plumbing sucks.

Topic: plumbing sucks. (Read 2008 times) previous topic - next topic

plumbing sucks.

December 14, 2009, 04:28:17 AM

We own a house, It was built in the early 60's by some people that had no business building a house really.

Anyway,
Woke up to the Basp00get toilet overflowing~It did this a couple times one day about a month ago, But we bought a few bottles of HEAVY drain stuff and poured down there as well as every other drain in the house, also snaked and pumped everything.
This seemed to fix it until today.

So i unbolted the toilet, Which wasn't hard since one of the retaing bolts and a large chunk of cement holding it came up with it, and the other one rusted out and broke.

Come to find a big cement hole in the ground surrounded by dirt (our house is directly built on/touching dirt...).
And the wax donut wrapped in roots.

the water level is about 3 inches from overflowing at ground level, so we try and snake it to no success.
The we dump in some of the HEAVY stuff and let it set, And turn on random things to see if they make the water level rise (downstairs kitchen sink does) so then we direcrtly plunge the whole like mad and it finally goes down.

We think SUCCESS!
and realize we need to completely re-cement the floor around the toilet and build up a mounting bracket and seal~Which we figure we will do tomorrow since its late...
I take a shower, And when i get out i step into a floor covered in water.

Then as i get the shop vac, more water starts shooting up from the whole, THIS TIME IT'S VERY BROWN, SMELLY AND HAS TOILET PAPER IN IT.
I have the nasty dirty feeling, And were clueless as to wtf is going on now since the water level in the hole is not there anymore.

P.S.
EW.

plumbing sucks.

Reply #1 – December 14, 2009, 05:04:30 AM

I'll bet you have a big, really old tree very close by...

June of 2008 we had some heavy...no, torrential rains here, and out in the pasture south of my house, right where the pipe coming out of the septic tank joins to it, a Locust tree had grown it's roots into it, choking off the flow. Needless to say, after the 12-18 inches of rain in a day and half, I had about a foot of water in basp00get. It wasn't the sewer that had backed up, just that the basp00get leaks a bit in very wet weather, and the drain getting 3/4 choked shut, the ground saturated, and the extra-heavy rain had pooled up in my basp00get.

I lost a few boxes of 5.0 and MM&FF magazines, but that was really the worst of the damage.

A sump pump, and a pickup load of wet, moldy later, it was all good.

Sorry to hear about your shiznitty situation...might be time to call in a plumbing/septic outfit, get an estimate, or least an idea of wth to do..?

Are you on a town's waste system, or do you have a tank?

If you have a tank, could be that it's full...but if you see roots right below your toilet...well...that's the biggest problem anyway.

Let us know how it goes..., and I sympathize man, this kinda thing sucks hard.

plumbing sucks.

Reply #2 – December 14, 2009, 06:20:11 AM

Overall flooding is another story. (Poured for a few days straight, Ended up flooding half of downstairs)
The thing is our basp00get is a "Daylight~Finished Basp00get" basically a second level to our house, And i live down there.

I fear it's roots, And yes we have a tree very near by~In fact we have roughly EIGHT collosal suckers that the house builders planted in a line about 15 feet away from the house in the backyard, And this isn't all the trees on our property. :wtf:

But yea, Dad's taking the day off to try and figure this out~Mom's kinda set on calling a plumber in at this point.

From what i've been reading online, Its a clog up in the main line from the street to house (We are on city sewage), And most likely roots.

plumbing sucks.

Reply #3 – December 14, 2009, 07:55:16 AM

Call a plumber and have the damage assesed properly.

plumbing sucks.

Reply #4 – December 14, 2009, 08:58:49 AM

In all likelyhood, the main line to the sewer is broken due to the roots and filled up with crud.

You could probably keep it snaked regularly to help keep it clear, but most likely it will need to be dug up and replaced.

plumbing sucks.

Reply #5 – December 14, 2009, 12:13:57 PM

Ok!
Good news but at a hefty price.

Parents decided to call a plumber.
Roto rooter said they would send someone out between 6am and Noon~Plumber arrived at 7:55am.
Plumber (gu?)estimated a thorough snaking of the line to the street @ $405 (Ouch).
Dad agreed, I grumbled.

roughly an hour later and the full 110 feet of his power snake, everything seems fine and clear.
And he leaves with $445.

He hit something large a ways down the line, and poked at it with the line a bunch of times while i flushed the upstairs toilet until it gave in.
And He says there no signs of root damage!!

plumbing sucks.

Reply #6 – December 14, 2009, 12:32:15 PM

Very cool!

I had a similar experience recently when my wife called me to the bathroom. Having just shut off the shower, she pointed out that she was standing in 2 or so inches of water in the shower stall. Oddly, I found more than one blockage in the drain line over the next several hours, and several tries at clearing the line. As it turns out, tre real culprit was an over full septic tank causing the "stuff" in the drain line to stop flowing and cause a blockage, the liquid below the blockage eventually draining off. This happened several times during my attempt to diagnose and clear the line, thus my experiance of several blockages.

The following Monday we had the tank pumped (now there's a smell I will never forget!), and all has been well ever since. I can't really complain as they say you should have the tanks pumped every 3 or so years, and we've lived here for 6 and I have never had it done. Live and learn!

Merry Christmas!
Bill

plumbing sucks.

Reply #7 – December 14, 2009, 12:39:34 PM

Did he scope it? Or just say it was a clog and nothing else?

If it happens again in the near future...it's roots.

plumbing sucks.

Reply #8 – December 14, 2009, 12:48:22 PM

Good to hear everything worked out for yas :D

When I fixed mine, I had to dig down 2 feet in about 5 different spots before I was lucky enough to actually hit the tank, then I had to work my way to the outlet side and excavate down, AND away far enough to cut off and replace the crushed section of pipe. Basically, I looked about like 3 pickup loads of dirt before I got to the pipe :hick:

I should've rented a a little backhoe in hindsight. Hard packed clay dirt, standing in and whatnot, with temps in the high 80's did not make for too much fun.

We cheated a little bit and stuck a heavy stiff wire up the end of the outlet pipe to get the rough length, so we knew where to dig, but the pipe was skewed by about a foot over it's length, hence why I ended up digging more.
If i ever play with that shiznit again (pun intended), I'll sure rent some equipment.

Oh yeah, all it cost me was 35 bucks for pipe, a fitting, and supper for a buddy who I coerced into helping me lol.

plumbing sucks.

Reply #9 – December 15, 2009, 08:37:24 AM

not sure what he means by "no signs" of line damage.

these things generally come back to haunt you.

better just dig up a trench and re-pipe it.