The high winds and heavy rainfall of Hurricane Sandy had impacted many homeowners in the tri state area. One homeowner in Jamaica Hills Queens suffered from an all out power and water failure after a tree located in the front of the house nearly ripped the surrounding utilities out of the ground. It turns out that the roots of the damaged tree were lodged in the homeowner’s clay sewer line which was severely damaged as the tree was almost ripped out of the ground.
The sewer line had been experiencing backups however; Hurricane Sandy pushed the sewer past the point of no return. Hours after the tree had fallen; the homeowner had become aware of the sewer backing up which she took as the expected monthly sewer backup. She became aware that there was a bigger issue after her local plumber attempted to put a snake in the line, he was not having any success and was told she must have the sewer repaired.
The homeowner had received several estimates and decided to choose Harris Water Main & Sewer Contractors. Her comfort level was based on 3 references she received from co-workers who had all had Harris Water & Sewer install a new water main or sewer in their queens residences. The Harris sewer crew had to start work on an emergency basis as the homeowner had completely lost the ability to use any running water in the house. All of the required permits were obtained with DOT (Department of Transportation) and DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) and the job was started within 24 hours.
Being that it was a heavily traveled street, Harris had to make sure to have all of the required safety signage as well as a flagman to assist traffic in flowing in a safe manner. Shortly after the excavation on her property began the homeowner was made aware of a water main repair that had taken place on her existing lead pipe. There was a copper pipe coming in through the foundation wall of the house which led her to believe that she had a copper pipe running all the way to the city main, at this point she decided to install a brand new copper main. The homeowner’s decision to install a new copper main while the property and roadway are excavated was a wise decision; the cost would be ¼ of the price if she had to install a new water main in the future.
The Harris Sewer team successfully completed the sewer and water installation within 48 hours of starting the project. This project required an arborist as the excavation process was to take place under the “drip line” of a tree and passed all DEP inspections.
Harris Water Main and Sewer Contractors continues to help homeowners in emergency situations for over 90 years and continues to be the only 4th generation family owned and operated water main and sewer contractor in all of the 5 boroughs.
Brief History of Jamaica Hills, Queens
Courtesy of Wikipedia
Jamaica Hills is a small neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. The neighborhood is surrounded by the Grand Central Parkway (north), Jamaica Estates (east), Jamaica (south), and Briarwood (west). It is centered on the terminal moraine which runs the length of Long Island. Originally populated with people who left neighborhoods under ethnic transition, Jamaica Hills started to become more ethnically diverse after 1964. The population today is mostly east Indians and smaller populations from the Caribbean, Central America, and China. Because of the opening of a Greek Orthodox church in the 1960s, many Greek immigrants also live in the area. Jamaica Hills is patrolled by the NYPD’s 107th Precinct.
