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Tried that trick where you jam a garden hose into a ground hole to find a buried root - almost flooded my customer's basement
So I'm on a job in Raleigh a couple weeks back, trying to locate this massive oak root that was messing with a sewer line. Watched a video where a guy said shove a hose in a probe hole and turn it on full blast - the water supposedly follows the root path. Well I did that and about 10 minutes later the homeowner yells from inside. Water was bubbling up through a crack in their basement floor. Luckily it was just a hairline thing and no real damage, but I felt like an idiot. Anyone else ever have a hack totally backfire like that?
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barbarah191mo ago
Oh, man, that brings back a story my buddy tried down in Charlotte. He did the same hose trick to find a pipe, and it ended up washing out the soil under a whole patio slab, causing it to sink about four inches overnight. The homeowner was furious, and he learned the hard way that some hacks just aren't worth the gamble.
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ray_miller841mo ago
Man that hose trick is one of those things that sounds genius on paper but in practice it's just asking for trouble. The issue is you're basically pressure testing the ground and any weak spot, crack, or old pipe joint is gonna become a geyser. I saw a guy try something similar with a pressure washer to clear a clogged drain line - he blew a hole right through a cast iron elbow that was already paper thin. Water went everywhere and the homeowner's finished basement looked like a swimming pool. The worst part is these hacks spread like wildfire on forums because they work once or twice, then someone tries them in the wrong situation and it's a disaster. You dodged a bullet with just a hairline crack, I know guys who've had to pay for full foundation repairs from that exact trick.
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