Greetings,

a) Try pouring water into your toilet and it will go down once its own once
it reaches a certian level.
b) I have had bad luck with Drano. What if the blockage is root related, or
a plastic toy?
c) I would try the access point even if it looks bad. If you break it you
can replace it yourself without great expense (although it might take some
work if you have to break out concrete).

Hope this helps,
William

"Mike Ballard" wrote in message
...

Hi -

I have just enough blockage in the house's main sewage line to cause
occasional draining problems (like flushing the toilet repeatedly or water
from the washing machine spin-cycle backing up). All house drains work
fine and taking showers causes no problems.

My questions have to do with clearing the blockage myself. I have a one
story house with a basement. The toilet drains into a large cast-iron
pipe that runs straight down from the bathroom floor into the garage and
then under the concrete garage floor out to the city line. The lowest
point where another pipe joins this is the water exhaust from the washing
machine in the basement, a couple feet above the point where the cast-iron
pipe runs under the garage floor. Because the only drainage problem in
the house is this washing machine line the blockage must be somewhere
below it (i.e., under the concrete garage floor, etc.).

There's a cast-iron access point right where the pipe goes into the garage
floor. But it looks impossible to get it open (New England; crusted over,
rusted on or something). And I'm afraid of breaking something trying to
get it off, requiring expensive repairs. Plus in winter time when I pull
the snake out with all that disgusting muck covering it there's no way to
rinse it off.

So what I'd like to know is if (foaming) Drano might work? But how to get
it there with as little dilution as poosible? I thought of shutting off
the toilet (it's a straight shot from the toilet to the blockage) and
pouring a couple gallons of Drano in but then (I think) I remembered it's
not going to go down without being able to flush the toilet. Right? What
if I was able to get a couple gallons of Drano in the bathroom sink?
That's the next most straight shot down the cast-iron pipe. Or what's the
next best thing besides an expensive call to the plumber?

Mike
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