Is it me or are plumbing costs bonkers!??

[Jay C.]

Hi all,

I have a rental property in Fort Worth home (I'm an accidental landlord) that is almost 100 years old. The PVC going out of the house was replaced new in 2011, but the plumbers who installed didn't do a great job. I just found out this last week that after the house's clean-outs were overflowing with water due to the backup that there was an issue. 

I got a plumbing company to come snake it out and they did a camera view and saw that the connection from PVC to the City Drain has a short clay pipe still there...thus with the ground shifting the PVC no longer drains clear to the City Drain. The PVC is 3' from the ground and the City Drain in the alley. I'll need to get a plumber to dig up the area and connect the PVC to the City Drain that at 3' and get rid of that clay pipe. 

My question is how much should that cost? I've had a wild wide range of quotes and my estimates are on the conservative side since it is a short space to connect to. But the City Drain is near the water line, a tree and the gas line (albeit gas was cutoff to the house). 

Additionally, if you know any plumbers who could do this type of work, I would greatly appreciate it.

Any help would be wonderful.

Thank you in advance.