Holiday weekend, that means its time for the plumbing to back up

[zxcvbob]

I washed a load of clothes tonight.  Nothing all that big or filthy; the usual stuff.  I went to go put it in the dryer about an hour ago, and there was nasty water all over the place.  The drain line clogged without any warning.  (I've had trouble with this drain before, but usually it gets slow for a while, then backs up just a little, and I snake it out, and if that doesn't work I call a plumber.)  So I spent the last hour sucking up water with a shopvac, transferring it to a bucket, trudging it up the stairs and throwing it on the driveway.  The drain must have clogged immediately and all the wash water ended up on the floor; it was a lot of bucketsful.  At least it didn't stink much.

Now I'm drinking a beer (or maybe 3), and I'll set up fans and a dehumidifier.  Not sure how much stuff got wet and will need to be thrown out.  Will check on that tomorrow.  At least the bathroom is on the main line and that never clogs [knock on wood]  This was a branch line just for the kitchen sink and the laundry.  So I'll wait until Tuesday to call the plumber and Wife will probably be pissed at me but that's OK.

I still need to put those clothes in the dryer...

[Jim147]

Almost every new Years. My septic decides to back up.

It is my omen for the year to come.

jim

[Azrael256]

My wife blew up the disposal at about noon today.   

[Scout26]

My wife blew up the disposal at about noon today.   

As someone who's WINO killed two Disposals, in addition to many other adventures in "How To Teach Your Husband About Plumbing, Whether He Wants To Learn Or Not", do tell.  The metal bottom from a grease filled can of frozen orange juice perhaps?  All the bones from an entire Chicken carcass, mayhaps?  Or some new an novel way to make the blue smoke exit the motor?

[pulls up a chair and grabs a drink]

[bedlamite]

A few years ago my mom called me with a plugged drain while my dad was out of town. After a while with the snake I found out she decided to send a good portion of a bag of rice down the drain the evening before she called me. It was just easier to replace about 20 feet of PVC than try and clear it.

[never_retreat]

I washed a load of clothes tonight.  Nothing all that big or filthy; the usual stuff.  I went to go put it in the dryer about an hour ago, and there was nasty water all over the place.  The drain line clogged without any warning.  (I've had trouble with this drain before, but usually it gets slow for a while, then backs up just a little, and I snake it out, and if that doesn't work I call a plumber.)  So I spent the last hour sucking up water with a shopvac, transferring it to a bucket, trudging it up the stairs and throwing it on the driveway.  The drain must have clogged immediately and all the wash water ended up on the floor; it was a lot of bucketsful.  At least it didn't stink much.

Now I'm drinking a beer (or maybe 3), and I'll set up fans and a dehumidifier.  Not sure how much stuff got wet and will need to be thrown out.  Will check on that tomorrow.  At least the bathroom is on the main line and that never clogs [knock on wood]  This was a branch line just for the kitchen sink and the laundry.  So I'll wait until Tuesday to call the plumber and Wife will probably be pissed at me but that's OK.

I still need to put those clothes in the dryer...

There was to be a reason this line clogs all the time. You need to just locate the problem and fix it for good.
If its a cast iron pipe just hack it out and replace it with some PVC. Old cast gets pitted bad on the inside and will clog easily.
Check the slope of the line also.

[zxcvbob]

There was to be a reason this line clogs all the time. You need to just locate the problem and fix it for good.
If its a cast iron pipe just hack it out and replace it with some PVC. Old cast gets pitted bad on the inside and will clog easily.
Check the slope of the line also.

It's under the concrete floor of the basement, and I think it goes under the load supporting wall by the stairs.  It would probably cost thousands of dollars to tear it out and replace.

BTW, I came home from church today and She Who Shall Remain Nameless had stayed home -- and ran a bunch of water in the kitchen while I was gone.  I had 15 gallons of soapy water on the floor to deal with again.  After I had just got it dried out enough to start inspecting and dragging out the stuff that got wet.  I shut off the water to the kitchen so she doesn't "forget" again.  I also bought a larger snake today so I can get the drain at least partially open.

There is a cleanout at floor level on the main stack, so I *could* run a new plastic drain pipe to that and just abandon the one that keeps clogging.

[sanglant]

if you know it wouldn't eat the pipes a good long lye soak might help.

[CNYCacher]

BTW, I came home from church today and She Who Shall Remain Nameless had stayed home -- and ran a bunch of water in the kitchen while I was gone.  I had 15 gallons of soapy water on the floor to deal with again.

Why is my left eye twitching?

[Doggy Daddy]

Why is my left eye twitching?

I was afraid someday you'd drop on your head, what with all that upside down climbing! 

DD

[RocketMan]

"There are very few problems that cannot be solved through a suitable application of high explosives."

Paraphrased from Scott Adams

[zxcvbob]

I ran a 3/8" snake 50 feet down the line and never found an obstruction.  (btw, the cleanout is in the bowl of the floor drain)  I ran some water in the clothes dryer and then started draining it and black water (literally black, I don't mean sewage) started boiling up from the drain so I shut it off, but it looked like it was overflowing into the cleanout (hard to tell tho'.)  I tried running the snake down the drain but it was too short radius of a turn.  I suctioned out the drain with the shopvac, then put the vac hose all the way down on the drain opening itself and sucked that out for a bit.  I could feel air going in thru the cleanout (that's good) so I put the plug back in the cleanout and vacuumed it a bit more, then tested the washer drain again.  That seemed to do it.  I looked in the shop vac tub and all I saw was dirty water with black rust and sand.

Or was it all coffee grounds?    I'm the one who dumps old coffee grounds in the sink, I thought they would wash on down.  It's odd, because I hadn't put any coffee grounds down the drain in over a week.  Maybe they've been collecting in the floor drain trap all this time, and maybe all the water that goes down that line passes through the trap.  The house was build in 1949 or 1950, I've found stupider stuff.

Been using the kitchen sink today and everything seems OK.  I need to do a load of laundry and stand there watching when it drains so I can shut it off real quick.  Then I can declare it fixed.

[Scout26]

Coffee Grounds go in the compost pile, or the trash, your choice.

[sanglant]

or you can plant "stuff" in them.

[RaspberrySurprise]

There is a large plastic sink in our laundry room which the washer drains into, the genius that plumbed it decided to epoxy on the U trap in the bottom of it.

When we moved in the landlord warned us about setting things on the shelf of the sink, one time he did that and the washers spin cycle shook the stuff into the sink clogging the drain and making the sink over flow. The apartment is on the second floor and well carpeted, the damage was quite expensive to say the least.

[Harold Tuttle]

laundry rooms, bathrooms, garages, basements, and kitchens should have floor drains

[CNYCacher]

I've always wondered if you punched a hole in a floor in the middle of a room, and then poured self-leveling compound around the perimeter of the room until it covered the floor and was flowing down the hole, would that produce a good floor slope for a drain?

[Brad Johnson]

I've always wondered if you punched a hole in a floor in the middle of a room, and then poured self-leveling compound around the perimeter of the room until it covered the floor and was flowing down the hole, would that produce a good floor slope for a drain?

Nope.  Anything "self-leveling" has a built in extended curing period to allow for the liquid to... self-level.  All you'd end up with in your scenario is to have to low spots in the floor filled, and for the rest of the compound to run into, and seal, your nice new hole in the floor.

Brad

[MillCreek]

laundry rooms, bathrooms, garages, basements, and kitchens should have floor drains

Amen.  None of mine do, and I think they should.  When my wife and I go look at new houses for the heck of it, a lot of the contemporary houses now have a laundry room or closet on the second floor by all the bedrooms.  A great idea.  Only about 10% of the houses I see with this have one of those trays for the washing machine with a drain system, to manage any leaks or overflows.  if I was writing the code, these would be mandatory. 

About seven years ago, my washer overflowed all night and flooded the ground floor of my house.  The only drainage was through the furnace vents, which tore out some of the ducting from the weight of water.  It cost $ 23,000 to repair the damage and took three weeks.  That homeowner's insurance was a great return on investment.

[CNYCacher]

Amen.  None of mine do, and I think they should.  When my wife and I go look at new houses for the heck of it, a lot of the contemporary houses now have a laundry room or closet on the second floor by all the bedrooms.  A great idea.  Only about 10% of the houses I see with this have one of those trays for the washing machine with a drain system, to manage any leaks or overflows.  if I was writing the code, these would be mandatory.  

About seven years ago, my washer overflowed all night and flooded the ground floor of my house.  The only drainage was through the furnace vents, which tore out some of the ducting from the weight of water.  It cost $ 23,000 to repair the damage and took three weeks.  That homeowner's insurance was a great return on investment.

When I put the private laundry closets in the upstairs apartments in our apartment house, I set one of those pans in mortar on the floor in the center of the closet and built up the floor around the pan to the walls and covered that with mortar so any water that didn't land in the pan would run to the pan anyway, with a nice little curb across the doorway.

[41magsnub]

I have a drain in the floor under my washer, no pan though.  To help wtih that I installed a water sensor/cut off deal so that if detects water on the floor it cuts off the flow to the washer.

I do not recall if this is the exact model I have but it is effectively the same thing:  http://www.watts.com/pages/learnAbout/intelliflow.asp

[RaspberrySurprise]

laundry rooms, bathrooms, garages, basements, and kitchens should have floor drains

Our bathroom doesnt have a drain, but it does have carpet and a shower stall.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

one thing about floor drains?  you need to pour water down em every couple weeks to keep trap full or get treated to eau de sewer

[Scout26]

one thing about floor drains?  you need to pour water down em every couple weeks to keep trap full or get treated to eau de sewer

Nope, a little baby oil down the drain and the water doesn't evaporate.

[Jim147]

Nope, a little baby oil down the drain and the water doesn't evaporate.

I had forgot all about doing that.

At the current temps the cabin shower is dry in two days. I walk in and say wow that's some smell.

jim