Saturday, January 07, 2006

Saturday January 7th


Well, I'm sure you're all excited to hear how my sewer adventure went, and I'm happy to say that after about 6 hours of digging, things are looking good, my aching shoulders notwithstanding. I was finally able to locate the main line, which was a staggering 4-1/2 feet underground--much deeper than necessary. I dug a trench exposing about ten feet of the line and then started cutting out sections of pipe. Near the end of the trench I found what I was looking for--an absolute knot of roots and debris, blocking the sewer line save for a small hole about 1" in diameter through which liquid, at least, could slowly seep. It was late in the day and had started raining, so I'll need to go back next week and finish the job, which will probably involve extending the trench another 5-6 feet. When you consider how deep the line is buried, that's a lot of digging, all done by shovel and mattock. This backed-up sewer situation has been an occasional problem for at least ten years, so it's good to finally isolate the situation and know that it can be fixed.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

When you go back, could you try a self timed shot of you in the ditch? It looks awfully deep now and it would be interesting to see if that's a trick shot and it's really just 6" down.

seattlefrank said...

Well, I'll be sure to take the timed-shot idea under advisement for my next digging. For now, just visualize a hole for a long, narrow coffin and you'll have it about right.