Hello. I own a tri-level home with a basement (4 separate levels) that
was build in 1973.

Today is the FIRST time I have ever experienced this.

This morning I noticed that there was sewage (fecal matter and toilet
paper) all over the inside of my downstairs shower and some on the floor.
Whatever happened, it must have been explosive! I don't recall noticing
this last night!

I worked on clearing this clog all day without any success, except getting
more toilet paper to flow out of the shower drain and into the basin. It
seems as if the drain will drain VERY SLOWLY over the course of many hours.

If I use the sink in this bathroom, it will back up into the shower. The
toilet is also clogged, but if I plunge it, it seems to also come up into
the shower. If I plunge the shower, the toilet will bubble and gurgle.
The downstairs floor where this particular bathroom is located is on a
concrete slab.

I do not believe that this is a main sewer line clog, because the
BASEMENT, one floor beneath this bathroom, also on a concrete slab, drains
perfectly from the wash tubs. I actually washed a load of clothes today
while this clog was in effect and didn't have any backup into the wash
tubs in the basement, in which the washing machine dumps into.

Also, the center floor kitchen sink is not clogged, and the upstairs
bathroom toilet, tub/shower and sink are also not clogged.

It seems to be limited to this one bathroom.

I live alone, and I am not sure what would have caused this issue to erupt
between last night and this morning. I NEVER use the downstairs shower,
but I will occasionally use the toilet down there, but not very often. I
recall using the downstairs toilet a few days ago without any issues.

Any suggestions or tips? I attempted to snake the shower drain, but my
snakes are garbage and I threw them away. I need to upgrade my snaking
equipment, but to be honest, I never had to snake a drain before! I also
poured about 3/4 gallon of Draino into the tub drain with virtually no
result.

I scooped out much of the toilet paper and fecal matter that backed up
into the downstairs shower as well. It seems as if the flow of toilet
paper is done. Now, only brown water backs up into the shower basis, no
more toilet paper.

THANK YOU

--

On Fri, 16 Oct 2015 02:44:01 +0000, SoloMan
wrote:

Hello. I own a tri-level home with a basement (4 separate levels) that
was build in 1973.

Today is the FIRST time I have ever experienced this.

This morning I noticed that there was sewage (fecal matter and toilet
paper) all over the inside of my downstairs shower and some on the floor.
Whatever happened, it must have been explosive! I don't recall noticing
this last night!

I worked on clearing this clog all day without any success, except getting
more toilet paper to flow out of the shower drain and into the basin. It
seems as if the drain will drain VERY SLOWLY over the course of many hours.

If I use the sink in this bathroom, it will back up into the shower. The
toilet is also clogged, but if I plunge it, it seems to also come up into
the shower. If I plunge the shower, the toilet will bubble and gurgle.
The downstairs floor where this particular bathroom is located is on a
concrete slab.

I do not believe that this is a main sewer line clog, because the
BASEMENT, one floor beneath this bathroom, also on a concrete slab, drains
perfectly from the wash tubs. I actually washed a load of clothes today
while this clog was in effect and didn't have any backup into the wash
tubs in the basement, in which the washing machine dumps into.

Also, the center floor kitchen sink is not clogged, and the upstairs
bathroom toilet, tub/shower and sink are also not clogged.

It seems to be limited to this one bathroom.

I live alone, and I am not sure what would have caused this issue to erupt
between last night and this morning. I NEVER use the downstairs shower,
but I will occasionally use the toilet down there, but not very often. I
recall using the downstairs toilet a few days ago without any issues.

Any suggestions or tips? I attempted to snake the shower drain, but my
snakes are garbage and I threw them away. I need to upgrade my snaking
equipment, but to be honest, I never had to snake a drain before! I also
poured about 3/4 gallon of Draino into the tub drain with virtually no
result.

I scooped out much of the toilet paper and fecal matter that backed up
into the downstairs shower as well. It seems as if the flow of toilet
paper is done. Now, only brown water backs up into the shower basis, no
more toilet paper.

THANK YOU

Pull the toilet that is bad and snake from there.

replying to gfretwell , SoloMan wrote:
gfretwell wrote:

On Fri, 16 Oct 2015 02:44:01 +0000, SoloMan
Pull the toilet that is bad and snake from there.




I have called a plumber. All toilets, showers, and bathroom sinks all
back up in the downstairs shower. The only drains that do not back up are
the basement washtubs and the kitchen sink, which are located on the
opposite side of the house.

I went to Walmart last night and purchased one of those 25' snakes with
the hand crank. I couldn't get it to go into the shower drain more than
approximately 12" no matter what I did. I also used my 12 gallon Shop Vac
to suck the sewer line. I'm not sure how many times I carried that sucker
into the basement to dump into the wash tubs, but I probably pulled out
100 gallons of water from the sewage system.

I don't think that the clog is anywhere near the downstairs shower or
toilet, based on how much water it actually takes to fill up the sewage
line to the point where it backs up in the shower. It takes awhile.
Downstairs toilet is still clogged, but upstairs toilet dumps right into
the downstairs shower regardless.

Out of options and I had to catch a plumber soon before the weekend prices
began.

--

On Friday, October 16, 2015 at 9:44:05 AM UTC-4, SoloMan wrote:
replying to gfretwell , SoloMan wrote:
gfretwell wrote:

On Fri, 16 Oct 2015 02:44:01 +0000, SoloMan
Pull the toilet that is bad and snake from there.




I have called a plumber. All toilets, showers, and bathroom sinks all
back up in the downstairs shower. The only drains that do not back up are
the basement washtubs and the kitchen sink, which are located on the
opposite side of the house.

I went to Walmart last night and purchased one of those 25' snakes with
the hand crank. I couldn't get it to go into the shower drain more than
approximately 12" no matter what I did. I also used my 12 gallon Shop Vac
to suck the sewer line. I'm not sure how many times I carried that sucker
into the basement to dump into the wash tubs, but I probably pulled out
100 gallons of water from the sewage system.

I don't think that the clog is anywhere near the downstairs shower or
toilet, based on how much water it actually takes to fill up the sewage
line to the point where it backs up in the shower. It takes awhile.
Downstairs toilet is still clogged, but upstairs toilet dumps right into
the downstairs shower regardless.

Out of options and I had to catch a plumber soon before the weekend prices
began.

--

Make sure he knows where, when and how much Drano you used.

I had similar situation once, with waste coming out of my basement tenant's shower stall, yet some of the other drains and even the main drain and trap was clear. Had to call a plumber at 11PM, who pulled the basement toilet and snaked (with the big 2" snake) from there. There was a clog along one branch, but not affecting the other branch for the rest of the house. Cost a painful $500 but no way I could have done that on my own without the right tools.

replying to millinghill , SoloMan wrote:
millinghill wrote:

I had similar situation once, with waste coming out of my basement
tenant's
shower stall, yet some of the other drains and even the main drain and
tr
ap was clear. Had to call a plumber at 11PM, who pulled the basement
toile
t and snaked (with the big 2" snake) from there. There was a clog along
on
e branch, but not affecting the other branch for the rest of the house.
Co
st a painful $500 but no way I could have done that on my own without the
r
ight tools.




--
Thank you for the comments. I am still waiting. I called a couple of
local plumbers, starting at 7am, and waiting a couple of hours, was told
by various plumbers that they would not be able to come out until Monday.
Even their referrals said they were even more backed up than what I had
been told by the previous.

I was also refereed to another company that did drain cleaning, but I
cancelled the appointment because they told me that they were not plumbers
and would not remove a toilet if there was no other access to the sewage
lines.

I finally settled with Roto Rooter who claims that they should be here
within an hour and a half at the latest. At 10am they told me they would
be able to come out between 12 and 4.

So, I'm still waiting. Don't worry, I have the bottles of the chemicals
on hand and will notify the plumber. I don't really think that there are
any significant amount of chemicals remaining in the sewage lines, though,
as I vacuumed the drain twice to the amount of 80+ gallons, approximately.

One of the first plumbers I called told me that my home may have two sewer
discharges to the city. I'm not sure about that. The kitchen sink and
basement wash basins have black plastic sewage lines that run into the
concrete slab in the basement. I cannot see any plumbing coming in from
the downstairs shower. I do see the plumbing from the upstairs shower
running into the concrete slab for the lower level, which is a half floor
above the basement slab.

--

Let us know what the plumber finds.

Also, ask if you can look over his/her shoulder while he/she is working so you can learn what is happening. Most likely there is only one final drain to the city, so there is a merger somewhere in the house for all the different lines.

replying to hrhofmann , Soloman wrote:
Roto Rooter large power snake device could not clear the clog. There is a
sludge patch of about 5' in a 35' line running through the downstairs
slab. it pokes through but then the sludge seals when pulling out.

Also had a supervisor with a camera come by and run a camera through the
line to the sewer. There is really a heavy sludge in there that seals up
after you poke through.

Tomorrow, another tech is going to come out to power flush it. That should
take care of it.

From what they can see right now there is no damage to the line. There is
a "belly" out in my backyard that is filled with water, but it is clean
water so they doubt that is causing me any of these issues.

I personally blame the Charmin toilet paper! I think they did an
exceptional job today and let me watch and view the camera inspection
process. I can't wait to have running toilets again. Thankfully I have two
sinks in the home that work and I can take a Tennessee shower in the
basement. But no working toilets, going #2 is a problem! You never realize
how much you depend on a luxury such as plumbing until it isn't functional.

No way in hell I could have accomplished this on my own with basic tools.

--

On Sat, 17 Oct 2015 02:44:02 +0000, Soloman
wrote:

replying to hrhofmann , Soloman wrote:
Roto Rooter large power snake device could not clear the clog. There is a
sludge patch of about 5' in a 35' line running through the downstairs
slab. it pokes through but then the sludge seals when pulling out.

Also had a supervisor with a camera come by and run a camera through the
line to the sewer. There is really a heavy sludge in there that seals up
after you poke through.

Tomorrow, another tech is going to come out to power flush it. That should
take care of it.

From what they can see right now there is no damage to the line. There is
a "belly" out in my backyard that is filled with water, but it is clean
water so they doubt that is causing me any of these issues.

I personally blame the Charmin toilet paper! I think they did an
exceptional job today and let me watch and view the camera inspection
process. I can't wait to have running toilets again. Thankfully I have two
sinks in the home that work and I can take a Tennessee shower in the
basement. But no working toilets, going #2 is a problem! You never realize
how much you depend on a luxury such as plumbing until it isn't functional.

No way in hell I could have accomplished this on my own with basic tools.


I am surprised they could not clear that with a cutter head on the
snake. I know sometimes the "rooter" companies just shove the cable
down there without a head on it. There is just a hook of wire from the
cable sticking out to snag tampons and such

replying to gfretwell , SoloMan wrote:
This head looked like a "C" with teeth on each half. A pretty good
looking cutting head. He noticed that as he pushed further along, the
water would receed, but then when he reversed to pull it back through, the
water would pull back. That 5' section of muck is just too thick I guess.

The camera was able to poke through it to go through the entire line to
the city sewer but it seems to form around any cable and seal itself.

Which is why a power flush is necessary, to push this all through into the
city sewer.

Which should be accomplished in less than 12 hours, hopefully!

--

On Sat, 17 Oct 2015 00:12:00 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 17 Oct 2015 02:44:02 +0000, Soloman
m wrote:

replying to hrhofmann , Soloman wrote:
Roto Rooter large power snake device could not clear the clog. There is a
sludge patch of about 5' in a 35' line running through the downstairs
slab. it pokes through but then the sludge seals when pulling out.



I am surprised they could not clear that with a cutter head on the
snake. I know sometimes the "rooter" companies just shove the cable
down there without a head on it. There is just a hook of wire from the
cable sticking out to snag tampons and such

There's something else going on here. Like how did the sludge pile up
there? The power flush should reveal it.

replying to Vic Smith , SoloMan wrote:
I personally put some blame on the Charmin toilet paper. I never clog
toilets but no matter how little charmin toilet paper I used, the toilet
clogged nearly every time.

However I stopped using Charmin about a month to month and a half ago and
everything has been well since.

Funny thing I read a negative review about Charmin on Amazon and the user
said they had to have their entire sewage system cleaned out due to clogs
that they think were caused by Charmin.

--

replying to Vic Smith , SoloMan wrote:
Also, I don't think the camera guy is going to come back today to check
the lines after the flushing. Yesterday he was saying that he might or
might not, depending on what the power flush guy told him.

So I don't know if I'll get a chance to see inside of the cleaned pipes.
I doubt it.

--

The plumber should be able to tell you of some chemical you could flush down the drain periodically to soften/prevent the sludge from building up(like liquid Drano/plumb-out/see your local plumbing hardware store).

replying to hrhofmann , SoloMan wrote:
The sludge has been cleaned out. The ROTO ROOTER guy is leaving me with a
gallon of some stuff to pour down the toilet to help prevent future issues.

--

On Sat, 17 Oct 2015 16:44:01 +0000, SoloMan
wrote:

replying to hrhofmann , SoloMan wrote:
The sludge has been cleaned out. The ROTO ROOTER guy is leaving me with a
gallon of some stuff to pour down the toilet to help prevent future issues.

Are these low flow toilets?

I found that if you don't flush twice or wash your hands, that 1.6 GPF
is not enough water to move the load all the way down the pipe.
That is particularly true if you have women who use a lot of paper.

replying to gfretwell , Soloman wrote:
The upstairs toilet is much older. It may be original from 1973. It is
an American Standard "beast."

The downstairs toilet is somewhat newer, maybe ~20 years old. I believe
that it is a Gerber.

Either way, everything is well now, and I was even able to have Stanley
Steemer come out back-to-back since they were only a few blocks away doing
another job in my town.

Still cleaning up the downstairs bathroom, though. I hate sewage!

--

With low-flow toilets, you need to flush multiple toilets at the same time at least once a week to flush the lines if there is any roughness in the bottom of the lines to the street. And, of course, there are rough spots in every sewer line if there is even one joint in the line.

On Sat, 17 Oct 2015 13:50:37 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

With low-flow toilets, you need to flush multiple toilets at the same time at least once a week to flush the lines if there is any roughness in the bottom of the lines to the street. And, of course, there are rough spots in every sewer line if there is even one joint in the line.


I too have a low flow toilet, with a prior bloackage issue.

What I have found useful is to keep a 5 galllon pail in that bathroom
(wife hates the decor aspect). When I turn the shower on, awaiting Hot
water, I collect the cold water in that pail. After my shower, I just
dump that pail of water into the toilet. I believe that regular/
Rapid flush has prevented any recurring blockages? Further it is far
more water, than the reg low gal flush.

replying to Dave C , Soloman wrote:
I don't know. This home hasn't had any blockage remotely like this one in
42 years. I personally place some blame on the Charmin. Why did Charmin
clog both of my toilets at just about every flush regardless of how much
Charmin I use? Yet every single other brand of toilet paper that I have
used, some that feel just about the same as Charmin, never clog the
toilets?

There's something going on with Charmin. I read somewhere about how it
doesn't dissolve in water, and other negativity.

There seem be a lot of people that love Charmin, and then the exact
opposite with a lot of angry people who claim that Charmin causes plumbing
issues.

--

Consumer Reports had an evaluation of various toilet paper dissolving characteristics in the past month or so, if I remember correctly. It would be interesting to see how CHarmin made out in their studies.

replying to hrhofmann , soloman wrote:
I don't know what it is about charmin, but in my experience, it has been
clog city!

As soon as I stopped using charmin, the clogging stopped immediately.

I just wonder if it built up further down the line...........

--

On Sat, 17 Oct 2015 21:38:32 -0500, wrote:

Consumer Reports had an evaluation of various toilet paper dissolving
characteristics in the past month or so, if I remember correctly. It
would be interesting to see how CHarmin made out in their studies.

Quilted Northern and Charmin were the worst at disintegration according
to their test. Scott and Angel Soft were the best. Scott Extra Soft is
the
higher rated one.
They had a single Best Buy. It is White Cloud Ultra Soft and Thick.
The reader
reviews aren't very positive. The White Cloud isn't available at Walmart
as it
was supposed to be. Apparently it's also suffered a downgradein quality
recently.
Consumer Reports is good to read. They bring up issues I wouldn't think
of if
not for reading it.




--
Using Opera's mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/

replying to Dean Hoffman , soloman wrote:
I personally like Costco's Kirkland branded "blue bag" stuff. Costco also
has a pink/purble bag that is softer I think, but I don't buy that one.

In my opinion, Scotts is CRAP, no pun intended. So thin! Costco also
sells Scotts but they are the individual wrapped rolls. Must be for a
business that hates its customers.

And Costco also sells the horrible CHARMIN. Never again!

--

On 10/17/2015 9:44 AM, SoloMan wrote:
replying to Vic Smith , SoloMan wrote:
I personally put some blame on the Charmin toilet paper. I never clog
toilets but no matter how little charmin toilet paper I used, the toilet
clogged nearly every time.

However I stopped using Charmin about a month to month and a half ago and
everything has been well since.

Funny thing I read a negative review about Charmin on Amazon and the user
said they had to have their entire sewage system cleaned out due to clogs
that they think were caused by Charmin.


I quit using Charmin a few years ago because it kept clogging our
toilet. The last straw was a humiliated visitor who apologized when
she flushed/the toilet backed up. I told her it was the t.p., not her
fault, and cleared it up. I've used the Costco/Kirkland t.p. since and
haven't had a single clog.

On Monday, October 19, 2015 at 8:45:06 AM UTC-5, Moe DeLoughan wrote:
On 10/17/2015 9:44 AM, SoloMan wrote:
replying to Vic Smith , SoloMan wrote:
I personally put some blame on the Charmin toilet paper. I never clog
toilets but no matter how little charmin toilet paper I used, the toilet
clogged nearly every time.

However I stopped using Charmin about a month to month and a half ago and
everything has been well since.

Funny thing I read a negative review about Charmin on Amazon and the user
said they had to have their entire sewage system cleaned out due to clogs
that they think were caused by Charmin.


I quit using Charmin a few years ago because it kept clogging our
toilet. The last straw was a humiliated visitor who apologized when
she flushed/the toilet backed up. I told her it was the t.p., not her
fault, and cleared it up. I've used the Costco/Kirkland t.p. since and
haven't had a single clog.

I started using a corncob and rinse it off with hot water in the sink. If I have several that are soiled at the same time, I put them in the dishwasher. ^_^

[8~{} Uncle Poop Monster

replying to SoloMan, soloman wrote:
Now that I am thinking about it, for the past few months, occasionally
there would be a smell in the downstairs level of my home. I tended to
think that it came from the bathroom and/or shower drain. The same drain
that backed up last week.

There is a P trap in there and I would run the water weekly just to make
sure it was filled. But perhaps the plumbing was "slightly" backing up
causing there to be a slight mixture of sewage water in the P trap of that
shower? It definitely never came up through the drain before, but there
was definitely a smell. I remember pouring some bleech down that drain a
few months ago because of the smell. And I remember smelling a smell
Wednesday night, the night before the sewage started backing up through
the drain.

Perhaps this issue was coming for awhile now and finally reached the point
of no return last week.

--

Uncle Monster posted for all of us...


I started using a corncob and rinse it off with hot water in the sink. If I have several that are soiled at the same time, I put them in the dishwasher. ^_^

[8~{} Uncle Poop Monster


Don't you floss your teeth?

--
Tekkie

On Friday, October 23, 2015 at 12:58:50 PM UTC-5, Tekkie® wrote:
Uncle Monster posted for all of us...

I started using a corncob and rinse it off with hot water in the sink. If I have several that are soiled at the same time, I put them in the dishwasher. ^_^

[8~{} Uncle Poop Monster


Don't you floss your teeth?
--
Tekkie

Yea, I use the corn silk to save money instead of buying dental floss. ^_^

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lv1WYaFVvII

[8~{} Uncle Floss Monster