Ok, we have a horrible problem! Looking for helpful advice :) We have two bathrooms and they share a wall. Front bathroom has a sink, toilet and regular shower/tub combo. Back bathroom has sink, toilet and stand up shower. My husband was running the sink in the back bathroom last night and I heard the toilet in the front bathroom bubbling. I plunged the toilet and then sewage started backing up into the front tub/shower and the back stand up shower. Then started coming up from under the toilet in the back bathroom. We're constantly complaining about the plumbing issues to the landlord at least once a week. Recently while we were gone for the weekend the plumbing backed up and flooded the house. The landlord comes out and uses the snake on the cleanout in the front yard and then he snakes the vent on top of the house. He's done this several times and we still have the issue about once a week. I've called the city and they said their side is clear. Any suggestions?

Is this a single family home or is your sewer combined with another unit? Any young children in the house? What does the snake pull back? Back to you, Tom

Single family home. No kids. Only water comes out when snaked.

Recently while we were gone for the weekend the plumbing backed up and flooded the house.This is why I asked if there was another unit connected.
If there was no one in house using the water then how could you have a back up" Did it come in from the street? Do you have a explanaition for this? What does your landlord say? Back to you, Tom

I have no idea what happened when the house flooded. When we came back home the carpet on the bathroom side of the house was soaked, the front bathtub was half way filled with water/sewage. The back shower was filled with water too. The only thing we noticed was the handle to the front toilet was stuck up like it had been running. (sometimes you have to shake the handle to get it to fall back into place).

Tell me more about your house. One or two stories? Slab or basement?
the front bathtub was half way filled with water/sewage. That would take pressure to fill the tub up that far. I was thinking city sewer back up until you threw a wild card into the mix. The running toilet! Here's a tip for you./ The cheapest insurance you'll ever purchase is to turn off the water to the house before leaving on vacation.
If you have a two story house is the runny toilet on the second floor? Now I'm trying to figure what kind of a backup could fill up a tub half way. Do you have any more details you can give me? Back to you, Tom

One story. Slab.
Yes, the front tub was filled up about halfway. Looked more like water than sewage but maybe it had started settling back down by the time we got home. But the stand up shower in the back bathroom was dirty with sewage residue too. The water in it had already drained back out.

Sometimes when you run the washer and the dishwasher on the other side of the house it sometimes backs up the tub & shower too. You might be okay for a couple of loads but eventually it does it.

One of two things, ( unless you have a homeless person sneaking in when you're gone hat's using your place) Or it's just got to be,
1. The city backed up from the street. **OR**
2. The toilet running 24/7 put out enough volume to overload the system and it just kept backing up.
Whadda you think? Is it door #1 or door#2? Back to you. Tom

Neighbors are too noisy to not notice a mystery homeless person lol

I would have thought maybe the city side backed up but its an ongoing problem and now its just gotten worse. Assuming the city told the truth and the city side isn't clogged. So maybe it was already starting to get backed up before we left and the running toilet just added to it to make it completely backup. But I still don't know what the deal is that's causing it to backup into the tub/shower at least once a week. I wish the landlord would call out a plumbing company instead of just trying to snake it himself and assuming that its fixed.

Is there usually just a roof trap in one place or are there multiple traps?

You may just be correct about the running toilet. However,
what the deal is that's causing it to backup into the tub/shower at least once a week. you have a partial blockage downstream from the tub, I would snake this from the tub overflow,(see image) If the landlord doesn't know how here's some instructions.
Unscrew and remove the overflow plate,(The one with the drain lever) and pull out the tub stopper. You now have a clear shot at the trap. The way you were going in through the drain it ran you square into a tee that you can't get around. Now feed the cable( 1/4" best or 3/3" with a small tip. You can rent a Ridgid K50 sink cable.) About 2' down you will run into the bend of the trap. Crank and push at the same time to work around it. Your blockage will be found in the lateral pipe going to the stack. You shouldn't have to put out more then 10 or 12 feet. I have found tub and shower clogs to be mostly hair and the worm should auger into it and pull it back. After you snake pour a few pans of boiling water down the drain. This will loosen the grease and flush the mess out into the main. Hope this helps and thank you for rating my reply. TOM PS. I hope you fixed that runny toilet.

Hello I'm having the same issue right now and the best thing to do Is get a plumber out to look in the drains. I had one come out yesterday and said there was a lot of cooking grease clogging the drain on the outside and it was so packed it swollen then he looked in it with a scope and said he seen that there was a bigger issues going on. He had seen a root from 1 of many trees surrounding my home blocking the sewage from getting threw. Now this is very bad I have grease and fecal matter in my tub and toilet. Oh yes and mind you I've been living here for 4 days so no way was this a issue that came from me

So what did the plumber do?