_(title from a good-premise-poor-execution book that Paul had with him this weekend about people who live in abandonded tunnels under NYC)_
The fun never stops! The service tech dispached by AHS(American Home Shield) showed up around noon today. First thing he asked when he got here was where my ground level "cleanout":http://www.csd-1.com/faqs-cleanouts.html was. "In the quiet words of the Virgin Mary":http://imdb.com/title/tt0208092/quotes... come again? It should have been "popping out":http://www.colantonio.net/home/sewer26.jpg somewhere near the foundation, so we walked the property, but couldn't find it. That meant having to go up on the roof. He called AHS to find out if they covered that or not, which they didn't. They only covered blowing out a main line stoppage from the cleanout. If I wanted it done, I would have to call a plumbing guy myself and have him come out and do it off a vent on the roof. Off he went.
Calling around to a few places I gathered that it would be about $150 or so to have this done. One place I called had the bright idea of calling Tucson's "Maps and Records department":http://tdotmaps.transview.org/mandr/ to find out what the sewer plan looked like for the property. I called, told them I didn't have a fax number, and was told they'd call back with a location. About 10 minutes later I get a call back, and it's like my own private version of The Goonies:
bq. If eastward from the southwest corner, fifteen feet you be
Take five paces south to find the poop and pee
Dig ye down several inches, at least twelve to twenty
The smells ye shall find will be varied and plenty
I call the plumbing company that just came out, told them I actually had a cleanout and asked what we could do. Since they had already called back to AHS to say they wouldn't do the work I would have to call AHS to get a new work order. On hold with AHS for a few minutes, then talk to a lovely gravelly-voiced woman who promised to get a re-order into the system within five minutes. I wouldn't even need to cut another $45 check! Call the plumbing dude back, and he says they won't come out until I've actually dug up the cleanout!
Just as I'm about to make a mad dash to Home Despot to get a rake and a shovel, who rolls up but the HVAC guy to set up the swamp cooler! Luckily it only took him about 20 minutes to do what he needed to do. Here's another $45 check for you! Anyone else want a $45 check? How about the cats? The dog? The nest of ground wasps in the backyard? Anyone?
Home Despot for shovel and rake, check. Back and start digging. Digging is hard. The soil here is hard-packed, rocky and nothing like digging into a kiddie pool filled with chocolate pudding. Uh, not that I'd know or anything. Dig, dig, dig. Nothing. Some more digging and sweating and nothing. Worried that I wasn't going to find One-Eyed Willy I re-measured from the corner of the house. Nope, I was right on. Dig dig dig. Clunk. Hey... what's that? There's a round thing down there which doesn't feel like a root at all. Brush some dirt away, and success! Found the cleanout!
Now the plumber guy is on his way back over, and we're back to finding out if it's a main line stoppage, or something more evil. Here's hoping this doesn't cost me any more money today.
*Update:* The verdict is mixed. He ran the snake a few times, and got the water flowing out, but also pulled up some roots. That probably means a partially collapsed pipe, so tomorrow I'll work on getting an estimate to have that section of pipe replaced.
