Woke up Monday 3/7 without heat or hot water in the middle of what the weather forecasters called a “wintry mix” that was all rain and very much a downpour. A visit to the basement did not get further than opening the bulkhead doors to reveal two to three feet of water down there. A call to George Ihlenburg, our plumber, brought his assistant, Pat, to our door a bit later. By the time he showed up we had ventured to Lowe’s to buy a pump which was squirting away. Pat brought his plumber’s strength pump to speed up the process.

By the end of the day Pat had repaired the boiler and hot water heater and discovered that the floor drain that connects with the sewer line was backing water up into the basement. The roof drain, also connected to the sewer, had produced most of the water, since it too could not get around the blockage in the sewer line.

On Tuesday, after a bit of rooting about with various power weapons, George and Pat announced that the blockage was “35 feet” down the line under the backyard.

On their recommendation, we made contact with Meyer’s Contracting. This brought a mini backhoe to our landlocked backyard on Wednesday.

After breaking through the 8 inches or so of frozen topsoil, a hole was dug down four feet or more. Then it was widened laterally to find the sewer pipe. This fairly quickly brought success with the sound of metal hitting the top of the clay pipe.

A couple of sharp taps with a hammer created a hole through which a snake could be introduced. Shoving the snake down the pipe about four feet brought it up against the blockage, undoubtedly tree roots from the neighbor’s Norway maple. Some further sharp back and forths opened the pipe partially. Water gushed down with a satisfying sucking sound.

This ended the third day on an optimistic note that a bit further excavation and some replacement plastic pipe with a clean out set for future attacks against tree root blockages was all that would be required.

Thursday brought a forecast of heavy rain. Nevertheless our two workers showed up and began digging again. Then, really bad news. Turns out that back in the ’50s or ’60s repairs had been made with Orangeburg pipe.

This bitumen impregnated paper pipe was introduced as a cheap replacement for clay pipes at the beginning of the  20th century and became the norm during the post WWII building boom. But, it has proven to be less than durable. Ours is brittle and partly flattened. See the image to the left from some one else’s misadventures with this material.

So, our current strategy is to dig as close to the barn as possible and see whether the pipe shifts back to clay or becomes less ovoid so that a connection can be formed with a plastic pipe. The ugly problem is that the pipe continues under the barn’s concrete floor out to the street. The thought of having to cut through 4 inches or more of concrete to replace the Orangeburg is making the bank account groan.

The rain arrived after a couple of hours and a temporary pipe was put in place to bridge the gap between the clay and Orangeburg pipes. The saga will continue on Monday,.