Drain Backing Up

[JoeWras]

(One plumber commented "Those old-time plumbers must have been really strong".) That house was built in late 1959 (it had an inspection tag dated "Sept. 1959" on the gas meter) so anything was possible.

My dad started plumbing in 1947. Ended in 1995. He never complained. He had the following surgeries:
- 2 knee replacements
- 2 hip replacements
- 3 hernias
- 2 lower back, the second one involved hardware and 5 fusions

The man was a beast. I think your plumber was talking about the old concrete laundry tubs which were actually crazy awesome nice. They were really good!

Dad only mildly complained about the following:
- Radiators (100lbs+)
- Cast iron tubs (200lbs+)
- Cast iron drain pipe (80lbs)

He had a good retirement. Thank goodness the plumber's union had good health insurance. I have to wonder if all that lead he boiled contributed to his dementia in later years.

Sorry for the off topic. Back to topic. He thought nothing of slinging around those 100lb rodding machines. He had special gloves he used which had embedded steel studs.

Our Greatest Generation was great. We are all wimps.

 

[Jerry1]

SIL got the drain unplugged. This time it was a bag that got down there somehow. Still, I convinced him to get a camera down there and see why this keeps happening. Not that a bag belongs in a sewer pipe, but I think it would have gone through were it not for getting hung up on something.

 

[JoeWras]

Thanks for the update.

A bag? Oh boy. Any children around stuffing things in the washer drainpipe? Sounds like something I would do when I was 6 or 8 years old.

 

[ERD50]

SIL got the drain unplugged. This time it was a bag that got down there somehow. Still, I convinced him to get a camera down there and see why this keeps happening. Not that a bag belongs in a sewer pipe, but I think it would have gone through were it not for getting hung up on something.

How far down was the bag? Just in the washer/tub drain, or all the way down in the main line?

But yea, if this has happened before and after other rodding, there's probably still a problem there.

-ERD50

 

[skyking1]

bag usually equals downstream of a toilet. Hard to get one past a sink and trap.

 

[Jerry1]

Thanks for the update.

Any children around. . . ?

Yes, three kids. I’m guessing no one is going to own up.

 

[Texas Proud]

I see some comments about roots... a professional should be able to tell you if that is so... someone without experience snaking it out would not..


I had a root problem in my old house from a willow tree... they have BUSHY roots that clog the pipe easily... after two times with the plumber cutting them out he said to do the root killer option.... as mentioned before I did it two or three times a year... eventually the willow died and I was safe...


I recently had a clog here and it was grease per the plumber.. he snacked it 100 feet and 'felt' the clog and worked it... told me to pour bleach down the drain every so often (might do so now as DW is gone)... I put about a quart down the kitchen drain and just let it sit...


The cost of getting the pipe fixed on the root was way too expensive for me at the time... I could afford it now but do not need to do it..

 

[skyking1]

I have dug up some lines with the service guys since I came back. One was ductile iron that was simply eroded away on the bottom. My most epic replacement was while on vacation. We had flown out to visit friends in Asheville, and the toilet backed up right when we arrived.
He made some noise about calling an old guy to come roto root it out, but that guy had retired. One of the chain outfits rooted it and TVed the line and found all sorts of problems, and gave him a $5000 bid to hand dig and fix it.
We had been running around when the chain plumbers were there, and I told him I'd look at it.
Jack is a responsible guy and he would have been mortified to know he had been dumping sewage into the lake below his property for likely years.
It was orangeburg pipe, which is basically tar paper spun on a mandrel, with loose couplers. It was a nightmarish product of the 40's and 50's.
The brush roots just waltzed into the pipe, after it sagged into a D-shape. The rooter guy had cut a skylight into the shallow, steep pipe with the aggressive style of cutter pictured above, and the sewage had emerged there to flow into the creek and down to the lake. YUCK!
I told him not to worry, and called a rental chain I had been dealing with for years. They delivered an excavator and I rented a truck and picked up a bunch of pipe, fittings, and rubber boots.
The neighbor's line teed into his line and it all ran down to a ductile iron pipe that crossed the stream and into a manhole right in the stream. The neighbor had already replaced the orangeburg to the lot line, and offered his handyman to help me. We replaced all that junk and fernco connected to the ductile. I stepped over next to the existing for all the way.
My friend's house had two outlets to pick up.
I had them all connected and running by the next day at dark, for ~$750.
The access:

Sewer manhole in the stream, no kidding.

It was a bit steep!

backfilling my way back out.

fernco connected to the cast iron coming out of the house with a two way cleanout. All the orangeburg was eliminated and abandoned in place.

 

[CardsFan]

Skyking1, you are a damn good friend! But, I suspect, you kinda like digging into this stuff (pun intended).

Based on what you did, it sounds like the $5k bid was not too out of line. Maybe a little high, but $3k would seem like a good deal.

 

[skyking1]

They would not have connected it to the neighbor or replaced it all the way to the manhole, I suspect.
I have no regrets with doing what I can do.
I went down to take Jack for a plane ride, and found a loose J-pipe on the plane. I took it off and shipped it overnight to my partner, who made a duplicate and sent it back.
While that was going on we borrowed a car from Jack and Linda and drove down to Savannah and also a night in Charleston in a timeshare exchange of theirs. It was an unscripted vacation seemingly from the 2nd day.

 

[JoeWras]

I love doing this kind of stuff with friends and family, although I don't dig digging. Nice job Skyking.

Orangeburg + Spring Cutter = Disaster

Anyone considering buying a home built in the 40s through 60s should find out what kind of pipe they have for the sewer lateral. If it is Orangeburg, knock $20k off the deal. That stuff sprung out of necessity of shortages, but never should have persisted.

As for manholes in streams: welcome to North Carolina! Very common. Sewers are built along stream beds as they provide a convenient easement and typically have a proper grade. Time marches on, streams move.