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Tonight's question - house plumbing

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JPSmit

JPSmit

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We have an apartment attached to the house that our darling daughter lives in. Since we have owned the house we have renovated the bathroom and the kitchen. Lately dear daughter has been complaining that when she drains the kitchen sink it bubbles up into the shower. And it does.

This morning I got an auger, ran it through every drain hole I could find - no luck. Managed to break the bathroom sink drain and while sorting that out realized that there might be some virtue in replacing the whole drain pipe for the apartment - It was originally copper (1 1/2in) going into a cast iron stack and one of the pipes was even lead (the one I broke) So, if you can visualize it - every drain was attached via a compression fitting - except the lead which was just umm lead.

So, all replaced, 2 inch main line 1 1/2 inch feeding it, great slope easy peezy.

But, here is my question - when I removed the line and looked down it, it was about 3/4 clogged - with sludge - toothpaste, soap, cr*p of many tenants over the years. The auger just ran through it because there was nothing to grab on to - various drano type mixtures were poured down with really no success as it seemed to flow over it.

So, while I am actually very glad it is all to code now, what could I have done to clear the line? Or does it just come to the point where you have to replace?

thoughts?
 
A power drain cleaner should take care of it. The kind Roto Rooter uses; usually you can rent them at the "big box" stores. I don't know the name of it, but ask for the tip that scrapes the walls of the pipe clean. This graphic calls it a "side cutter" (but there are other styles that do the same thing)
general-wire-cutter-set-hecs.jpg
 
TR3driver said:
A power drain cleaner should take care of it. The kind Roto Rooter uses; usually you can rent them at the "big box" stores. I don't know the name of it, but ask for the tip that scrapes the walls of the pipe clean. This graphic calls it a "side cutter" (but there are other styles that do the same thing)
general-wire-cutter-set-hecs.jpg
Click to expand...

I remember a few years back I rented a power snake with one of those "Boring Gimlet" heads and ran the thing from the utility room all the way out to the main line (about 50-60 feet). When I recalled it back in the head was missing. I suspect it is laying in the bottom of the main line somewhere. Recently I had a camera run through that same line and the head was nowhere to be seen, so I assume it ended up in the main line or maybe even ended up in the septic tank.
 
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Boss you owe me a new keyboard! (Kind of like the "Last night I dreamt about marshmallows and in the morning my pillow was gone)

The one I bought had a boring gimlet - never really thought about augers having different heads - makes sense - every day a school day.
 
JPSmit said:
The one I bought had a boring gimlet - never really thought about augers having different heads - makes sense - every day a school day.
Click to expand...
I don't know if they are all that way; but the one I rented actually had a bolt so you could change heads.
I was gratified at the result; I had a drain that used to start running slow about once a year (causing the laundry to back up in the kitchen sink, yuk!). After I did it myself, I had no further trouble with it for over 10 years.
However, I'll admit it got stuck and I had to ask my daughter's boyfriend for help in pulling it back :smile:
 
TR3driver said:
I don't know if they are all that way; but the one I rented actually had a bolt so you could change heads.
I was gratified at the result; I had a drain that used to start running slow about once a year (causing the laundry to back up in the kitchen sink, yuk!). After I did it myself, I had no further trouble with it for over 10 years.
However, I'll admit it got stuck and I had to ask my daughter's boyfriend for help in pulling it back :smile:
Click to expand...

I had a camera put through my line from utility room to main line, thinking my frequent backups were due to some obstruction. What I learned is the the line has a low spot where stuff accumulates over time. Too expensive to fix so just accept that I'll need to run a snake every couple of years.
 
I clean our shower drain twice a year - June and December. You'd be amazed what comes out. Mainly wife's hair. I don't have much...
 
Basil said:
I had a camera put through my line from utility room to main line, thinking my frequent backups were due to some obstruction. What I learned is the the line has a low spot where stuff accumulates over time. Too expensive to fix so just accept that I'll need to run a snake every couple of years.
Click to expand...

I'm sure I have a similar problem. My point was just that running the scraper through seems to have delayed the next.occurrence.

It has happened again since then, although so far we haven't used a snake on it. The wife seems to have hit on a formula of Oxy-Clean and boiling water that opens it back up for 6 months to a year. The new washing machine may have helped, too.
 
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