I had a slow leak in the watermain since I moved to my new house. The challenge is, the watermain is over 100 meters (one hundred METERS) long. Rresponses I got were either to use torpedoes (given the distance, about 6 torpedoes), or find someone to excavate the tranche. Torpedoes were quoted at 24K, the lowest excavation quote came at 15K.
Anta use a different technology: horizontal drilling. I spoke to Tanya, who was very professional in her responses to my questions about the service. The initial quote was 4.5K for the full watermain replacement; I pointed out that we have hard soil with lots of rocks, yet Tanya responded that the company does lots of jobs in Georgetown. Tanya also provided an alternative of finding exact leak spot to replace a piece of pipe, about half price of full replacement. Given other alternative quotes, I decided to go on with the full watermain replacement.
The job was scheduled for Friday, August 3, 2018. The first surprise was on the day before - I got a call around lunch time confirming the day, and in the evening that day, I noticed some movements around my neighbours - apparently Anta guys brought some equipment to unload. To give guys a justice, there was a call I missed around 3pm. Another surprise was when the master driller, Slava, looked at the spot and figured out the job is more challenging when initially estimated, so the price raised to 10800+HST, to the total of 12204. I anticipated that the price will rise (aftermath: 4500 is the price for the job in perfect conditions - pure soil, no rocks / tree roots), although hoped for a smaller rise... anyway I agreed, still the price seemed reasonable versus other options.
On Friday, guys showed up on time (around 8:30am). The drilling began, to reveal that the job IS a challenge: hard clay soil with lots of rocks big enough to prevent the machine from easy drilling. Slava got stuck several times, every time pulling the drill back and starting it all other again. At the end of a day, he drilled up to about 8 meters from the house. The job was to be continued on Tuesday, August 7.
The guys showed up on time around 8 am. They planned to pass the last 8 m by torpedo, yet hard soil full of rock proved it difficult. After a full day of hard work, guys were able to drill between the shut-off and the house (it is another 20 m from shut-off to the T-connection), and to put temporary water connection to restore water supply to the house. Slava estimated they will be back in about 2-3 weeks to complete the job.
On Thursday, August 9, temporary connection fell off, and water was fountaining in my basement. The good: water was draining out of the basement through the existing drain (minimum damage); I was able to reach to Anta plumbing, and Slava call me back in 15 minutes, instructed me how to shut off the water supply, and promised to come in about 2 hours from another job they were wrapping up at the moment. He was up to his word, found out that the connection part is likely to have manufacturer's defect, tightened the connection, and promised to replace the faulty parts once they are back to complete the job.
On Friday I got a call that the guys are able to come on Saturday, August 11, to complete the job. Long story short, on Saturday, guys showed up around 8am, and by 8pm, completed all the drilling and connections.
Overall, I am highly impressed with the professionalism and quality of the work done. Thank you, Slava, Vitaly, Andrey, Sergey, and Anatoly. I unequivocally recommend Anta Plumbing for any horizontal drilling work, and will certainly give them a call when I have another project that requires horizontal drilling.
I took one star off for the budget (I would really appreciate someone to come by in advance, for an accurate estimate).
I took one star off for cleanliness: guys did an amazing job cleaning in the basement, and levelling excavated areas, but please: do not bury cigarette butts, put them into ashtrays!
