Short version: Kevin and crew were professional, no nonsense, well informed and I trusted them. Kevin went the extra mile to save me money and find a solution... now the story.
We had a terrible experience with a pair of different plumbers last year; they were in my home and I didn't feel safe with one of them who wouldn't talk, just roamed my basement with his sunglasses on. Then, outside, they discovered they didn't have an electric cord for the electric-powered pipe snake and would have to go back to the shop "and it's close to 5 so We don't know if we'll be back today because of traffic..." - but I'd still be charged for the visit. I lent them my professional 50 yard cord, joking that it would be a $300 rental... They ran a snake, pulled out some roots but I didn't receive a video as promised. As far as they were concerned, they cleared the pipe. Then, two days later, I noticed what I thought was garbage on the front lawn - they'd left the trap OPEN with cap a foot away, along with a giant wrench, dirty gloves near the house, a big filthy work mitten, wads of sewer gunk that they didn't dispose of, etc. I cleaned it up, replaced the cap in time for it to snow the next day and called (C) to pick up their tool. That was my experience BEFORE Ready Jetter.
After research of several plumbers, I called Ready Jetter directly in the Spring of 2024, got a quote and hired them. The first trip included two younger men, George and Gavin (I think), very courteous, got the job done and sent us a video of our system. Unfortunately, in addition to root cracks at a few seams, there were concentric cracks that spiraled in. This meant any heavy pressure from above could collapse my sewage line, closing it to the street. However, instead of 20K to dig a trench/replace the pipe the old way, the owner/guy in charge (Kevin) suggested a PVC method I'd read about. You insert a loose tube of material that is basically raw PVC into the current pipe once it's been cleared and line it up underground. It slowly expands to the shape of the pipe, driven from the inside by air and heat, and is cured solid. The PVC may break the pipe it is replacing but that's ok - you have a new PVC pipe that covers former cracks/holes/leaks and it'll last a hundred years. It was a tenth of what I would have had to pay.
But this wasn't easy! The original pipes had been installed with a T trap, making it impossible to get the plastic material inside the pipe. That took the second day as they tried and tried to make it work, but no success or charge. Our pipe was clean but vulnerable.
In the meantime, Kevin pinged the inventor of this process, who was ironically about to release what we needed - a tool that could hook to the long tube of material with a strong wire. This was threaded through the pipe inside the house in the basement. Now they could get the material in place, expand it and make sure it was smooth with no interruption of the angle to the street. A gentle rain turned into a Michigan downpour but they kept going and cured it properly (see photo).
Kevin was no nonsense, kept me well informed and I trusted him. I didn't need to hover or wait for results and they saved me a TON of money. The two young men were great and learning along the way, a well chosen crew, matching Kevin's integrity.
I would highly recommend READY JETTER for this kind of issue. I don't know if they do all plumbing now, as they are pretty much specialists at this new method. Good luck to them and you!! read more