# Fun job...



## SewerRat (Feb 26, 2011)

http://youtu.be/ntKP5e0q2gY


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## wyrickmech (Mar 16, 2013)

Good job!


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## HSI (Jun 3, 2011)

That was brilliant. Nice work


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## suzie (Sep 1, 2010)

I'm not hungry any more but nice job, I'm impressed!:thumbup:


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## Tommy plumber (Feb 19, 2010)

Give us the details; how did you spot the ring in all that muck? How did it come to be down the sewer? What's the charge for the work? 

Great job.


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## smoldrn (Oct 4, 2010)

Nice!


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## PlumberJ (Dec 12, 2011)

Good job


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## SewerRat (Feb 26, 2011)

Tommy plumber said:


> Give us the details; how did you spot the ring in all that muck? How did it come to be down the sewer? What's the charge for the work?
> 
> Great job.


Tommy,

I guess her ring was lying on the tank lid or windowsill or somewhere close by and her little boy accidentally brushed it in as he was flushing the toilet. I think there was more to the story. I think something else was flushed down at the same time as or just before the ring. We were on this job for exactly 2 hours so obviously there is a lot of tedium that I edited out for the YouTube video but you can see the "sludge" piling up in front of the camera. When we spotted the ring mostly buried in the muck we didn't want to lose sight of it so we put a small retriever on that had obviously seen better days so it could get past the camera head. A little movement of the cable and camera head and this muck began to turn into a slurry that buried the ring. Since we could no longer see we pulled the cable out and started a trickle of water and continued to swish the camera head through the sludge and occasionally pushed a ways past where the pipe was clean again to make sure the ring wasn't being flushed further downstream. After a while we got the mess diluted enough that it suddenly just flowed away leaving a clean drained pipe, so obviously there was no belly, but rather the muck must have dammed up the sewer. Also when working in the sludge we could pull our equipment back and it was not coated with black sludge like you would normally find in a belly. In fact the equipment stayed pretty clean. I wonder if it wasn't something like potting soil or food or something that was flushed at the same time as the ring. The ring traveled 69' in one flush so I think there was something else helping to carry it along. After we got the sludge rinsed away we could then insert the larger tool with the camera behind it. Because the larger tool flares so much it caught in the combo wye at the cleanout and we actually lost it trying to get the tool out, but at that point it was a matter of 2 seconds with a shopvac and we had it. As for how we spotted it in the muck, chalk it up to being somewhat lucky that it showed in a couple places and the fact that we were watching very closely for it, as you can tell by the way I pushed into the muck, backed slowly out again, pushed in further, backed up and...BINGO!

I almost took the opportunity to put the ring in the palm of my hand and get down on one knee before handing it to her, but they were so impressed with our professionalism and success I didn't want to ruin the moment with a poorly played practical joke. 

They handed me and my brother each a $20 bill as a tip as soon as the ring came out, and then paid the bill which was 2 hours at time and a half for after hours, then gave us each a Pepsi AND a bottled water, then on top of that they own a little mom and pop fast food joint and they called in a milkshake order for us to pick up on our way past. Sort of like a triple redundant tip on top of the bill. They have been having lots of problems with the drains at the restaurant and they asked for a business card. This could turn into a good thing yet!

Very happy people.


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## droptopgt (Dec 17, 2008)

Nice work. I have a new Ridgid Microdrain and a new Vu-Rite mini. I'm too paranoid to stick a snake in the pipe while my camera is in there.


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## Best Darn Sewer (Dec 23, 2012)

Really cool job. Perseverance pays off along with having good equipment. A coworker retrieved a little puppy that fell into an uncovered 4" cleanout the other day. Had the customer not posted pics on Facebook I may not have believed the story. He had to dig it up and cut out a section of 4" concrete pipe.


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## wyrickmech (Mar 16, 2013)

Best Darn Sewer said:


> Really cool job. Perseverance pays off along with having good equipment. A coworker retrieved a little puppy that fell into an uncovered 4" cleanout the other day. Had the customer not posted pics on Facebook I may not have believed the story. He had to dig it up and cut out a section of 4" concrete pipe.


You never know what you will find I the drains. That is one reason this trade never gets dull.


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