RANGER SEWER

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From estimate to completion of work, Walter was a pleasure to deal with. He secured all necessary permits and was present during all the work. I would highly recommend using their service.

As background, our driveway drain had been buried under dirt and gravel for years, leading to the driveway becoming a bowl of water every time it rained. A contractor working on the property (NOT Ranger) offered to scrape off the dirt and gravel, which he did, and to try to excavate the material in the drain, which he also did. He used a fire hose to try to jet out the pipe that ran from the now-uncovered drain to wherever it emptied into. He cleaned about ten feet of the line and hit a clog, which he believed to be roots, and stopped. I then brought in 49.99 Sewer and Drain, who had done little jobs for us successfully before. Their one-man snake didn't get anywhere. They then came in and tried to blow the clog out with compressed air. Total waste of time because the pipe was too large for his air unit. They then came back with a two-man snake, worked at most 20 minutes on it, and gave up. The supervisor doing the work said he was afraid to lose his snake head and that the pipe was probably broken. They allegedly offer camera-inspection and hydro-jetting, but he did not recommend either of these services, said to leave well enough alone, and drove off. The contractor who had done a nice job with the first phase then offered to dig up the line and replace it for several thousand dollars. We politely declined. Basically at my wit's end, I consulted a highly-regarded plumber and drain expert in another state, who instantly recommended Ranger as an experienced, no-nonsense, first-class operation. I called Ranger and spoke to Dan Kleinpeter, the owner, personally. He said that he would like to look at the job before giving an estimate. Coming to give the estimate would be no charge. He came, I explained the background, he examined the system in the driveway and then walked around the property with me to get an idea of where the storm drainage might go, as we didn't know. He then quoted $425 to open the drain to wherever it drained to, including testing. He proposed to use his trailer-mounted hydro-jet unit. I know that hydro-jetting is expensive, and that the equipment is very expensive, so the price seemed fair, particularly because he was confident that he could get the line open. Dan then went to work. He broke through the clog that was ten feet down the line fairly quickly. The driveway began to fill with water from the hydro-jetting, and it was muddy, indicating that there was dirt and such in the clay pipe he was cleaning. (His machine was plainly more powerful than the fire-hose that the other contractor used, because the other contractor had worked and worked and couldn't get any further than the ten feet.) The hose would move forward, then stop. Dan used several different types of nozzles on the end of the pressure hose during the job, and explained what each one did and how it was used. Dan told me that he was completely comfortable with me watching him work, and I could see why: he knew what he was doing. Dan knew how to move the hose in and out and twist it to move it through and around bends in the pipe. It was clear that the jet was freeing significant volumes of material in the line and it was floating back out. Interestingly, not a single root. It was all dirt and gravel. Dan worked for close to an hour on the problem, moving forward in fits and starts, inch by inch. At one point, I went back in the house and happened to look down in the cistern by the kitchen door. I noticed that it was glistening on the bottom, as if water was trying to push up from underneath. I mentioned it to Dan. He looked at it, and told me that likely there was a pipe that entered the cistern below the level of muck in the bottom of it, and that that pipe was likely connected to the driveway drain. Ten minutes later, it was apparent that this was true as water started to accumulate in the bottom of the cistern. A few minutes later, the head of Dan's hydro-jet broke through the surface of the muck in the cistern,and the driveway emptied like a bathtub.. Huge volumes of water came rushing into the cistern, and then out of it through an overflow pipe connected near its top. Within moments, the driveway was emptied of hundreds of gallons of water and the job was complete. Dan went above and beyond and tried to make sure that the pipe OUT of the cistern was also clear, so that in the future, the driveway did not fill the cistern and overflow onto the patio by the kitchen. In all, Dan was here a few hours, spending a lot of time and doing a lot of hard work, and stuck to his quotation. He wore a clean uniform, wore an ID badge, was neat and well-groomed, very friendly and knowledgeable, and very proud of his 30 years in the business. I can see why the out-of-state plumber recommended him unquestioningly.

They fixed the problem precisely using high tech equipment. Always honest, friendly with very fair prices. I highly recommend them. I got my moneys worth. The work wasn't perfect, they do great work. I had an excellent experience with them.