Any thoughts of reasonable prices for the following service items?

[beyerch]

Hi,

I'm currently starting a fairly major renovation project and my city (an unnamed city in IL) has decided to throw me some last minute monkey wrenches.

#1 - They are requesting that I upgrade the incoming water service to the house from the 5/8" to 1 1/5". This would be the entire line from the house to the main water line which is conveniently on the other side of the street. :-0 After talking ot the city, the standard method of doing this is to have the contractor 'tunnel' under the street and then the city's water department will create the new tap at the main and they will get it all connected. They will not need to dig into the road, etc.

#2 - They are requesting that we repair/replace the sewer line that goes from out back of the house. The current line does have some root infestation; however, the pipes are not damaged too badly. A couple wrinkles here are that there is a pretty giant tree right about where the pipe goes. (gee i wonder where the root infestation is coming from?). If we had to replace the line, we'd have to get a pretty big tree removed. I'm not against that as the tree is in a bad spot and after a few big storms we had quite a few brances come down, etc,etc; however, its just going to be one more cost....

I had a quote from a contractor saying that they could do this for $12,000. From what I've been reading on here, I think this is a bit excessive; however, I'm curious what the public opinion on here would be in regards to this. If anyone can chime in with past experience in costs or has knowledge of what each of these jobs should approximately cost (and what hte jobs entail) that would be great.

Any advice is greatly appreciated !

[596]

I could not give you even a wild guess, even if I had some idea of labor rates in Chicago. Too many sight-unseen unknowns.

How deep is the street connection, and this "tunnel" under the road.?
What other utilities are in the path of the "tunnel": sewer main in street, electric and telephone and gas ??
How deep and what length is the trench on your property?

Then, there's the tree!

I can only suggest that you get more than one bid locally, and make sure the bid talks about contingencies...like trees!

[beyerch]

I understand the variables. To give a couple more answers :

- The sewer goes out hte back of the house and the run is probably ~70 feet from house to the sewer connection. From what I understand, its ~7 feet below the surface.

- The tree is near the back of the property and surely in the way if i had to trench it.

- The water goes out the front to the other side of hte street. There is currently a 5/8 " line but we need 1". I would think you could pull through where the current line is ? ? ?

I understand though no one can say for sure; however, the thing that just boggles my mind with all of this is how the 'quotes' are done. Everytime I ask about anything (electirc, sewer, etc) i just get these out of the ass (at least that is what it feels like) dollar amounts. In my line of work, I have a fairly established labor rate and I need to disclose that rate as well as well as disclose cost of materials, etc.

These quotes that just throw out numbers seem like a ridiculous way to do things. I would hope that if you do the same thing long enough, you can surely know your hourly rate and what type of equipment/materials are required.

I surely understand people need to make a living and make a profit (so do I), but when I just get quotes with no explanation, I just feel like someone is looking to take me for a ride.

Do any of the trades (in this case sewer / water) have published rates or anything like that ? Obviously, it looks like I'll be getting multiple quotes.

Does anyone here have any advice as to what type of questions should be asked for this type of work?

Thanks for the feedback!

[Java_Bob]

They are requesting that I upgrade the incoming water service to the house from the 5/8" to 1 1/5".

Seems like an over kill to me. Directional boring goes from 1 - 20 bucks a foot or more. The need for 1 1/2" inch???? Call some local plumbing shops to see what they say without coming out..

[LazyPup]

For the water line they could use a horizontal boring technique which would run about $1 to $20 per foot, depending upon soil conditions, but keep in mind that this is in addition to a $300 to $500 (or more) setup fee to deliver the equipment on site and set it up.

You then have to factor in that the plumber will run the water line to within 4 or 5 feet of the municipal main, and the municipal water supplier will charge $500 to $1500 to make the tie in.

With the sewer line at 7' it will require a fairly large backhoe of small trackhoe to do the trenching and they will have to use a "Trench Box" to protect the workers from cave in while laying the pipe. That can easily add an additional $500/hr to the total cost. In addition, the plumber will run the sewer line to within a few feet of the municipal main and the municipal sewer provider will charge from $500 to $2500 to make the tie in.

As was stated before, it is impossible to offer any type of estimate sight unseen and not knowing the variables of geology, conflicting utility lines, labor and material costs and local regulations. You can surely ask each contractor to submit an itemized bid but in the end I think you will find that the bid you have will be very close to the bottom line for your area.