I'm not a plumber

[picksbigwagon]

so here is our current ordeal: Today as I was heading to Cabelas, my wife calls and said the floor in the laundry room and the basement bathroom is wet, the floor carpets are soaking wet. So after I return from Cabelas and picking my kids up in Rochester, I start investigating and I was stumped. no drains leaking, no loose water connections, no water dripping from anywhere.

Well we flushed the toilet a couple time and no water came out on the bathroom floor. Then I looked in the shower and there was dirt and stuff (?) on the floor of the shower, that is never rarely used and is usually clean. So I flushed to the toilet and I noticed water come back up the drain.....

Do I need to call a plumber and heve them clean out our drains? Is this an indication of a problem with the drain tile outside of the house???

thanks in advance

[ILLIFIED]

Pretty sure that's not dirt on your shower floor. I would definitely call the plumber. Sounds like your septic tank is full

[picksbigwagon]

if we had a septic tank, I would agree with you, but we have city sewer.....and yes, I know what is in the bottom of the shower

[crothmeier]

id call a plumber and have them roto-rooter out your lines. something's plugged up, my neighbor had the same thing happen

[picksbigwagon]

they are coming tomorrow AM.......

[Redlantern]

Something is backed up in your waste line. The drain cleaner you called will find it. More than likely it's either dental floss that's been flushed, feminine protection stuff that's been flushed or the leg of a Barbie doll.

[Surface Tension]

Kids toy flushed down the toilet, bet me.

[picksbigwagon]

I am going with tree roots.....we have some might big trees in our yard

[Steve Foss]

If it's tree roots, the problem will come back over time, though it may be a few years between occurences. Tree roots getting in means you have cracks/holes in your sewer line.

Do you know what material your sewer line is made of? One of the houses we lived in over the years had an old clay sewer pipe, and the tree roots were so bad that they destroyed the pipe, and we had to excavate and lay in a new plastic line. We cut down the trees and burned them for firewood, which was a small bonus.

Let's hope it's the toy in the toilet rather than tree roots.

[picksbigwagon]

Well, I moved the piano in the basement since that is where the access panel is for the main city water line is and i assumed where the clean out drain access was. Well the fine representative (Man I want to type something else, believe me)from the national company with the catchy jingle, shows up, he starts looking on the floor for where the clean out drain would be, My wife tells him to look behind the access panel but he says, Nah it isn't back there and proceeds to tell my wife that he can't get to the clean out drain so when we find it and move all the stuff call them back and they will send out another crew.

So I race home from work, destroy the storage areas where this floor drain could be but could not find the access. So i pull the panel (4 screws by the way) and I peak down inside of it and what do you know, a cast iron pipe sticking up out of the floor with a clean out access cover on it....Hmmmmmm, I am steaming mad now....So I called the company back and am now sitting around waiting for them to come back out...

Now my new complaint is who in their right mind walls up a clean out drain on the main sewer line, Oh wait, the former owners who re-did the basement.....I am just trying to breath easy right now....

If it is tree roots, they will just have to clean it out as best they can, we are looking to move in the next year or less, Get me through this winter and I will be extremely happy

[Eric Wettschreck]

Don't let em bill ya for 2 trips.

Iffin you're feeling spunky, you could go to a hardware store and rent a drain snake and tell the fancy national company with the fancy jingle to pack sand.

[picksbigwagon]

No double billing and he is finishing up right now. No tree roots but other things were down there, there will be a family discussion tomorrow morning. So, now I have to build a new access panel so if we ever need to do this again, It will be a little easier.

Spunky? I have gone that route before, I am not a plumber.....

[BoxMN]

Family discussion..... hahahahahahaha!!!!! Brings back memory of when we had a brand new bathroom and the toilet stopped flushing, I though septic (I was new to septics) was froze and all nervous. I called our plumber who was working me through the "what ifs" and he heard a young voice.... He said "did I just hear a kid" I said "yep".... he laughed and said he bet it will be a pretty pony or barbie doll or something...

Pulled the stool, and what do you know, a plastic fork hahaha!!! Makes me remember a pringles lid confusing my Dad for weeks - toilet would work, then it wouldn't... then work, then wouldn't. Plumber finally found a pringles lid acting like a flapper valve, hahahahaha!

Glad you found it. Good luck.

[chad austin]

I was a plumber for 5 years and boy could I tell you all some stories

Went to a service call and all I was told is that the toilet would not flush. So I get the lockbox combo go inside and fix the toilet (there was a male birth control device hung up on a piece of plastic that had not been removed when the toilet was set) SO I'm walking out to the truck and the MR. pulls up and asked what was causing the problem, so I tell him and he's instantly [poorwordusage][poorwordusage][poorwordusage].Turns out he'd had a vasectomy a couple years prior and the house was only 6 months old (YOU DO THE MATH)NEEDLESS TO SAY THAT SERVICE CALL WAS ON ME

[solbes]

Oh, WOW, that would be a little uncomfortable! Funny story.

[papabear]

had similar situation: basemwnt toilet plugged pulled several profelactives out. Father asked what caused plug told him and he turned several shades of red and then got calm enough to tell me his teen daughter was the only one to use this biffie. Must have been a nice evening at that house that day

[jeffreyd]

an old plumber i know use to call em white mice, that is all i will say.

[krinkle]

You are not alone. The guy they most likely sent out from that company is not a plumber either. I know some very good drain cleaners on your side of town but dont know how to get you there number. Next time try a google search for them in your area and several will come up.

A few years back we hired a drain cleaner so called plumber from a national company. He didnt make it a month at our shop.

[crothmeier]

haha my plumber calls it white mice as well.

[jeffreyd]

so i am not alone with the term. quite an expression especially when you tell someone what it is. this old guy use to tell a story about finding the mice. it would make you darn near wet yourself.