When we bought our home in SE Portland a few years ago we had our sewer line inspected another company whose video inspection indicated our concrete line had eroded leaving only larger rocks and would need to be replaced. This winter we had Root Excavation come out for another video inspection which confirmed the erosion and also a new hole that had formed in the meantime. We decided to have the line replaced at their recommendation. The job was done neatly, on time, and on budget. Tim and Zach are courteous, professional, and just all around good people. Highly recommended. read more

I would highly recommend this company to replace or repair your sewer line, especially if you have a deep sewer line to a basement!!! Their office staff was very communicative, their price was extremely competitive, and their workers got the job done in a timely manner and cleaned up everything neat as a pin. I could barely tell we had a huge hole in our yard the previous day. AMAZING! They were recommended by our neighbor, particularly because underground plumbing is their specialty and they have all the necessary equipment to do the job. They also didn't suggest unnecessary work, unlike the company that scoped our sewer line who freaked me out with how expensive and extensive the replacement was going to be. I took the advice of Root Excavation, and we ended up replacing only the cement portion of the sewer line, leaving the cast iron portion of our line intact that runs under a portion of our house. Last, but not least, they have a good working relationship with the City of Portland! Since the portion of our sewer line in the street (between the curb and the manhole) also needed replacing and since that portion of the sewer line is the city's responsibility, they successfully coordinated both jobs without me needing to do anything. I was very impressed! read more

Root replaced replaced a non-conforming sewer line and in the process, completely abandoned a portion of the sewer line into the lawn of the home. We wound up with raw sewage spilling into the street for months while we went through the legal procedures to give Root a chance to rectify the situation. They initially came out to inspect and only inspected the clean out they installed, NOT the existing clean out that was already installed on the property before they did their work. When we pointed out their error and asked them to reassess showing them video footage of the issues, they went dark on us and were unresponsive. It cost us $12,000 to fix their mistake. Bottom line, there are plenty of competent, trustworthy and polite excavating companies in the Portland Metro Area, Root isn't one of them. read more

I was highly impressed with this company and the work they did! After scoping our sewer line, they determined we had an imminent sewer back-up and they made every effort to get our job done as soon as possible, which we greatly appreciated. Everyone we came in contact with was friendly, professional and a pleasure to work with. They explained what to expect up front and managed to work around a tree in our yard. They were quick the day of, and cleaned up beautifully. Even planted new seed on the excavated dirt! We really appreciated the excellent customer service. Highly recommend! read more

I gave a 5-star review in September 2019, but recently my opinion of this company has changed. After the Portland winter snow storm of February 11-13, 2021, a very large sink hole developed at the water meter excavation site for the Root Excavation's sewer line replacement of August 2019. See the attached photo. The sink hole was beyond a simple repair job. I contacted Root Excavation to ask them if they would do the repair on February 24 and they promised to come and fill the sink hole at their expense. I understood that because Root Excavation couldn't backfill and compact the soil around the water meter during repairs to sewer lines, sink holes sometimes occurred. This sink hole occurred because of the heavy snow accumulation at the curb. I was promised that Root Excavation would fill the hole in a week or two. I waited, but after two weeks, no refill. Subsequent contact with Root Excavator's yielded promises to get to the refill, but nothing ever happened. I continued to send emails and make phone calls but they were never returned. After more than a month of waiting, I did the refill myself. In conclusion, this company doesn't seem to place any importance on its previous customers - service is not a priority. read more

I needed a sewer line repair on my home that was required to be done prior to closing on the sale. The buyer's agent "recommended" Root Excavation to do the job. When I got the estimate for the bid, it was for over $12,000-$15,000! This seemed like a ridiculous amount and I told my realtor that I would be looking for other bids, which he was fine with. The buyer's agent, however, was really pressuring me to use this company (or another one that she also recommended) and I felt like there was some kind of back door policy going on here between the other realtor and this company. I easily found another place to do the same exact job for only $5,000, 2/3 LESS than this place! And, you guessed it, the buyer's agent became very combative about it. Why would it matter to her who I was getting to do the job as long it was getting done by a licensed and bonded professional? Hmmm...In any case, I would not recommend this company and with any expensive repair, you should always look around for different estimates. read more

I was referred to RE by the realtor of the house I was purchasing. Although another contractor did the initial inspection, I went with the realtor's recommendation and was very pleased. They were on time, the work was completed, and all of the disturbed earth was replaced and fresh gravel put down. Great communication with Bridget at every step... we appreciate the attention to detail! read more

Do NOT EVER hire this company to do your sewer scope if you are selling your house. Alternatively, if your buyers would like to use them, try to change their minds or plan on getting a second opinion. They scoped our sewer and came back with a bid suggesting complete replacement of our line. We had two other opinions reporting that NOTHING was wrong with our line. Needless to say, our buyers had their minds set on us replacing the line. The bottom line is don't ever allow any escavation company do your scope because they have the financial incentive of creating work. read more

They were the most affordable, but the quality of work showed it. Took a long time to get in touch with us. Told us we didn't need to be home for work once schedule and called email 4-5x per day saying they needed us home. I work in a hospital and wasn't able to reply. Then they killed two of bushes, replanted my tree crooked, and only sort of put our chain link fence back together. They "reseeded" a giant dirt mound after tearing up our yard and it wasn't leveled at all. I contacted office manager about recovering some cost for all the work it took to fix everything. I was told she would get in touch with office manager and then they just never got back in touch with us. Would never use again. read more

We used Root Excavation to scope our sewer when we bought our new house in March. They were really easy to work with and Barry was great. He even came back to help us cap and seal a pipe a few weeks after we moved in! We are more than happy with this company and would use them again! read more

When we purchased our house the seller used Root Excavation to replace a section of sewer line that was in very rough shape and decommission an old cesspool. Everything went smoothly for 6 months before we experienced a blockage. Root Excavation warrantied their work for three years and sent someone out within a few hours of my initial call. The visit was very informative and involved a scope to identify the location of the blockage. The location was at or near the work they performed and they decided to cover the repair under the warranty. The very next morning Root Excavation was at our home digging and repairing the line. The issue ended up not being related to their original work but they fixed the issue and covered the costs anyways. read more

As a realtor in the area I have seen many sewer scopes. Barry is the best! Root Excavation is honest, respectful, clean and precise. The work they do is effective and complete. They come in, evaluate any problem areas if there are any, and provide a great explanation on what needs to be done and why.You also get a DVD of the sewer scope so you never have to question what they saw. When you compare their quotes -- you find they are very fair. Although you may wonder why it is so much different from the competition. Its because they don't overcharge! We are all at the mercy of the professionals on jobs like a sewer since we really don't see it -- use the people you can trust. I recommend Root Excavation to everyone who needs this service! read more

I recently noticed a gutter downspout was clogged and did my best at unclogging it. I succeeded in unclogging it but noticed it was draining into another pipe that was not capped and buried under the lawn. My lawn started to flood and I was at a loss, so I did a little research on the web and went with my instincts. I called and explained my situation to Kari and she asked me to send her a quick email with some pictures so she could forward to Tim. Within 2 hours Tim showed up at my house and quickly started inspecting the issue. I was immediately impressed with Tim's knowledge of the layout of the underground pipes. He went as far as to look up my house and the permits on PortlandMaps.com before stopping by. Tim immediately knew the problem, explained it in detail and gave me a quote. He spent over an hour at my house free of charge and even told me a few simple solutions of work I could do on my own to reduce costs. I own a very old home and have the unpleasant necessity of hiring out a lot of tradesman but rarely do they spend that much time and dispense that much knowledge for free. As a side note, I forgot until I started going through my records and reviewed the video but a few years ago when I first purchased my home my real estate agent hired them to perform a scope on the sewer system. They didn't find any issues on my property but did find a major issue below the city street. They informed my to contact the city and gave me all of the instructions and the city came out and fixed the problem for free. I'm glad they scoped my house and informed me of a very large potential issue. read more