Sewer line and cleanouts

I just had a blocked line. I called the guy (Rufus) who came with his big machine, pulled a toilet and snaked out the line with a $600 charge. I have no cleanouts (unless they are "secret" or buried). He told me that with a cleanout, the fee would have been $200 and the job would have been much easier. I seem to need this kind of visit every 3 years or so. This is perhaps the 4th "ream out" in the 12 years I have lived in this house.

He quoted me $3300 to install cleanouts. Wow! After researching this a bit, it seems clear to me that I can buy the parts for around $100 (certainly under $200). So I am paying $3000 for the digging and a bit of labor to cut my line and install the parts.

Here is a great video of a guy installing cleanouts at his house. He spent $180 for the PVC parts (at Lowes). I may consider ABS. He says the pipe is likely to be 30 inches or so down.

• Video: Installing cleanouts

Here is another excellent video of a guy replacing his water line from the street. People in the comments mention quotes of $5000 for this kind of job. It hardly looks like he uses $500 in parts. With a $5000 budget you could buy any nice tools you might need and still save a lot of money.

• Video: replacing water line.

• Amazon: Flume 2X $269
• Amazon: Flume (older) $229