Blockage in main sewer line

[Ben Nantell]

Hi BP community. I recently bought a 3 flat in Chicago. First investment property, doing the house hack to start. I'm 6 weeks into owning it and the garden unit tenants are having sewer back up into their shower basin. I had Roto Rooter come out to power rod the pipes. They got about 65 feet down the line from the catch basin and he was telling me it was getting stuck. They brought in a camera and basically pushed it down the line until there was just backed up water and it became black on the camera. They didn't offer any other solutions besides excavating through the concrete down to the main line to add an access line. They quoted some number around $9,000. This was a big shock to hear. Does anyone have any other possible ideas for a solution? I called a few other plumbers and they can do a power rod / hydro jet for between $2,000-$2,500 but there is no full guarantee that will solve the issue. Would it be better to just get the line repaired? Should I look into replacing the entire main sewer line? Do you think just the hydro jetting will be a good solution? Please help

[Michael Gessner]

@Ben Nantell if the camera went dark and they never found the issue, you should of never paid the bill until they came back with a replacement camera, that is the whole reason why as have cameras with lights on them