On Sunday, January 24, 2016 at 2:46:49 PM UTC-5, Dana F Bonnett wrote:
On Sun, 17 Jan 2016 09:07:28 -0500, Pat wrote:

On Sun, 17 Jan 2016 07:41:38 -0600, Vic Smith
wrote:

On Sat, 16 Jan 2016 11:55:10 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
wrote:

My family owns a single story house that no one has lived in for a few
months. It will be put on the market in the spring. In the meantime,
we've run into a strange issue. The house is 300 miles from where I live,
so I'm troubleshooting this from afar.

I stayed at the house during the holiday season and noticed that the first
time I flushed the toilet, the shower drain gurgled. I know that that can
happen if the trap is empty, so I ran water in the shower and then flushed
the toilet again. No more noise for the rest of the 4 day stay.


Could be a blocked vent. I had gurgling once in my 2-flat. Didn't
ever localize it, but heard it when emptying the kitchen sink, so the
gurgling was probably coming from the sink trap.
It was pretty loud.
Got a plumber and he went right to the roof after hearing it, and
power rodded it. Pulled out a rubber ball slightly smaller than the
vent. Probably the work of my tenants, who went on the roof
occasionally.
Anyway, that solved it.
If the vent is accessible to squirrels, wouldn't surprise me if one
got in there and died.

I was getting ready to post the same thing. A blocked vent or lack of
a vent is the likely problem. Running water down a drain nearby
(emptying a sink or flushing a toilet) sucks the water right out of
the shower's trap. That's the first place to look.


This^. Clogged vent which causes the flushed toilet to pull a vacuum
which sucks the water out of the shower trap. Chech the vent pipe on
the roof to see if some critter made a nest in it.

The vent was checked a few days ago. It is clear.

The DPW doesn't think it's anything they did when they replaced the sewers in the
street. They also suggested having the vent checked which was done. The search for
the cause continues.