Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Water Cleanup

I had some sewage back up into a basement laundry tub on a Saturday morning. I called Roto-Rooter and they had a plumber at my house within 30 minutes. He quickly diagnosed the problem as a back-up in the sewer line. He used a snake to clear tree roots and solved our problem in less than an hour.

They did an excellent job!

Excellent work which they guaranteed... they also installed a new toilet and the serviceman who came, Tom, was great!!!

They came and cleared "100' to the street" and used the camera to show us tree roots that were interfering with the drain. They wanted another $600 to clear the tree roots. The next morning the drain was backed up again. We called Roto to come back out at no charge-they refused and said it would be the additional $600. We called Discount Drain cleaners, they came and did the job for $135.

unknown

Great service! Gentleman was very informative, and cleaned up his mess!

really nice guy. he didn't have the part to fix the sink drain, so he was willing to go to the supply store to buy it. Who pays $400 to clear a sink drain and repair a sink stopper mechanism? I ended up reducing services and only having them clear the drain which was $266. More than double what other plumbers charge. They charge $35 if you send them away with no work. I just won't call them again.

Showed up on time, job as done quickly.

Sewage was backing up in basement shower and toilet. No other plumbers would come out to clear drain line without having septic pumped. Had septic pumped to the tune of $410 that didn't need to be done which I thought would be the case from the get-go. Evidence pointed to the drain line from house to septic was blocked. Called several plumbers including Michigan Plumbing whom I have used for years. Despite claiming they are available 24/7, told me first appointment was SIX DAYS later. Meanwhile, could not run any water (including toilets) in the house as it just was filling drain in basement back up which caused additional blackwater spillage and water everywhere in a finished basement space. Called Roto-Rooter of Lansing and spoke to Aaron. He promised his service technician "Don" would arrive the following morning between 8-10 am but would call first when enroute. At 8:15 am Don called and said he would be there in 30 minutes. He arrived right on time, listened to my description of the problem, what had transpired and done to date, and got right to work. Determined problem was actually blockage in a floor drain upstream from clean-out plug. Snaked out drain, made sure that it was flowing freely into main drain line and into septic tank. Don was very conscientious about keeping the mess to a minimum and took care to protect carpeting, etc. He also offered some suggestions in terms of dealing with any future/similar problems and advised the work done today had a 90-day warranty so if I experienced any additional issues to be sure to call and they would come back out at no charge. I used Roto-Rooter probably 15 years ago and it was a (not good) ordeal. Today's experience was like night and day. Don was extremely polite, respectful, personable, knowledgeable and competent without being arrogant or condescending. Aaron was equally as professional. Can't speak highly enough about how well the service call was handled and the response time. Very much appreciated and restored my faith in the company. Very pleased. Thank you, guys! NOTE: Price below includes an additional $99 after-hours/weekend service call charge as of course the problem developed on a Friday afternoon. IOW, price would have been approximately $100 less if problem had been addressed during regular weekday working hours but problem needed to be dealt with before then.

unknown

unknown

Tech was easy going and knowledgable. Polite and did a great job

unknown

Kristen kindly answered most of my questions via email, leading up to the appointment.  She also called me that morning to let me know I could expect the crew to arrive in the next 30 minutes or so.  The gentlemen that came to my door were kind with warm smiles and answered all my questions confirming the information that Kristen had given me as well as additional questions I had.







They did have to remove the end yew bush and they hauled it away so I did not have to deal with it.  They did have to remove my rose bushes, but were kind enough to put those into containers (I provided) and placed in the garage, so perhaps those will survive the winter and I can replant them in the spring.  They made many trips down to the basement and back outside in order to remove the old cast iron pipe going through the wall.  In the process, a small hole had to be chipped away and once they started digging further and taking out the old drain pipe, some sewer gases did come into the basement while the hole was still open.  At some point, the hole was filled with hydraulic cement so I should not have any problems with seeping water into my basement due to the repairs.







It took several more hours to finish the work outside.  At the end, they did come back inside and clean up the small mess around the new pipe into the basement, as well as wiped up the worst of the mud in the back hall. The long, deep trench was refilled with the dirt and mounded so that the winter snow and spring rains should condense/pack it back in place and, hopefully, I won?t have to do much to level the yard when I go to reseed it in the spring.







The work seemed to go smoothly. I ran a load of laundry after the pipes were all hooked up while they were refilling the trench.  There were no leaks or any other problems that made themselves apparent.  I was assured that the dirt would be packed hard underneath the new pipe so there should be little to no further sinking of the drain pipe.

After doing laundry or taking a shower or running the dish washer, I would smell sewer gases in the basement. A friend suggested I may have roots growing through my drain from the house to the sewer line in the street causing a blockage and back pressure.  I also noticed that the bathroom sink drained much slower than usual.

Tom was very patient and kind. He answered all my questions and did his best to determine the exact nature of the problem based on my description, answers to his questions and examined all the plumbing in the basement trying to find where the gases could be coming from while we talked.  He even had me run a lot of water in the sinks upstairs and flushing the toilets trying to recreate the problem while he was there.  I could smell a faint odor when I went back downstairs, but I don?t believe we ran as much water as a load of laundry would?ve used to get the same problem that I had called about.

Since there were no obvious answers, Tom explained that running the video camera line through the drain pipe to the street would cost $175, but if roots needed to be cleaned out that would be included in the cost, so I told him to go ahead.

Tom showed me what he found and explained that the ground had sunk causing the pipe to bow.  The low section close to the house was filled with water, but as the camera advanced up, the pipe opened up again all the way to the street. Best guess was that the water filled section was causing back pressure and allowing sewer gases to come back into the house, although he wasn?t sure exactly where the gases were entering from the plumbing.  There was also an old section of cast iron pipe through the basement wall that had a crack just outside the wall allowing some small roots to grow into the pipe.  These were not big enough to be causing the problem, but would become a problem in future years.

My best option was to have the outside pipe dug up and replaced.  Since we have had unseasonably warm weather, the ground was not yet frozen and this could be done easier now than later.  Plus the winter snows and spring rains would help to settle the loose dirt afterwards, making it easier to repair the lawn in the spring.  So I scheduled the work to be done as soon as I could arrange to cover the cost.

I was out of town when we had a sewage leak.  I called them to come in and work with my mother in law.  They responded on a saturday night within 2 hours of being called.  He worked efficently and solved the blockage issue and cleaned up some of the sewage back up.

We had called two other plumbers earlier in the day, were told someone would get back to us, and no one ever did. In one case, when we called back, they didn't even have a record of our ticket. So, in comparison, we were thrilled that Roto-Rooter sent someone out so quickly after our call. And Charles was quite professional and knowledgeable.
But we were very unhappy with the $99 weekend fee that was added on to the procedure fee, and with the fact that Roto-Rooter's fees over the past 10 years have risen for the same procedure from $176 with no additional weekend or evening fees to $256 with an additional $99 for coming out on the weekend or in the evening (when most people are at home.) That's a 32% increase over the weekday procedure price. With the addition of the weekend fee, that's a 49% increase in ten years!
Charles defended his company, saying that the price increase was due to inflation and increasing costs of materials, but it looks like price gouging to us. According to the American Institute for Economic Research calculator, the cost of living index, which is based on inflation, has risen about 20% in the past ten years. So Roto-Rooter's increases are double the real rise in the national cost of living! In Michigan, we have an even lower cost of living, 12% below the national, according to Sperling. That translates to a cost hike of more than double the rise in cost of living in Lansing.
We would use Roto-Rooter again if we had to. But we would first look for a plumber who has reasonable prices. We hate being price gouged like this.

unknown

We had unwittingly built a long closet of shelves over the clean out and I thought we would have to empty it and take out the bottom shelf, but John was able to scrunch himself under the bottom shelf to do his work. My drains now are clear. He gave me an estimate for Roto Rooter to dig up my front yard to repair the broken sewer line, and recommended I get other estimates. We discussed pouring Root-X in the toilet annually in the future, to keep the main line clear.

Timely, efficient, and honest.  I no longer need their service as I replaced the drain from the house to the street. Recommend.

The company was easy to make an appointment with-they worked with my availability.  They called to tell me when the technician was to arrive and he did come promptly.  The technician was prompt, polite, knowledgeable and did quick, clean work.  He also asked several times if I had further questions or concerns.  Alleviated one concern I had and told me about a few other services that were available that I might want to consider in the future.  The price may have been high, but I didn't do a lot of shopping around with a pipe that was leaking-I wanted it fixed ASAP.  I will consider them in the future for other services.  Great to work with.

unknown

Came out on Memorial day. Determined it was a septic line problem. Recommended septic tank service. Very professional. Tech's name was Ron Abbott.

unknown

I did not hire the company.  I paid the $29.00 and called the office and explained that I was unhappy with no guarantee.