We moved in to this60+ yr old house about 3 months ago.
1st week we moved in---toilets kept running (we fixed) and leak through basement ceiling revealed corroded piping in 2nd floor bath. Replaced that piping.
After a huge rain we found that when we washed sudsy water would back up from stack pipe in basement where laundry hose is connected. Several plumbers later----one finally snaked the main and got out junk. He said that was the problem. We kept smelling sewage in the basement from that stack pipe that the laundry hose was connected to and the laundry wash kept overflowing out of that pipe. My husband happened to check the crawlspace under an addition because of mold issues and found standing water above those basement pipes for kitchen sink and laundry. Out came the plumber and said that they must have snaked that out through an opening that opened up to ground level in crawlspace but hadn't put the cap back on---yrs ago??? so he fixed that??
Now 3 days later my son used the guest bathroom and flused it---which I heard and then about 2-3 min. later a heard a big gurgle and the toilet actually delay--flushed.
What could this mean? It is raining quite a bit now and has been all day.
Do we have major problems?
What should we do and look for?
We get so many different answers from different plumbers.

darrel1953

Would you like to see an article I wrote about main line sewer drains? It is not quite the same but I think the information may be useful. http://www.plumbinglessons.com/sup/mainline.htm