petergunn
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The day before yesterday the shower in one of my upstairs bathrooms stopped draining and the plunger seemed to have little effect so we called out a local plumber. He tried using a powered drum auger to remove any blockage. He put in what looked like 15 to 20 feet of wire without much success. He actually trashed the cable trying to pull it out. He noticed that the toilet in that bathroom seemed to be draining very slowly and suggested that we had a problem that would require a different machine and that we would return the next day.
A couple of hours after he left I eard a dripping noise downstairs in the family room beneath the bathroom and there was a 2' area of sheet rock that had begun to sag. I quickly fetched a bucket and burst the bubble with a screwdriver... about a gallon of water poured out. I used a box cutter to cut out a 6" square to see if I could spot what was leaking. I expected to see pipes and/or the bottom of the bathroom floor, but instead I found something very odd... a rubber membrane. After prodding it with my finger it appeared to be full of water... lots of water.
After I cut out the whole of the bulge I discovered what looked like a makeshift membrane running the length of the joist across the room, filled to the brim with toilet waste. I burst a hole in the middle and collected about 12 gallons of soiled water. I decided that whatever the membrane was supposed to be for I didnt want it or the semi solid waste that was sitting on top of it there. I pulled the nails that attached it to the joists and sliced it up into a trash bag.
Under the toilet floor I found 15' of 4" cast iron pipe (XH) leading from toilet to the utility room where it connects to another 15' of cast iron pipe which joins with a similar pipe from the second bathroom (Y connection) to the main sewage drain line. I see a three 2" galvanised pipes connected to the toiled drain. One is the shower drain with a trap (ubend), one looks like it is the drain for the bathroom sink, and the other leads off somewhere else (I cant imagine where).
After the membrane was removed I could see no evidence of a leak... no dripping at all. I flushed the toilet and I noticed that water was coming up into the shower. Downstairs water started to pour out where the wax seal between the toilet and the drain should be. Im wondering if the makeshift membrane was the previous owners brain damaged idea of hiding a broken wax seal?? Geez!
So the plumbers returned this morning and pulled the toilet. They brought a very heavy duty type of auger with them that used what looked like 6' lengths of 1" metal springs joined together with a drill bit that looked like the tip of a medieval spear. They drilled some 50'+ into the pipe, past the Y connection and all the way into the main sewage drain. But, as you've probably guessed... the pipe is still blocked.
The plumbers look pretty confused and told me that this hasnt happened before. The pipe is fully exposed and they've tried to locate the blockage by tapping the pipe all the way along and they dont think that the pipe has collapsed internally as it would have been more difficult to auger. They suggested that the pipe must be closing back up when the auger is being pulled back out.
They are coming back tomorrow to cut the pipe in the middle and fit a double 'clean out' so that they can auger in both directions. I guess this should at least identify which half of the pipe has the blockage.
Has anyone ever heard of this sort of thing happening before?
PG.
A couple of hours after he left I eard a dripping noise downstairs in the family room beneath the bathroom and there was a 2' area of sheet rock that had begun to sag. I quickly fetched a bucket and burst the bubble with a screwdriver... about a gallon of water poured out. I used a box cutter to cut out a 6" square to see if I could spot what was leaking. I expected to see pipes and/or the bottom of the bathroom floor, but instead I found something very odd... a rubber membrane. After prodding it with my finger it appeared to be full of water... lots of water.
After I cut out the whole of the bulge I discovered what looked like a makeshift membrane running the length of the joist across the room, filled to the brim with toilet waste. I burst a hole in the middle and collected about 12 gallons of soiled water. I decided that whatever the membrane was supposed to be for I didnt want it or the semi solid waste that was sitting on top of it there. I pulled the nails that attached it to the joists and sliced it up into a trash bag.
Under the toilet floor I found 15' of 4" cast iron pipe (XH) leading from toilet to the utility room where it connects to another 15' of cast iron pipe which joins with a similar pipe from the second bathroom (Y connection) to the main sewage drain line. I see a three 2" galvanised pipes connected to the toiled drain. One is the shower drain with a trap (ubend), one looks like it is the drain for the bathroom sink, and the other leads off somewhere else (I cant imagine where).
After the membrane was removed I could see no evidence of a leak... no dripping at all. I flushed the toilet and I noticed that water was coming up into the shower. Downstairs water started to pour out where the wax seal between the toilet and the drain should be. Im wondering if the makeshift membrane was the previous owners brain damaged idea of hiding a broken wax seal?? Geez!
So the plumbers returned this morning and pulled the toilet. They brought a very heavy duty type of auger with them that used what looked like 6' lengths of 1" metal springs joined together with a drill bit that looked like the tip of a medieval spear. They drilled some 50'+ into the pipe, past the Y connection and all the way into the main sewage drain. But, as you've probably guessed... the pipe is still blocked.
The plumbers look pretty confused and told me that this hasnt happened before. The pipe is fully exposed and they've tried to locate the blockage by tapping the pipe all the way along and they dont think that the pipe has collapsed internally as it would have been more difficult to auger. They suggested that the pipe must be closing back up when the auger is being pulled back out.
They are coming back tomorrow to cut the pipe in the middle and fit a double 'clean out' so that they can auger in both directions. I guess this should at least identify which half of the pipe has the blockage.
Has anyone ever heard of this sort of thing happening before?
PG.
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