Is it that expensive to replace a water line?
 

I've been getting mailers from my water company (through some insurance company) concerning the water line between the meter and my house. I'm responsible for the 30' of pipe from the meter to my house, I get that. The mailing makes it sound like it would be $8,000 to $10,000 to repair the line if it failed. Really? Digging down six feet and replacing a section of 30' pipe is $8K to $10K. How do I get in on this ripoff (business)?

You can buy your own trencher/backhoe for that amount of money and go into bidness yourself

Excavation is $150+ an hour. The equipment used costs $50k+ in some cases. LiTability is high, insurance is high. Not surprising at all. But we are generally in the $5-7k range. It adds up.

Not a chance. Have a buddy with a 22 horse endloader and 9" backhoe - a baby setup and he's $22k into it.

That's absurd. Who's getting the $150/hour that doesn't own the equipment? I never realized I could make so much money doing so little work.

Put backhoe in at Ebay and tell me what you see under 10 grand

1500- 2K
job here in NC

I don't know if it's the same thing, but we had to repair a drain line going out of our house about 10 years ago. It' was about 6 feet down, and it was perhaps a 10 foot section, and it cost about $7,000. I cried myself to sleep for weeks afterwards.

I don't know where you are, but "here" an 8k-10k quote on a simple 30' replacement would be laughed at and a 5k-7k bid wouldn't stand a chance in hell at getting the job.

Lots of guys have machines sitting around doing nothing and dealers are renting machines at very reasonable rates.

We're considering laying ~5000' of 8" tile this winter, wanna trade?

wow. i just laid 1100' of 2" up from a well and set two hydrants for $7300. the guy i use with the excavator has a mid sized cat and he charges $90 hr. 8 k for 30' seems just a little on the high side. and yes i am fully insured and bonded and so is the digger. $2500 seems a little more realistic.

oh yeah we dropped in a 1 horse submersible pump, and a 1/2 horse jet in the house for a booster. prolly had 200' difference from the house to well. thought about running a wire from house to well for a starting relay so the pressure tank and switch would still be in the house, but that was going to come in $1000 higher than doing the booster pump.

I put a sewer pipe in that was about forty feet long and it cost me 1500 bucks. But I live in the country and people do shit like that basically almost for fun...

Digging a hole? I'm in. Let me go get the back hoe
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Yeah - you can get the good ole boy to do these things cheap. I agree, it's a lot of money. I don't fault OP but these things add up quickly. The guy on the other end has bills too. Once you start maintaining trucks, equipment and a shop, overhead starts cutting deeply into your profit.

Call the first guy, tell him you got cash, when he gives you your price tell him you need to call a couple of places to compare prices...

Providing there are no obstacles between the house and meter, you could get that job done here for around $1000. Of course the codes here are different . We only have to go 18" deep and are digging in sand for the most part so we don't need the backhoe. We also use PVC which is dirt cheap. I can easily see 6-8K given how much more is involved when you have to deal with cold weather

Oh I understand. One of the perks of life around here
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