Warning this is a long post!!
This is on my ongoing saga of plumbing issues in my new condo. We purchased it in June of 2003. From that time until May of this year, we had the sewer back up 5 times!! Each time we had a plumber out and they were able to rod the sewer and get it working again. Each time, the contractor that built our house paid for the plumber, but got more and more irratated each time.
Finally in may, we had the sewer back up agian!! I asked that the contractor have out a plumber that I knew to rod it with a bigger machine... He agreed.
That night the plumber came out and rodded the sewer and caught ahold of something. He pulled it back. Imagine my suprise when I saw it was concrete!!! Now I had heard that there may be some in the pipes, but I didn't have proof. The contractors face was white. He admited that there was a problem with the pouring of the basement floor.
It turns out that he hired a new guy to pour the floor and he poured it WAY WAY too wet. He sent all of the excess water and cement down the floor drain which filled up the pipes in the basement and out to the street.
The contractor never paid the guy, but he had to jackhammer out the basement floor and pay to have all of the pipes replaced. HE DID NOTHING WITH THE PIPES OUTSIDE OF THE HOUSE!
So that night the plumber said he had to dig up the front yard. They dug up the front yard and replaced the pipes or cleaned the ones they could. When I got home, the hole was filled in. I asked the contractor if the pipes were clear from the foundation to the road and he said they were. He also signed a peice of paper saying the same...