I have a real puzzle on my hands. I have a 55-year old wooden house with no basement, and a crawl space I cannot enter. None of the sinks have shut-off valves. The tub does not have a shut-off valve or even a panel I can open to access the pipes. The water can only be shut off at the water meter, which is out by the street curb.The kitchen, two bathrooms and garage sink/washer hook-ups are all built into the back side of the house, in a straight line. I have always assumed that the water pipes must be in the crawl space below them, but as the crawl space is too small to enter, I have never seen them.

I cannot see any water pipes anywhere, inside or out, with this exception:
I can see the pipes beneath each sink, where they come down into a U-joint and then enter the wall. I can see water pipes in the garage that are fitted for the washer. Outside the house, at various intervals, are metal pipes which come out of the ground about nine inches away from the foundation and standing about a foot and a half high. These pipes are about the size of a silver dollar in diameter. They are metal. The ends are capped. This is the only pipe-work I can see anywhere in or out of the house.

Yesterday the kitchen sink stopped draining. (First time in 18 years.) Liquid drain cleaner had no effect. I used a plunger and at first, the drain appeared to open and the standing water went down. I flushed the sink with hot water, but after about 3 minutes,water once again backed up in the sink.

I plunged several times again, until I could look down into the drain and not see water.Then I took off the U-joint under the sink.(It does not have a clean-out plug.) It was dry and empty. I ran a 15-foot auger into the pipe, where it enters the wall. The auger went in the full 15 feet without hitting anything and came out completely clean.

Thinking the problem was fixed, I put the goose neck back on and tightened the pipes. (Not an easy job for a short, old woman!) I ran the water and the sink drained... for about 4 or 5 minutes. Then water once again backed up into the sink.

Here's what I'm wondering: Is it possible it's not the sink drain itself that is blocked, but whatever is beyond that? What IS beyond that? And how the heck am I going to clean out this drain line when I can't even find my pipes? I

Hello buzybee.

You sound like you have done everything right... I wonder if you sent a 1/4" spring coil wire "auger" down that kitchen sink drain? That may not be a strong enough tool to do the job. Also, you may not have even gone down the drain... you may have gone down the drain a bit and then hit a vent stack and gone UP the vent from there... not down the drain as you hoped. If you want to explore more you would need to work that snake in/out of drain a few times or more until you are sure went down for good distance. If that does not do it... see below.

You may need to rent a power snake and leather gloves (or have someone else do this for you).

Although you cannot find other pipes/drains, etc. at this point... stay focused on kitchen sink drain itself. UNLESS other fixtures are affected by this problem... then we would recommend some other strategy.

For now, hand snake again... then power snake if necessary... and see from there. Just remember, a snake does not always go down the drain... can go up a vent, too... so must go in/out a few times to be sure you went down drain and cleared clog (snake should come back on it with something?? ).

Anyway, let us know what you decide.. ok?

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