Unclogging a Toilet Cost - Buyer Experiences and Price Information

Called Roto-Rooter to clean up the mess left by Butterfield Plumbing the day before. The 1st guy
wrote some indecipherable notes on an inspection paper and said more people would come to "fix" the terrible job done the day before. I needed to pay him $349.30 now. I did. Meanwhile another Roto-Rooter fellow arrived.

We had 2 upstairs toilets, a shower, a washing machine, and 3 upstairs sinks that, when used, backed up into our downstairs toilet and then into our downstairs bathtub! We couldn't wash, shower, flush etc! + odd spot on bedroom wall next to bath.
My son called Butterfield. (They had 5 stars.) They charged 520.68 and left! He booked a 2nd Co.

Our kitchen garbage disposal must have clogged up a drain line further down the pipe, because food, grease, and water started bubbling up in our guest bathroom tub. I tried plunging and a 25-ft snake ($14 at Home Depot) to no avail.
I called a local plumber and ran a snake through our cleanout toward the street connection (about 70 ft away). He pulled out a big mass of roots, meaning our lateral had failed and tree roots were clogging it up. But the tub was still full of water.
Next step, he brought out a smaller snake and snaked through the tub...couldn't get it. He took apart the trap in our kitchen sink and snaked through there...couldn't get it. Next he borrowed a ladder and went onto the roof above the bathroom and snaked through the vent there Bingo! Tub and sink ran clear. Bad news was, we probably need a new sewer line ($4000-$6000).
Charge for all the work was $250, which seemed reasonable since he stayed about 1.5 hours. After telling him I had used their company twice before, he gave me a discount. Total as $195.

Had a sewer backup in toilet and bathtub which overflowed (on a Sunday) and went down into my finished basement. Did not have a backflow preventor but this price still seems awfully high. Were there for 8 hours tops and came back a couple days later to remove the fans and dehumidifiers. Does this seem reasonable to others?

Had a company come and open the main drain in the basement. water was coming out from the drain and flooding the laundry room.
cost was $425. it took about an hour work with a mechanical Auger ( snake). clog was was like 20 feet deep.

Our basement laundry tub filled almost to the top with sewer backup on Saturday morning. Bailed it and tried liquid plumber and bought a cheap snake to see where the plug was. Was about 5' under concrete. Plumber came next morning first thing, used motorized auger through an access vent and cleared it out no problem. Plumber and 1 assistant - $175 if completed in an hour. Fair deal - could probably have rented an auger but have 5 kids and work for a living so don't mind paying a fair price for plumber and assistant on a responsive call. BTW I did call RotoRooter and they refused to even provide minimum service call price, hourly rates or anything so I recognized poor and expensive business practices when I saw them and didn't bother with them. Sounds like others have also had a bad experience. Probably ok guys but i don't like a system that doesn't even disclose any basic information.

Seriously....I asked for a 'ballpark estimate' over the phone...which they refused to give...so at 11pm at night the plumber comes out, quotes my $319 to snake my toilet drain (the toilet was already off) and I tell him to get lost! could have saved us both time/effort. Rented an industrial snake from HOME DEPOT for $50 bucks...PROBLEM SOLVED....so there!

Two technicians showed up and worked for about an hour. They had to cut the clean-out cap off of the cast iron drain pipe to get to the clog. The $331 includes the cost of a replacement clean-out cap and snaking the drain to the street. Seems like a fair deal to me.

They said that they would come out 24/7 for the same price. They were here within an hour at 8pm. They had a Service plan where you would save money. I saved $50 on the sink drain and it included checking the whole house for problems plus flushing the water heater today and a year from today. The Service plan was $133, but with the $50 it saved me today, plus the other stuff I thought it was worth it. Not so sure about the other $300 though. My kitchen was flooding because the water was backing up into the dishwasher, so what ya gonna do?

Main sewer line was backed up. L. from Roto Rooter came out that day, around 7 PM. Not only was there snow on the ground, and temps in the 20s, he had to pry off the rusty frozen sewer cap, then power snake the 100 feet or so. When it still wasn't running well, he did the sewer camera, identified the problem, showed me a place where the cast iron pipe was starting to go bad, then re-snaked the entire pipe. Flow improved further. For no extra charge, he then checked and snaked the sewer trap out by the road where my line connects to the public sewer. He worked for 2 hours, dragging all sorts of heavy tools and equipment around. The problem was solved, I got his cell phone number in case of problems, and a 6 month warranty. Totally worth the $345. I gave him a nice tip, too.

This estimate was to replace sewer line under bathroom floor, which would not have solved the problem. I had HJack's come and clear the clog for $356. RotoRooter could have made some big bucks on that one. What a scam!