Rhymes with NewAge
Jan. 16th, 2011 02:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stickmakerJust spent a little over an hour unclogging a drain. Read on at your own risk.
You might think that and hour plus is an exorbitant amount of time spent on such a mundane activity, but bear with me. My house was built in 1940. Much of it - including some of the plumbing - is a serious kludge. There's a spot where the drain which serves the bathroom goes into the line leading from the house out to the main where things can get hung. This is actually part of the original construction. Naturally, it's under a concrete floor, barely reachable from the basement floor drain.
This has been such a recurring problem that plumbers cut a section out of the vertical pipe coming down from the bathroom, just above the basement floor. I just take off the patch there and run a hose connected to the water heater into the pipe, turn the water on, and the clog will be flushed away.
Usually.
This time was different. Backwash flowed out of the hole onto the shower floor, and (mostly) down the drain, though some went out onto the basement floor. Much of the hour was spent on cleanup afterwards. The hose kept bumping into what felt like a solid obstruction. I finally got out the proper snake. It hit the same obstruction, but was stiff enough that after a few shoves it broke through. However, while water would now flow sluggishly, there was still an obstruction the snake was simply pushing through without dislodging.
Back in went the hose. With a flashlight and my hand, I determined that the end of the hose (it has the male end cut off for just this task) was right at the connection between the drain from the bathroom and the line going on out under the floor. I could also feel what felt like cloth!
Alternating between my fingers and a small screwdriver I poked, scraped and pulled most of this material out. While doing so, I recalled using some sanitizing, flushable wipes to clean the toilet about three weeks earlier. Turns out they are flushable, but not necessarily pipeable. There's still some in there, too wedged in to remove, but there's also enough of an opening that the toilet will now flush properly.
Will try some enzyme cleaner after buying it tomorrow.
You might think that and hour plus is an exorbitant amount of time spent on such a mundane activity, but bear with me. My house was built in 1940. Much of it - including some of the plumbing - is a serious kludge. There's a spot where the drain which serves the bathroom goes into the line leading from the house out to the main where things can get hung. This is actually part of the original construction. Naturally, it's under a concrete floor, barely reachable from the basement floor drain.
This has been such a recurring problem that plumbers cut a section out of the vertical pipe coming down from the bathroom, just above the basement floor. I just take off the patch there and run a hose connected to the water heater into the pipe, turn the water on, and the clog will be flushed away.
Usually.
This time was different. Backwash flowed out of the hole onto the shower floor, and (mostly) down the drain, though some went out onto the basement floor. Much of the hour was spent on cleanup afterwards. The hose kept bumping into what felt like a solid obstruction. I finally got out the proper snake. It hit the same obstruction, but was stiff enough that after a few shoves it broke through. However, while water would now flow sluggishly, there was still an obstruction the snake was simply pushing through without dislodging.
Back in went the hose. With a flashlight and my hand, I determined that the end of the hose (it has the male end cut off for just this task) was right at the connection between the drain from the bathroom and the line going on out under the floor. I could also feel what felt like cloth!
Alternating between my fingers and a small screwdriver I poked, scraped and pulled most of this material out. While doing so, I recalled using some sanitizing, flushable wipes to clean the toilet about three weeks earlier. Turns out they are flushable, but not necessarily pipeable. There's still some in there, too wedged in to remove, but there's also enough of an opening that the toilet will now flush properly.
Will try some enzyme cleaner after buying it tomorrow.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-16 07:57 pm (UTC)But when you examined the exposed pipes in the basement, you found that the pipe for the bathroom only handled the sink and toilet.
The bathtub (and shower) connected to a small pip that ran all the way across the basement to the kitchen vertical, with a drop of only an inch or so...
Guess what backed up...
no subject
Date: 2011-01-16 08:41 pm (UTC)That's very similar to my setup, minus the crossover. Connection on one side for kitchen sink and basement clothes washer. Connection on the other side for bathroom and basement shower.
Each side has its own problems. House came with a check valve to keep kitchen water out of the clothes washer, and I've had to replace that twice and fiddle with the setup several times. However, no clogs.