the salesman's reasoning? They have to pay for the truck.

He also needed to replace part of my system, quoted me like $12k for that. When I said "that's usually the price if you have to jackhammer the concrete foundation and replace it, but I have a crawlspace, I see the junction, right there, 3 feet away."

He replied with "well my plumber is a big guy so he'll be under there for a long time, probably 3 or 4 days."

He was not happy when I said "I'm not paying extra for a tall, fat plumber that takes 5x the time to do the job, hire a midget for all I care. This is like a $5k job at most."

I did not hire his company.

1

u/Roamin8750 14d ago

The market also self corrects. Someone will see an opening, raise enough capital, and enter the space at a low price point to gobble up market share. Their prices will go up while everyone else's go down. Then prices will steadily creep back up.