The day before our home sale closed in Missouri we had 5 inches of rain in a very short time. The sewer overflowed through the manhole cover next door creating a terrible muck. The neighbor across the street had it back up into his house, even though the line would have run uphill to his home.
We had stayed the night before in a hotel since most of our furniture was already loaded. When we got to the house all the neighbors ran over to tell us to prepare for the worst when we went in the house.
They knew of the problems we’d had for years: every time we’d get a couple of inches of rain, the sewer would back flow into our home. No damage, but not particularly fun, either.
Four years of constant nagging and complaining and filing reports and the O’Fallon supervisor found a solution: these odd duck billed check valves. They had one designed for the end of our line. Two crews had to install it: one to support the guy going into the line and another to blow air into the line further down so that he could work.
Did it pay off?
That day we went into the house and not a drop had back flowed.
The new home owners will never have the problems we did. And now we live in a home on flat land that not only has a decent sewer system, but also a storm water system and sidewalks.
Win/win.