House built in 1955. Clay pipe for sewer main drain line.  Usually gets clogged with tree roots every few years and i call the roto-rooter company to send an auger down it.  Had a different company clear the roots this year and they scoped it with a camera.  Apparently it's pretty bad.  Didn't want us to even put toilet paper down it.  So far have been using a bunch of root killer as I don't have the spare $ to fix it. Main line is about 40 feet to the city sewer, 6 feet down from the foundation and there is a massive (5ft diameter) maple tree about 10 feet to the northwest of where the drain runs.

Option they suggested was to pull another pipe through (rubber I guess) and dig a hole at my drain and the sewer drain to pull it through with a cable.  Bad part is they want about $6k.  House is worth maybe 90k, I owe 90$, I'm renting it out to my mother who can only afford the mortgage (800/mo) and utilities.  My wife and I have another house and can't afford what sounds like a quick and permanent fix.  

If I can make it through the winter, what am I looking at price wise, ballpark, to either have someone trench it or trench it myself with a rental backhoe and use PVC pipe from my line to the main sewer?  Has anyone done this before?  I'd think with another scope to locate the line and where it runs, backhoe rental and materials I could get this done in a weekend for about $1k.  My only worry is running into the root system on that tree.

Your 1k guesstimate is doable on a weekend

Worst case have a laborer on hand  to hand dig once you get to the roots

There are tables that show how much root damage you can do and but kill the tree

Nobody here is going to believe me but here it goes.

Our sewage stopped up. Roots from a tree grew through the main line.

I called the city and they came out with a flush machine and cleared the line and inspected it. Then scheduled the repair. That's right. The city repaired the main line and didn't cost me a dime.


It would be worth checking into to see if your town will repair it.

The city here always takes care of clogs between the cleanout and street. Cleanout towards house is on us. YMMV.

I'm thinking it's the same here.  They usually come every year and clean out the city line that my main runs into, which typically shoots water/air back up my line and if the toilet lids aren't closed it's all over the bathroom.

If the City owns the tree and it's the tree roots that are damaging your sewer line,... they should fix the sewer line.

Just had to replace mine a few weeks ago. City where I live won't pay for anything other than a half-assed locate for my water line. I ended up hand digging about 12 feet of it and then found PVC. Got really lucky that somebody had already replaced one part of it. If you can avoid going all the way to the main line I would. Mine is about 8-10 feet down in the road.

I looked into the pipe bursting option. They still have to dig but only two holes. Its a cool idea if its your only option. Total I think I spent about $80 on pipe/fittings/gloves/pick. Thankfully my front yard has a high sand mixture so it was easy digging.

i had this process done on a rental house i owned.  old clay main.   the new pipe they pull is actually rigid PVC, and it worked perfectly.   it wasn't even close to $6K, and it was a hell of a lot cheaper than trenching in a new line.  i would recommend that you get a couple of quotes, it sounds like the estimate you got may have been way high.  incidentally, i asked the guy that did my job how far you could go with this process, and he said that he had repaired a drain system under a football field this way (they didn't want to tear up the turf).  he told me that he had pulled new PVC across the width of the field plus some, about 65 yards.  

ar-jedi

City probably won't pay a dime, maybe locating the line.  My main exits into my backyard and the big maple is my property.  I think the main is about 6 feet deep and the length is 40 feet.  I'll be looking at quotes next week for either trenching or the other method.  Merry Christmas to me.

It depends on who OWNS the line to the house.

The most common is YOU own it all the way to the main in the street.

Attaching to a street main is often a big deal.
They do not want the wrong people working on THEIR line.

An 'approved list' is often available if you have to go all the way to the street main.

This is one place that PVC is about as good as it gets.

And not all PVC is created equal.

Get with your sewer service provider and ask for the rules and regulations