Honey? The toilet isn't draining right...and it's making funny noises.

[BoomerD]

damn boomer you trained your wife to do laundry at 3am??? tell us your secret.

Proper training...The rest is a protected trade secret that I can't divulge.

 

[highland145]

Proper training...The rest is a protected trade secret that I can't divulge.

Unionized labor?

 

[Murloc]

I don't have any smoke alarms in my house.
No one has them here.

I'd not put acid in the WC, but you could put it in the sink or something, as long as you're sure that it will fix the problem (organic matter and not plastic or paper clogging)

 

[KGB]

To the OP:

I would imagine with the sheer volume of bullshit you generate, ... this kind of blockage doesn't happen once a week.

 

[MtnMan]

That is worse than the tendency for smoke alarm batteries to always start sending their low battery warning at 3:00 am, as mine do.

No, because then you can take the battery out, go take a piss and flush the toilet and go back to bed.

 

[BoomerD]

To the OP:

I would imagine with the sheer volume of bullshit you generate, ... this kind of blockage doesn't happen once a week.

:biggrin:
Fuck you...gawd-damned commie pinko...

How's that TV coming?

Well, I was right the first time. The clog was after the washing machine. I had to snake the front clean-out then used a "drain king" to clear it...but for now, it's working <crosses fingers>

It COULD be caused by tree roots...there is a tree in the front yard that has horrible root issues. All of them on the street have the same problem. Surface roots, roots that go to the water supply from the street, etc.
We're prohibited from cutting the roots or cutting the trees down. Technically they belong to the city. Part of their "street trees program."

 

[Rubycon]

Rent a seesnake and check it out. Don't want your shitter to be full for the holidays!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fyS5CLBgyM

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

I learned this morning that if you have the sink filled with water (soaking a ham) and flush the toilet at ~1am you get to clean the entire contents of the toilet off the bathroom floor.

 

[BoomerD]

I learned this morning that if you have the sink filled with water (soaking a ham) and flush the toilet at ~1am you get to clean the entire contents of the toilet off the bathroom floor.

??

Why would having a full sink cause the toilet to overflow?

Sounds like I'm not the only one with drainage issues.

 

[skyking]

The dwarf has improper venting if a filled sink caused that. I have some bad plumbing to fix here due to poor venting.

 

[BoomerD]

The dwarf has improper venting if a filled sink caused that. I have some bad plumbing to fix here due to poor venting.

No doubt. Maybe the dwarf has a troll living in his vents...

 

[Rubycon]

No doubt. Maybe the dwarf has a troll living in his vents...

Fishing wharf spider dwarfs clock spider.

 

[Drako]

Fishing wharf spider dwarfs cock spider.

WT... :biggrin:

 

[iGas]

That's common. He's in CA so "Orangeburg syndrome" likely does not apply. If the pipe has a belly (sag) it could be trapping waste and backing up. When this happens a snake job fixes it briefly as it will slowly clog again and the process repeats. If the run isn't near any hazards (like natural gas lines!) he could rent a backhoe and dig it himself. I'm sure he's more than qualified to do that.

I don't think Orangeburg was use that often after the late 1920s, except for perimeter drain and it was use till the mid 1970s.

ABS/PVC/Terracota tend to break instead of sag if there is a flaw/air pocket in the soil.

As I have suggested above, run a snake in the sewer and measure it to find the break/blockage. The OP can run water into the sewer and check his building drain c/o (clean out) as well as the building sewer c/o to zone into the blockage area.

Make sure that the water is running in the bath tub and toilets prior to checking the c/o (use flash light, standing water mean that the breakage is down stream from there, if there is standing water in the building sewer it mean that the breakage is at the curb/city property and is their problem).

Building c/o is within 3' from exterior building wall.

Sewer c/o is within 3' of the property line and city property (but normally the sewer c/o is within 1' of the property line).

Sewer pipe is a straight line from building c/o & sewer c/o.

OP can use pipe or cone (both end open) and press it firmly to the ground while listen to the water running to determine where the sewer pipe is (must let the sewer pipe dry up before flushing a toilets and run faucet/tubs).

 

[iGas]

Lots of lulz in here...

I got up this morning and everything has drained...for now.

I have a 25 foot sewer auger that I'm going to try first...if that doesn't get it, (and I don't think it will) the neighbor has a 50 foot powered auger that we're going to try.

Fortunately, I have 3 clean-outs on the house to work with, so MAYBE I can get this myself.

NO septic tank. (thank gawd...I hate digging those up)

You only have 1 building clean out, the other 2 are perimeter drain clean outs.

 

[BoomerD]

You only have 1 building clean out, the other 2 are perimeter drain clean outs.

Call them what you want. There's one clean-out in the back of the house outside the master bath. Another outside the kitchen sink, yet another behind the washing machine, (the drywallers were kind enough to mud over most of the plug...I could barely see the square end sticking out) and one in the front that's between the house and the street. That's the one where I spent most of my time today...feeding the snake and hose from there towards the street.

 

[Bignate603]

This makes my plumbing issue this week seem relatively minor. The wife tried to shove a huge mass of vegetable peels down the disposal. Immediately after I heard her say "Honey, the sink isn't draining. I don't know what's wrong!"

 

[BoomerD]

This makes my plumbing issue this week seem relatively minor. The wife tried to shove a huge mass of vegetable peels down the disposal. Immediately after I heard her say "Honey, the sink isn't draining. I don't know what's wrong!"

Heh-heh...been there, done that. One Thanksgiving, my mom, who never had a disposal in her life, tried to shove about 10 pounds of potato peels, sweet potato peels, carrot peels, etc. down the disposal all at once. needless to say, things clogged up...I spent a couple of hours on Thanksgiving taking apart the sink and disposal to clear it all out.
My wife says I was perhaps a bit less than nice about it.

 

[TheShiz]

i've had this experience and turned out my sewage main under my ground floor was cracked, under concrete. don't really know how that happened. luckily insurance covered it.

 

[BoomerD]

Not sure about the "why," but my wife told me earlier that one of my neighbors "downstream" from me was out working on his sewer this evening...Hopefully, if it's in the city line, it's moved down far enough not to bother me again.

 

[CPA]

:biggrin:
Fuck you...gawd-damned commie pinko...

How's that TV coming?

Well, I was right the first time. The clog was after the washing machine. I had to snake the front clean-out then used a "drain king" to clear it...but for now, it's working <crosses fingers>

It COULD be caused by tree roots...there is a tree in the front yard that has horrible root issues. All of them on the street have the same problem. Surface roots, roots that go to the water supply from the street, etc.
We're prohibited from cutting the roots or cutting the trees down. Technically they belong to the city. Part of their "street trees program."

Then I hope that the city will fix it if it is indeed a root issue, otherwise, I would be doing it myself.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

??

Why would having a full sink cause the toilet to overflow?

Sounds like I'm not the only one with drainage issues.

It is some sort of venting/suction issue. I tested it out and it happens when the right side of the sink is filled but not the left. Plunging the toilet once fixes it (once the sink is no longer filled). Weird.

 

[BoomerD]

Then I hope that the city will fix it if it is indeed a root issue, otherwise, I would be doing it myself.

If it comes to that, my neighbor has a power sewer auger with blades for tree roots. Otherwise, "Hello, Roto-Rooter?"

 

[CZroe]

Grease ball deep in the line is also a possibility.