Overall, we were happy with our experience with The Trenchless Co., but there were a couple glitches.
Years ago, we had a sewer line that broke because it was pushed up by a huge tree root, and roots had clogged the line. At that time, we had a giant hole dug in our front yard and a section of the pipe replaced by another company. Fast forward about 10 years, we had another major blockage, another company rooted it and told us we needed to tear up our yard again. We decided to wait and see, since the sewage seemed to be flowing without a problem, and we had just redone our landscaping!
Then 4 years later, about a month ago, our toilet was bubbling, and the tub and shower backed up with sewage again. I called another company to rooter it, they told us the whole line was full of roots, and charged us $268. They gave us a non itemized quote of $5800 to do a pipe burst and replacement, and suggested we get other estimates.
My next call was to TTC, and they sent Rahmein out to do an inspection and free quote. He was very professional, spent a lot of time with us and gave us quotes for either installing a liner in the pipe, or pipe bursting and replacement. They were both expensive, but the pipe burst was about $1000 more, and in addition to the hole that would need to be dug at the clean out, it would require a second hole dug out near the sidewalk. We didn't want our establisted landscaping destroyed, so we opted for the pipe liner.
A week later on a Friday, a crew showed up on time at 8:30am, and started digging around the cleanout next to our front door. The three man crew were nice guys, but we were not sure about their abilities. Turned out, we were right to be concerned. Mid-afternoon, they seemed to be panicking. Something went wrong when they tried to pull out the balloon liner that expands the resin liner and cures the resin with hot water. Apparently, the liner had collapsed and was no longer usable. So, they started digging up the front yard, having to remove the bender boards, ripping out our drip tubing, and removing a couple plants. They cut out the section of the sewer line where the liner had collapsed, and because it was getting late, they put a new section of pipe at both ends, so we would have a working sewer line over the weekend. They said that it was their mistake and would most likely have to do a pipe burst, but it wouldn't cost us any extra, and someone would contact us on Monday morning. By the time they left that Friday, it was very dark outside, so I suppose they weren't able to see what a mess they left behind. I spent over an hour the next day scraping mud off of our porch, walkway, and driveway, and hosing it all down so no one would track mud into the house.
The next day (Sat), our sewer line backed up again! In a panic, I called TTC and they sent a young man named Hunter. He was super nice and empathetic, and although at first he thought he couldn't do anything because there was no clean out in front anymore, he used a snake in our kitchen clean out on the back of the house, and it worked, thank goodness!
Monday rolled around and we didn't hear anything. Tuesday, I left a text for Rahmein, and he called back late in the day, saying he would try to get us on the schedule by the end of the week to finish the job. He told us that it did look like pipe bursting was necessary, and asked if we were OK with the extra $1000 we were originally quoted. We told him firmly that we were NOT OK with the additional charge, and he said he would talk to his boss. The next day, we received a text from TTC saying a crew would be here the following morning (Wed), and indeed, they were. Paul and Damien showed up early Thursday morning, assessed the situation and got to work. They were AWESOME! Unfortunately, they had to dig up even more of the front yard, but they did it in a more careful manner, and were concerned about the damage that had been done to our plants. They spoke to someone at the office, and told us that the company would be giving us a gift card from a nearby nursery, and lo and behold, a gift card for Green Acres in the amount of $150 arrived in the mail the next day!
In the end, we are pretty satisfied with the finished work. I know that many companies are short handed these days and TTC is super busy apparently, but I cannot give them a 5 star rating. We felt like we were left hanging for a few days, not knowing when our front yard would be back to normal, when we would be able to use our dishwasher and washing machine again, and we now have a lot of clean up work to do on our landscaping. At least I'm pretty sure we will never have another problem with our sewer line (knock on wood!!), and that makes it all worth it!