Disintegrating Long Island Sewer Line Leads to $7,200 Repair

Barrett and his wife came across a troubling discovery in their basement one late summer day: the slop sink near their washing machine was bubbling up with water. The reason it was troubling? No water of any kind was turned on and running in the home at the time.

“Nobody was in the shower, doing laundry, running the dishwasher or using any sinks or even flushing the toilet,” said Barrett. “We knew that we had some sort of problem on our hands.”

Whether you call it a slop sink, wash tub, or utility sink, something backing up into without a good reason is cause for concern. Luckily, Barrett had enrolled his water and sewer lines in repair plans from HomeServe a number of years ago thanks to a notice he received from his local utility, PSEG. After calling HomeServe’s operations center and explaining the situation, a local contractor, Allied All City Plumbing Inc., was sent out to assess the situation.

“The first thing Allied did was snake the sewer line to see if there were any obvious blockages,” said Barrett. “We were told to call back if it continued to back up, but that snaking is typically the first-line step in a situation like this.”

A short time later, the backup in the slop sink persisted, and Barrett even started to hear bubbling noises from near where his main line drain was, also in the basement. Allied Plumbing came out again, this time equipped with a camera to get a better look at what was causing the problem.

The camera footage helped answer some of the unknowns. Between Barrett’s home and the street, there was a large dip in the line that was stopping anything from being able to move through it smoothly. And just after the dip, a large part of the sewer line was disintegrating.

“All these years as a (HomeServe) customer, and I never had a single issue with the sewer line,” said Barrett. “It was a shocking thing to hear.”

Allied Plumbing came back within a few days to complete the partial line replacement. Nearly half the line needed to be replaced with material that would not disintegrate in the future, and special equipment including an excavator was needed to access parts of the line that were under concrete. When the repair was complete, the backups came to a halt. And on top of that, Barrett saved a whopping $7,200 through his repair plan from HomeServe.

“Given the magnitude of this job, I’ve been thrilled with the quality of work and the savings,” said Barrett. “Everybody from HomeServe to Allied Plumbing couldn’t have been more understanding and communicative.”

Close to six years ago, Barrett recalls receiving a notice from PSEG, his local utility, in the mail. The notice was informing residents about their partnership with HomeServe and the optional repair plan to cover his home’s exterior water line. Since Barrett had been in his home for over 30 years at that point, he enrolled. Shortly after, he received more information from HomeServe about the sewer line policy that was also available, which is how he came to be covered for the repair he experienced recently.

“The day after the job was done, my wife couldn’t stop smiling, saying she could do the wash or run the dishwasher without worrying,” said Barrett. “This was a huge headache off our necks.”