Sewer line clean out

When I purchased the Dirt Master I figured I would be working on my sewer but I had no idea it would happen like this.  

At one AM Christmas eve the sewer for the entire house backed up.  I first dug a trench some distance from the house to locate the line.  Next I exposed the line next to the house and made a pit for the sewage to flow into after the clog was cleared.

There were loads of tree roots in this area but they did not stop the bucket.  Not sure that is because the trees were cottonwood and ash or because they were getting lots of water.   The soil/mud stuck in the bucket but only a few times.




I did not want to put the sewer machine into the hold so I used pipe to extend the sewer line to the top.

Unfortunately the snake came out in the crawl space and yanked out some of the fresh water pipes.    This would have happened even if I had hired a professional plumber.   Either the system had a broken pipe or the same came through a pipe which is unlikely.

After the mud in the drawl space drys a bit in the next day or 2 I hope to have the water back on.


The side story here is that we had a problem finding the sewer line.  The city maps showed the sewer main in the street but I was thinking it was in the alley.   To keep it short it turned out that the line was in the back of the house flowing to an unmapped main in the alley.