Potential Nightmare becomes Dream Come True
A little flowery but very applicable to the situation we had. Recently we ran into a situation where the toilet in one of the bathrooms was backing up. Not an uncommon situation in a 45 year-old house, and one we had dealt with many times. This time though, despite running a snake through the lines a few times, we were unable to clear the blockage. In addition the tub began to have drainage issues and gurgling could be heard in the toilet on the other side of the house. It was at this point we called Mitch Clemmons Plumbing to come out and do a professional cleaning of the lines.
After scheduling the service time, Jessie arrived to do the job. He was very professional, dressed well, and though it is not Mitch Clemmons' byline, he did "smell good." After describing the issue we both agreed the problem seemed to be in the main line running out to the street. Jessie attempted to clear the line but was unable to get his snake to go more than 50 feet before hitting an obstruction. The obstruction was so bad that it literally deformed the 3" steel head of his snake and caused the cable to kink and bend. It was decided that we needed to get a camera in the line to determine what was going on. It was at this point that Robert Escobar entered the picture to assist Jessie. The subsequent inspection and the observations led us to conclude that something had caused significant damage to the sewer lateral pipe in the street. Coincidentally, the problem appeared to be in the area where the City of Orange's Water Department had performed a water main pipe repair the month before.
In an attempt to keep this review relatively short but still informative, in the city of Orange, the homeowner is responsible for any repair to the sewer lateral. As a result we were facing a HUGE repair job and an equally HUGE repair bill. Neither of which we were prepared to deal with. Robert came along side of us though and worked with us to create a plan of how to best determine exactly what the issue was and what the prudent steps were we could take in order to fix the situation before immediately jumping into digging up the road, and all the issues involved with such a repair. By the time we did get to the decision that an excavation of the street was going to be required in order to fix the pipe, we were certain of exactly where the issue was and that the problem was almost certainly a result of the City's previous work. Though the responsibility for the repair was still going to be on our shoulders. Robert, helped us to feel confident we had a good case and reason to believe we would be able to recoup our expenses once we opened the street and were able to show the city what had happened. Robert coordinated everything from saw-cutting the asphalt, to a very careful excavation of a 12' by 8' by 7' deep area of the street in order to document exactly the condition of the sewer line and the water main running right above it, to a repair of 6' of broken sewer pipe that was found right underneath the water main, with actually visible claw gouges on the sewer pipe from the backhoe the city had used on their repair, to the back-filling to code of the repair site and the final replacement of both the sub-grade and the finish grade of asphalt. All the work was done in a three -day time frame and under the eyes of the City engineers and inspectors, who were not exactly thrilled at what was discovered, but were very impressed by the workmanship of Robert's team.
The job could not have gone any smoother, thanks to Robert's diligence and above the call dedication. He always returned calls promptly, responded to late-night inquiries and even came out after hours and in the dark to perform a camera inspection the day before the major work was done, when we noticed the lines were draining and we were not certain that we needed to move forward with the major work (we did need to, and thanks to Robert's care and concern for our feelings at facing the huge expense, we felt confident that we were in the best hands in dealing with the situation).
To wrap this up, the job went as well as it could, and I am happy to report that a month later the City agreed with the claim we filed against them and issued a check for the full reimbursement of the $20K we had to lay out for this repair.
I would not wish this NIghtmare on anybody, but as we discovered, this happens a lot more than we imagined. To have a company that was as thorough and as professional as Mitch Clemmons Plumbing was though was a blessing. To have a representative of that company be as dedicated as Robert was, to a positive result for us and a genuine concern for our hearts as well as our pocketbooks through the process, was a God send.
We highly recommend Mitch Clemmons Plumbing to anyone who wants quality service, competitive pricing and the assurance that your problem, big or small, will be resolved beyond expectation. You wont be disappointed. read more